TERROR HAS NO RELIGION, BUT COLOUR!!

If there is a synonym for “double standards”, it is this much abused expression “secularism”. All these days our secular pretenders have been dinning into the heads of Indian masses that terror has no religion. That is, so long as terrorists and terrorism were identified with people professing faith to Islam. They drew inspiration, right or wrong, from their holy book. The names these terror groups coined for their militant outfits were in one way or the other related to the army of their God. They sincerely believed that their God ordained them to kill those “kafirs” or non-believers and the name that was given to such an adventure or agenda was “jihad” (holy war) and the jihadis had their berths reserved in heaven.

The jihad was not confined to India and thanks to the financial and manpower support provided by some of the Islamic nations, and Al Queda, they spread far and wide wreaking havoc in Europe, Chehenya, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan and as a climax to their acts of terror in New York city on the fateful day of 9/11. There were many recruitment and training centres to brainwash the young minds to assume the role of soldiers of God and there was no dearth of petro funds for the sponsors of terrorism. The masterminds of this pogram could not have succeeded but for the silent support of the non-violent Muslims. Though many apologists tried to find a rationale for terrorism stating that poverty, illiteracy and alienation led to perversion of young minds, developments subsequent to 9/11 proved that such an alibi is nothing but a myth because highly educated and rich youth from the community were attracted to the concept of Jihad.

Therefore, this brand of terrorism had come to be known as “Islamic terrorism” and interestingly, the perpetrators of this terrorism had no objection to the phrase. But the objection came from the secular pretenders of India who felt that terror has no religion. For the political class and the media, this came as a politically correct stand. In fact, I recall a leading journalist, and author lamenting over the fact that why LTTE terror was not branded as “Hindu terror” or for that matter the ULFA. A highly knowledgeable man that he is, how come he missed the point that LTTE or ULFA had not drawn inspiration from any Hindu holy book or scriptures. It is a different matter that LTTE’s architect Velupillai Pirabhakaran was a Christian and not a Hindu. Moreover, it was a territorial war and not a holy war as the jihadis claim theirs to be.

But those secular pretenders who objected to the phrase “Islamic terrorism” though the entire world accepted it as such, they did not have a second thought when they coined the phrase “Hindu terror”, just a few groups were SUSPECTED to be involved in the blasts in the recent past. That is what our great Home Minister who has been pilloried by his own party for the use of phrase “Saffron terror” says in defence: “The message is right wing fundamentalist groups are SUSPECTED to be behind some bomb blasts and that message should not be lost in the furore over the phrase”. Can a responsible minister make a statement and condemn particular group of people based on ‘SUSPICION’? The cases of blasts that he refers to have not even come up for trial and in some cases there was not even a charge sheet. Even those fringe groups did not draw inspiration from Vedic texts or atleast they did not say so. Possibly, yes, possibly, some could have acted as a retaliatory measure and to generalise it on behalf of its religion or its chosen colour, is nothing but extreme form of perversion.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland is a Christian terror group operating in Nagaland. Its proclaimed objective is to establish a separate nation under the slogan “Nagaland for Christ”. In the neighbouring Tripura, there is another group, banned though, operating under the name “National Liberation Front of Tripura and it wants “Kingdom of God and Christ” for Tripura. No one in his senses would coin a phrase “Christian terror” citing such misguided movements.

But you can always take liberties with Hindus because they don’t constitute a tactical vote bank as they are divided into hundreds of castes and sub-castes. The Muslims in the country have been on the defensive because of Jihadi terrorism and the fact that many Muslim youth had training in Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Arab countries for terror mechanism. If you have to make them feel comfortable and pleased with the establishment what else would be effective other than parity. So invent Hindu terror and lock up some Hindu activists behind bars on “suspicion”. It comes very handy when the right wing forces accuse the Congress of going soft on Jihadi terrorism in order to placate a particular community.

Do you notice yet another double standard here? When it comes to serial blasts in Mumbai local trains, or Godhra violence or attack on Swami Narain temple, it was a reaction to Ayodhya and therefore have to be understood as such. When hundreds of Indians were killed and lakhs maimed as a result of Islamic terrorism, there should not be reaction or retaliation from right wing groups assuming that Chidambaram’s suspicion had some basis. Even before credible evidence surfaces and produced before the trial courts, the Home Minister is in a hurry to use the phrase “Saffron terror” demonstrating his ignorance and insensitivity to the word “saffron” in the Indian culture, tradition and civilization. Indian tradition is such that even an octogenarian will fall at the feet of one who wears saffron attire even if the latter is in his twenties or thirties. That is the respect saffron colour enjoys, as a symbol of sacrifice, in Indian tradition. Style and accent are not enough Mr Chidambaram, you must have respect for the tradition of this ancient nation. If you really want to be effective and go in history as a capable home minister, instead of passing the buck to the state chief ministers when confronted with the Left wing extremism such as the one in Bihar hostage crisis, take the bull by its horn. Don’t try to divert the attention by imagining something on suspicion which does not exist. I mean your pet phrase “Saffron terror”. Hope you know other colours as well – like green, white and red!