The “People’s Daily” of Chennai has taken the lead and outshone its competitors in the ‘secular brigade’! One of its secular (sic) columnists (Praveen Swami) has tried to resurrect the non-existent “Hindutva Terror”, which could not be proved after it was created with ‘hype and harp’ by the secular brigade in general and Maharashtra ATS in particular, during investigations into the 2008 Malegaon blast.

The evil motive of the columnist, or rather the newspaper, is evident from the fact that the column starts with deliberately linking Lt. Col. Purohit with the huge bombing at a Muslim cemetery near Malegaon Mosque, though he was actually arrested by the ATS for the mediocre blast at a street in Malegaon!

The point here is that the huge blast at Malegaon Mosque happened in September 2006; it saw heavy casualties and injuries - 38 dead and over 100 injured. The other one occurred in September 2008, and resulted in three or four deaths and a few injuries.

Yet the secular columnist has the audacity to call Lt. Col. Purohit a ‘rogue’ military officer, even before allegations against him have been proved!   

In the course of his secular rants to bring the ‘ugly’ Abhinav Bharat – perhaps SIMI, LeT, JeM and IM are ‘beauties’ for him – into the limelight again, the columnist cites ‘Hindus sympathetic to the ultra-right’ justifying the moral legitimacy of Purohit in ‘private’, and ‘some community leaders’ arguing that the German bakery attack could just have easily been carried out by a Hindutva group. He cites fugitives of the Malegaon blast, namely Jatin Chatterjee and Ramnarain Kalsangra of Abhinav Bharat, still being at large, as the ‘reason’ why the latest Pune blasts could have been carried out by the ‘Hindutva’ group.

After repeating the stories spun by the Maharashtra ATS and the secular brigade, including the mainstream media, during October-November 2008, the columnist claims that ‘many’ believe Abhinav Bharat carried out many attacks earlier attributed to jihadist groups (really?), most notably the bombing of Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad in May 2007, and a subsequent attack on the famous shrine at Ajmer. Here again the columnist deliberately hides the fact that investigations in both cases point towards Islamic militants. 

Even while investigating authorities have mentioned the involvement of Indian Mujahideen in the latest Pune attack and apprehended three suspected militants, the ‘investigative’ columnist gives them a clean chit: “All that investigators have by way of suspects are three men recorded holding brief meetings before the blast by a poor-quality closed-circuit television camera. From the videotape, it is unclear if the men had anything to do with the attack.”

The writer ends his column saying, “The longer the investigation takes, the more time conspiracy theories and speculation will have to proliferate - likely deepening the communal fissures the bombing is already opening up.” What an irony! Praveen Swami and The Hindu are the first to start the proliferation of speculations and conspiracy theories.

On the contrary and in a true expression of concern, ‘The Pioneer’, while appreciating the process of investigation currently on in the German Bakery blast case, has also gently but effectively reminded the authorities about the probable involvement of Jihadis from Kerala, which has turned out to be the most menacing terror breeding ground of India. Pioneer’s Editorial offers arguments with clear information on recent developments which have happened in connection with Kerala; it categorically states investigators must look at Kerala too. 

Unlike The Hindu’s OPED piece, which talks about the non-existent “Hindutva Terror”, Pioneer’s Editorial refrains from mentioning “Islamic Terror”, though this predominantly exists across the country. Unlike The Hindu, The Pioneer has not indulged in speculating or spinning conspiracy theories with a motive of proliferation. While The Pioneer’s Editorial is a classic case of responsible writing and journalistic ethics, The Hindu’s OPED piece, which is secular hogwash, smacks of irresponsibility and is sans journalistic ethics. 

To continue our analysis, we need to have a look at the following observation made by The Pioneer in its editorial: “…With a security system that had gone totally complacent due to the relative peace in the country since the Mumbai terror attacks …”

Yes, it is not only complacency, but also idiocy, inefficiency and inadequacy, all rolled into it. To understand this ‘multifaceted’ complacency, we must retrospect the sordid record of the UPA-I government with regard to internal security. Starting from the Assam Blasts on 15 August 2004 to the second Guwahati bombing on 6 April 2009, the nation has witnessed 20 major terror attacks at the rate of four attacks per year, apart from innumerable minor attacks, which doesn’t include the perennial terrorism in Kashmir.

As the UPA government was clueless, and also due to its refusal to take stern action against Islamic terrorism to keep its minority votebank intact, it resorted to the unsavoury strategy of ‘creating’ Hindu terror, to dilute the fight against Jihad. The prelude for ‘Hindu Terror’ was written when the ‘secular’ brigade, including the mainstream media, orchestrated the cry of ‘Saffron Terror’ over the incidents in Mangalore and Kandhamal. To create ‘Hindu terror’, a terror attack in a Congress/UPA governed state was needed and the Malegaon blast came in handy. As the victims of Malegaon blast happened to be Muslims, it became conducive to convert ‘Saffron Terror’ into ‘Hindu Terror’.

Immediately an ATS was formed under the leadership of Hemant Karkare; investigation so hasty as the nation had never seen before! The two-dozen Jihadi attacks prior to the Malegaon blast have not seen such ‘meticulous’ operation of such a ‘meritorious’ police squad! Officers in the squad were so efficient & capable that they carried out the instructions of the government then and there, and lived up to its expectations! They were so focused on their job that they didn’t bother to see if the Army stood maligned or the Hindu majority was offended and outraged in the process of their ‘political’ investigations.

The ‘political’ investigation carried out by the ATS on the instructions of its political masters, was for months exposed due to ‘select’ arrests and ‘selective’ leakages of so-called investigations to ‘chosen’ media. The UPA politicians took the message of ‘Hindu Terror’ to all electoral states, and the ‘secular’ mainstream media spread awareness throughout the nation. The attempted picturisation of ‘Hindu Terror’ (Saffron Terror) pointed to a ‘high-level’ conspiracy, a conspiracy to divide Hindu society. The above mentioned OPED piece in The Hindu confirms this fact.

Going back to last year’s Malegaon investigations, we find that at every step and at every leakage of information, the previous ‘findings’ were contradicted or denied or conveniently forgotten! For example, there was no talk about the Sadhvi’s motorcycle after it was proved that she had sold it some four years ago and had no idea of the whereabouts of the bike.

Similarly, the tall claims on Lt Col Purohit pilfering 60 kg of RDX, his involvement in Samjhauta train and other blasts have been proved wrong and the ‘chosen’ media blamed for wrongly interpreting the deliberate leaks!

As nothing concrete was found to fix Swami Dayanand Pandey, his laptop was misused and ‘created and uploaded’ information shown to ‘chosen’ media. When the narco tests conducted on the swami didn’t give helpful results, the ATS found itself clueless in a corner! Finally when the ATS withdrew the MCOCA charges against the accused after torturing them for almost a year without any evidence, it stood totally exposed!  

Even while the UPA government, Maharashtra ATS and mainstream media were spinning stories after stories of ‘Hindu terror’, Islamic terrorism hit them straight in the face with the huge Mumbai carnage of 26 November 2008! The mainstream media cleverly deflected public anger against the ‘UPA government’ to the ‘political class’ in general, and BJP stupidly fell into the media’s trap and failed to corner the useless and inefficient UPA.

Though the Home Ministry underwent a change of guard in the aftermath of Mumbai 2008, nothing constructive happened thereafter. The only visible change was the Home Minister’s ‘dress’ (sherwani to mundu)!

The fact that P. Chidambaram is no better than Shivraj Patil is evident from the massacres, violence, and kidnappings perpetrated by Naxalites and Maoists. The long gap between the Mumbai and Pune attack is neither the return of peace nor the government’s handling of internal security, but the deliberate silence of the terrorists. After being continuously busy with more than four attacks annually for five years, the terrorists would have wanted to lie low for awhile to rejuvenate their hundreds of sleeper modules, arrange operational funds and financial assistance, and stabilize the terror network for future operations.

Now after Pune, the UPA is worried that the Jihadis might strike at will, as frequently as before. The government doesn’t have the courage to face terrorism and the nerve to fight Jihad. It is more bothered about votebanks than national security and citizens’ safety. The secular brigade wants to help the government, and what best way than to resurrect the non-existent ‘Hindu Terror’?! The Hindu, the ‘People’s Daily’ of Chennai, has set the ball rolling and soon other secular champions will follow suit.

While Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab are enjoying secular hospitality and Abdul Madhani and Sufiya Madhani are freely enjoying their lives, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lt Col Purohit and others are languishing under torture inside prison, without even an iota of evidence against them. As the secular brigade is again attempting to resurrect Hindutva terror, it is time to hit them hard by focusing on the earlier acquittal of the Malegaon blast accused. It is the responsibility of the Hindu organisations to seek early acquittal of Sadhvi and others, and defeat the machinations of the secular brigade.

The writer is a serious journalist; he lives in Chennai