Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, there is shocking news repeatedly telecast by electronic media that Aseemanand, a key accused in several terror attacks between 2006 and 2008, has alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS sanctioned these strikes. The Caravan magazine which has published his interview claims that Aseemanand has said this all to him. Now, the question is, after seven years of arrest, what made Aseemanand to give such interview and other thing is how a journalist was allowed to interview him in jail? Suppose the journalist managed to interview, but is there any recording or proof to his claims? If yes then why those interviews were not aired on television, radio or websites? Right now, Congress supporting media houses are disproved and rejected by Social media and lost its credibility. Tehelka is almost vanished and Cobra Post is just labelled as Congress’s mouthpiece, no one takes them serious today and now another magazine emerges. Anyways this is not the first attempt to connect extreme Hindu organisations with RSS and termed them as “Saffron terror”.
What is the status of police investigations, in three major blasts happened in 2007? After seven years of investigations, some conclusions are surely expected. Days after a magazine quoted him saying that his terrorism acts were sanctioned by the RSS chief, Aseemanand has denied of having given any such interview to the magazine. Delhi-based Caravan Magazine carried a press release in which Aseemanand was quoted as saying that his terrorist acts were ‘sanctioned by the highest levels of the RSS-all the way up to Mohan Bhagwat, the current RSS chief, who was the organisation’s general secretary at the time’.
Aseemanand is incarcerated in Ambala Central Jail for abetting terrorist attacks on various targets between 2006 and 2008 Samjhauta Express (February 2007), Hyderabad Mecca Masjid (May 2007), Ajmer Dargah (October 2007) and two attacks in Malegaon (September 2006 and September 2008) which together took the lives of 119 people. Aseemanand’s lawyer has come up with a press release, terming the interview ‘a bundle of lies’. The press release says that the content of the article are false and baseless and Aseemanand has denied of having given any such interview. Aseemanand, in the press release, has challenged the magazine to prove the truth of the allegations or apologise. The interview, published with a caption ‘The Believer’ in the magazine’s February edition, is a compilation of four interviews taken during various occasions in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 at Ambala Jail.
Whenever something goes wrong in any part of the country, the first target will be the minorities and attack will be at Hindus. Whenever Hindu’s are targeted then, no matter whosoever are the terrorists, they are labelled as Pakistani and Indian minorities are protected. Somewhere something is unfair. Protecting the rights of minority may be on priority for each and every government but accusing Hindus is also not fair. Terrorist is terrorist, they have no religion then why fingers are raised against Hindus? Investigation agencies always suspect, and suspect comes out clean? Are their sources authentic or they knowingly do this thing? Can’t they have neutral approach to investigations with not just one dimension but from different dimensions? In this way, many innocent lives will be saved and investigations will bring culprits to their dues.
Terrorists have no religion; irrespective of the religion, culprits must be punished as per the law of the country. But, many of the people arrested in Mecca Masjid blasts are implicated in other blasts like Gokul chat, Lumbini park etc. It is a fact that majority of the terrorists acts are committed by misguided youth. Till to-date, Hindu terrorists are in fraction when compared with Muslim terrorists. Police have rights to investigate but without torture. They must be treated as per the law, but they must not be let free with hefty compensation. Justice should be speedy; punishment given by the courts should be implemented fast. Terrorists like Afzal, Rajiv killers etc are still not punished as per the court’s verdict due to vote bank politics. This shows how our police work.
After Malegaon blast, there was appeal to ban Abhinav Bharat, the home ministry wrote to the state government opposing proscribing of Abhinava Bharat — accused of launching bomb attacks at Mecca Masjid, Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and Ajmer Shariff — under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). According to sources in the MHA, there wasn’t substantial material at hand to establish Abhinav Bharat’s “terror activities” over the last two to three years. Also, there was no clear information available on the organizational structure of the Hindutva outfit, including its leadership and cadre still at large, or its infrastructure such as offices and hideouts. The security agencies also had no track of its continued terror funding.
Swami Aseemanand, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan, Sunil Joshi (now dead) and Rajendra Choudhary are some of the Abhinav Bharat leaders already arrested for their role in various blasts, including the 2007 Samjhauta train blasts and Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Shariff explosions. But, nothing has been proven against them, till today. The National Investigation Agency has filed charge-sheets against Aseemanand but not named any prominent RSS leader. Sources in the agency say they are not sure how the Caravan magazine’s revelation can change anything. Ahead of the national election, due in May, these allegations are likely to take a political turn.
It is noteworthy that Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya etc. have been behind bars for years and are in no position to interfere with the evidence gathering, the Police have not been able to charge them in the court of law. Then ATS Chief Hemant Karkare was under tremendous pressure from the NCP bosses including the Home Minister R R Patil to fabricate evidence against them. Now, Congress is already in deep trouble for trying to frame Col. Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya, Aseemanand and other Hindu members despite clear intelligence input even from US that all these blasts have been carried out by LeT. Congress badly failed to frame and charge sheet these people in any of the cases but still keeping them behind bars for over a decade to defame Hindu outfits and attack BJP for petty political gain. That is why; Congress does not want to invite further trouble by banning Abhinav Bharat and polarize votes. Now, they again played dirty by ‘imaginary’ interview of Aseemanand. Everyone knows, the RSS is the ideological mentor of the BJP, and is the fountainhead of a grouping that calls itself the “Sangh Parivar.” If they manage to damage the image of RSS, Congress may retain power after general elections in centre. But, I think this time it won’t happen.
