The Narendra Modi government, which enjoys a strong electoral mandate, rarely takes a backfoot, but once it takes, it makes big ‘cover-up’ which in the political lexicon called ‘damage control’. The Nupur Sharma episode appears to be the one where the Modi government seemingly succumbed to the pressure from the Muslim countries, mainly oil rich Gulf nations, after they condemned the offensive remarks against Prophet Muhammad made by the BJP leaders – the saffron party’s national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and party’s Delhi unit chief Naveen Jindal – with a couple of nations demanding apology. Following the ire from the Arab world, the Modi government swiftly swung into action: it suspended Sharma, expelled Jindal and issued dos and donts for BJP leaders going to TV news channels.
Domestically also, the majority of Hindu population got tired of Muslim demonization spree on communication platforms, including on the popular television news channels, on the daily basis. Voices from the majority community against the ill-treatment of Muslims started getting louder in the wake of “explicit discriminatory approach of institutions”. The Indian judiciary, including the Supreme Court, also came under severe criticism for a slew of decisions. Recently, the most noticeable one was the angry protest demonstration by the so-called army aspirants over the short-term Army recruitment under the Agniveer scheme where public properties were recklessly destroyed across several states with little action against the rampaging protesters even while only a few days ago Muslims houses were bulldozed by authorities in Uttar Pradesh. The silence of judiciary too irked the general public. This has massively dented the image of an ‘independent judiciary’, leaving little hope for the opposition, minorities and disposed. However, the Suprme Court’s latest comments in Nupur Sharma case certainly restored faith of the aforementioned sections in the judiciary even though some call it “credibility building exercise”. Disturbingly, the right wing people went berserk over the comments and trolled the SC with ugly and offensive words.
Udiapur Killing
Meanwhile, two Muslims allegedly killed Kanhaya Lal, a tailor, for social media posts supporting Sharma and shared the videos on a Whatsapp groups. About five hours later, the two men were held by the Rajasthan Police as they tried to flee Udaipur on a bike. As expected, the Muslims were forced to go on defensive as the few who had begun to speak against the Hindutva forces fell silent. However, the whole incident took a twist after the revelation made by a media group in relation to the Udaipur incident pointing out that the alleged killers had link with BJP minority cell and RSS connected Muslim Rashtriya Manch.
Riyaz Attari, often participated in the programmes of Rajasthan’s BJP leader and former minister Gulabchand Kataria. Not only this, the images of the main accused Riyaz Attari attending the meetings of the Rajasthan minority unit of the BJP are also on social media.
The Hindutva group has a record of working from behind the door to sabotage the peace and harmony of the country and polarize the society for political benefits .
In April, seven people were arrested after they allegedly threw pieces of pork, letters abusing Muslims and torn pages of an Islamic text at some mosques in Ayodhya in an attempt to instigate communal violence. As per PTI report the arrested persons belong to an outfit called the ‘Hindu Yodha Sangathan’,
This is not new. Several Hindutva outfits with RSS links had been convicted for terror acts.
The role of Abhinav Bharat in Samjhauta Express bombing, Malegaon blasts, Mecca Masjid bombing Ajmer Dargah blasts surfaced during investigation in 2007 when Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested its members for the involvement in 2006 Malegaon blasts case.
RSS link with terror outfits
Abhinav Bharat was named after the Abhinav Bharat Society, an organization founded by RSS ideologue VD Savarkar in 1904. The current Abhinav Bharat was founded in 2006 by retired major of Indian Army Ramesh Upadhyay and lieutenant-colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit.. The first few meetings of the new group took place in 2007. Himani Savarkar the niece of Nathuram Godse and the wife of Vinayak Savarkar’s nephew, was elected president of the group in 2008. During the first few meetings of the organization, the members reported to have discussed the idea that Hinduism was in danger, and needed to be defended. In 2008, several of its members were arrested on the suspicion of being involved in the 2006 Malegaon bombings, and soon after the arrest its official website was closed down.
In an interview with The Caravan magazine Swami Assemanand, one of the main accused in terror cases, named RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in connection to Samjhauta Express bombing, Malegaon blasts, Mecca Masjid bombing Ajmer Dargah blasts.. Later, Swami Aseemanand called the magazine article “fabricated” and threatened to launch legal action against the Caravan journalist. However, the Caravan defended its report and released tape recordings and transcripts of the interviews.
Following the arrest and investigation of Abhinav Bharat members Swami Aseemanand, Shrikant Purohit, Pragya Thakur, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan, Sunil Joshi and Rajendra Choudhary in connection with the 2006 Malegaon blasts, the organization has been investigated for its alleged role in Samjhauta Express bombing, Malegaon blasts, Mecca Masjid bombing Ajmer Dargah blasts and Jalna mosque bomb attack. In all these bombings 147 people were killed.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh had once said bomb blast stopped after exposure of Hindutva terrorists behind blast cases.
Its yet to be probed who are behind the killing of Kanhaya Lal and no aspersion can be made while the investigation is under the process. The real beneficiary, however, is the BJP which is under tremendous pressure, internationally and domestically both, over the row on offensive comments against Prophet.