Bajrang Dal Owns up Samjhauta Express Blasts?
DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI comments on the threat letter sent allegedly by Bajrang Dal to Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, and concludes that our State machinery deliberately seems to ignore mischief of the Saffron outfits.
M
any a face would go red
if we ask: Do some of our
State Governments, even those ruled by the Congress, which heads the UPA dispensation at the Centre, succumb to parochial instincts while dealing with terrorists belonging, directly or indirectly, to the Saffron fraternity?
FRESH STORY
The fresh one is an un-signed, threat letter, addressed to a Rashtriya Lok Dal, Muslim Parliamentarian, Maulana Mahmood Madni. The General Secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Dehradun and has, earlier too, received such hate calls.
That, however, is not the point, particularly for an important office-bearer of a party which has a history of fighting the British shoulder-to-shoulder with the Congress.
The point is: the said letter, which is in Marathi, owns up, on behalf of the Bajrang Dal, responsibility for the blasts in the Samjhauta Express, that claimed 68 lives on February 18.
Observers feel the letter, delivered at the Jamiat headquarters in New Delhi, has purportedly been written by members or activists of the Dal. A similar letter has been received at the Jamiats Mumbai office also.
The Gravamen
The gravamen of the letter is on distancing the Maulana from the Dalits and the backward classes and their welfare. The writers of the letter, with a view to convincing their addressee of their clout and might, refer to other blasts also and admit in so many words that it was they who caused blasts in the Samjhauta Express.
The typed letter on plain paper starts with "Idiot!" Its operative parts are: We caused blasts in the Samjhauta Express. Have you forgotten the blasts of the past? Keep our might in mind. Dont try to be smart. We are determined to make Hindu Rashtra. Nothing would happen to us. It would be your men who would be arrested.
In a telephonic interview, this columnist confirmed the contents of the said letter with the Secretary of the Jamiat.
MEDIA RESPONSE
It was only The Statesman which covered the story. But its 80-word reportage too does not refer to owning the blasts. No other national newspaper found newsworthiness in the Bajrang Dal owing up of the blasts.
The TV channels too ignored the story. Yes! The Urdu Press, particularly the Hindustan Express and the Akhbar-e-Mashriq frontpaged the story.
Note this calculated conspiracy of silence of the print and electronic media and contrast it with "juicy coverages" and "jucier talk-shows" organised to demonise the major minority of plural Bharat and the ideology it pursues.
The chief culprit, we feel, is not media. The chief culprit is the eyes and ears of the administration. You can awaken one who is sleeping. But awakening a person who is wide awake is not possible. That is perhaps the case with those at the helm of affairs. They deliberately seem to ignore mischief of the Saffron outfits.
MISCHIEF MAKERS
Bajrang Dal, like its other sister organisations, is a seasoned mischief maker. But often the truth bares itself in the most strange ways. With regard to the April 6, 2006 bomb blasts, a gory story continues to make sounds even today in which two Bajrang Dal office-bearers, Naresh Rajkondwar and Himanshu Phanse had been reduced to smithereens, when they, along with three others, were manufacturing bombs.
From the place of occurrence, which was a flat, the police had seized fake beards, skull caps, sets of kurta-shalwar, timers, switches, detonators, 1.5 kg gunpowder and a diary containing formula of bomb making.
Sanjay Chaudhuri, a member of Bajrang Dal was held in Nanded. His name was bandied about several times in several circles. Observers had then surmised there might be a link between the April 6, 2006 blast in Nanded and September 8, 2006 blasts in Malegaon as well as those in Jalna.
ANTI-MUSLIM AIR
Because of sustained anti-Muslim propaganda, it looks as if the intelligence gathering mechanism is single-mindedly focused on Muslim outfits. On the other hand, the Right-wing fundamentalists are since long in battle dress. They do daily drills, target-practice and learn how to destabilise the plural polity.
When a common man knows all this, how is it that our hydra-headed Intelligence set-up is not that enlightened on the crucial subject?
New Delhi had done well by handing over "confessions" of a Pakistan national regarding his role in the October 2005 bombing of Police Special Task Force headquarters in Hyderabad.
But just think of the embarrassment of our diplomats rather Government at the AJM in case the other side comes up with the Bajrang Dal operators "confession" with regard to the bombing of the Samjhauta Express. Will our argument that the confessional letter is un-dated and un-signed prove our case beyond any shred of doubt?
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There are indicators which suggest the authorities concerned have failed to show duty-consciousness and sincerity in such cases and the powers-that-be have not tweaked their ears for palpable negligence and slackness.
The Muslim leadership as well as the victims and sufferers have consistently cried foul. But of no avail!
This happened after the blasts in Mumbai, Malegaon, Nanded and Jalgaon. But that is a somewhat old story.
Bajrang Dal Owns up Samjhauta Express Blasts? DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI comments on the threat letter sent allegedly by Bajrang Dal to Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, and concludes that our State machinery deliberately seems to ignore mischief of the Saffron out