Name the Culprits

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The 146-member National Integration Council (NIC) met in New Delhi on Monday after three years. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rightly used this forum to lash out against the “mindless violence” in the country and to warn the perpetrators of such violence that it would be met with the “requisite amount of force” tempered with justice. While all this is well-intended, there are at least two things wrong with the way such happenings are addressed by the government of the day. One is that the government and its organizations like the NIC are blatantly partial when they have to deal with the perpetrators of such violence. The other is that violence against the Hindus does not count. Take Monday’s National Integration Council’s session, for instance. What took the centre stage was the anti-Christian violence in Orissa and Karnataka. And while there was condemnation of the violence in Asom as well, there was no mention of the thousands of Bodos whose homes had been burnt down and who were in refugee camps in their own land. They too were the victims of the violence even though some of them had been provoked to violence because illegal migrants from Bangladesh had dispossessed them of their lands. As in the case of Gujarat, the instigators of violence are conveniently forgotten when it suits the purpose of the ‘secularists’. There was no dearth of members who demanded stringent action against outfits like Bajrang Dal and the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP). But no one seemed to be demanding stringent action against the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen who had been shaking up the whole country with serial blasts in big cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangluru and Delhi. All 20 arrested in connection with these blasts and the plan to blast 20 bombs in Nehru Place in New Delhi were Muslims from just one place – Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh. Why did such diabolic terrorists outfits merit no mention at all in the National Integration Council meeting? Did not their impact, the vast area covered and number of casualties make them the most ominous group stoking violence in the country? One can hazard a well-considered inference that confirms a pattern in such condemnations: there will be condemnations by the Congress and the ‘secularists’ of India only when the victims of violence are not Hindus. And that explains how all the serial blasts masterminded by the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen in several Indian cities did not deserve to the condemned. You see, in this perverse democracy of ours the majority does not count. So when the majority of the victims of violence are Hindus, the NIC does not deem it necessary to condemn the perpetrators of violence even though the recent serial blasts took place after the last meeting of the NIC and before the latest one on held on Monday. This is in consonance with the pattern that we saw in Gujarat. It is perfectly all right for three coaches full of Hindus to be roasted alive. That is not violence. Aren’t there too many Hindus in the country, after all? So there is condemnation of the violence in Asom, but no mention of those who had to abandon their hearths and homes and take shelter in refugee camps. Who set houses on fire? “Miscreants” you know. These miscreants do not seem to have identities because their identities are embarrassing for a government that can survive only on illegal Bangladeshi votes. The must pretend that they are Indian nationals when they are not. It is for the same reason that the identities of the Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI) activists who were shot down a few weeks ago by the Army in Dhubri district have not been announced yet even though there is not doubt about their being Bangladeshis. Likewise, one may well ask: who hoisted all those Pakistan flags? Why do we not know yet? And why is there no action against these ’miscreants’? In the Udalguri and Mangaldoi districts where the Bodos had to flee to refugee camps, there was concern only about the so-called minorities. There was no concern about the homeless Bodos, most of whom were Hindus. But at least the Prime Minister and the Home Minister had a responsibility to name all the perpetrators of violence – not just the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, but also the SIMI, the Indian Mujahideen and the HuJI. We certainly do not want a repetition of the 1984 riots of Delhi just because the Congress will not name the perpetrators of the violence against the Sikhs. source: sentinel assam editorial