Saffron promises and performance

August 31, 2000

Saffron promises…

Jan 24, 1993, The Indian Express
‘Advani promises Muslim welfare’
AHMEDABAD: The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) president, Mr. LK Advani warned Muslims to be aware of both Congress and their leaders and repose faith in the BJP…When a newsman sought to know the measures the BJP was contemplating for the welfare of Muslims to win their confidence, Mr. Advani said, “The BJP will protect their lives and they will enjoy equal justice.” Asked why he chose to skip the Muslim affected areas (due to riots) or relief camps in Ahmedabad, he quipped, “It’s a good suggestion for action.”

April 15, 1994, The Economic Times
BJP bid to shake off anti-Muslim image
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have begun to feel concerned over the anti-Muslim tag that has come to stick to it and it likely to embark on an exercise to shake it off. A serious effort in that direction was made at the recent Sariska conclave of the BJP’s top brass with the senior vice-president, Mr KR Malkani, spelling out the concern over the party having been branded as an anti-Muslim outfit.

March 29, 1995, The Statesman
Muslims have nothing to fear under BJP rule: Keshubhai
NEW DELHI: Muslims have nothing to fear under the rule of the BJP government in Gujarat and can look forward to getting a much better deal than what they got during Congress(I) rule, the state chief minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel has said. “You will see how well we treat Muslims and other minorities under our rule”, the new chief minister said, adding that his party believed that Muslims were as patriotic as Hindus, but had been “misled and misused by the Congress(I).

April 21, 1995, The Indian Express
BJP tries to win over Muslims with Sanskrit Koran
BOMBAY: The Koran in Sanskrit? The idea is not as bizarre as it may seem. His is the spoonful of honey for the Muslim minority in the country… The in-camera convention of top BJP executives, including chief ministers, deputy chief ministers and leaders of Opposition, which got underway on Thursday, has been called to finalise poll strategies for the Lok Sabha elections which the BJP expects might take place earlier than scheduled. High on the agenda is a follow-up of the resolutions with regard to the minorities at the Goa convention of the party early this month whereby, following BJP president LK Advani’s call to “remove misconceptions (about the BJP) in the minds of the minorities”, the party resolved to revive the earlier Congress slogan of Hindu-Muslim bhai-bhai. The more well-known of the resolutions were the three Ts – taaleem (education), tanzeem (organisation) and tijarat (employment) for Muslims.

May 2, 1996, The Telegraph
Advani ‘guarantees’ justice to Muslims
MUMBAI: The BJP president, Mr. LK Advani, today extended a “guarantee to every Muslim” of “security, justice, equality and full freedom of faith and worship.” Going all out to woo the community in the last lap of the party’s campaign, he said “no BJP government will tolerate any dilution of this guarantee.”

May 19, 1996, Mid–Day
Full protection to Muslims: Vajpayee
NEW DELHI: …In a long interview to a private television channel, Vajpayee said that all Muslims should be able to live with self-respect and honour. “For this, Muslims should give all support to my government”, he said adding that he could not understand why the community was keeping away the mainstream”.

June 16, 1997, The Times of India
Advani uses every trick to woo Muslim voter
BHOPAL: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, LK Advani, on Friday praised Jawaharal Nehru for his secular policies and promised to create a riot-free, violence-free and discrimination-free India when the BJP comes to power at the Centre.

November 15, 1997, The Asian Age
BJP plans a grand Muslim convention
NEW DELHI: In what will be a show of Muslim support for the BJP, the party’s youth wing, headed by Ms Uma Bharati, is planning a grand convention on December 4 which will be attended by over 5,000 members of the community.
According to the party, such a large number of Muslims attending a BJP conference itself will send the signal that the community was not averse to it any longer. “In a scenario where elections are expected any moment, such a message will be crucial for us. We will use the opportunity to wash the communal taint”, BJP sources told The Asian Age.

May 3, 1999, The Hindustan Times
BJP’s image as anti-Muslim party blunted: Vajpayee
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today said his bus initiative to Lahore had greatly blunted the “false image” of the BJP of being an anti-Muslim party.
May 8, 1999, The Times of India
‘BJP will get Muslim votes’
NEW DELHI: The BJP finds a “radical change” in the attitude of Muslim voters and is confident of getting “a major share of their votes” in the coming Lok Sabha polls as the party has given them a feeling of national pride unlike the so-called secular parties which always portrayed them in a poor light”, minister for information and broadcasting Mukhtar bbas Naqvi said.

September 8, 1999, The Times of India
PM appeals for Muslim votes
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Tuesday asked voters to make the Opposition “pay the price” for bringing down his government and give a clear decisive majority to the BJP-led coalition…Making a special appeal to the minorities (during his election broadcast on Doordarshan), Mr Vajpayee said national unity without a firm commitment to secularism was unthinkable. He said that contrary to the propaganda of “our adversaries”, the past 17 months have been remarkably free from communal tension.

September 11, 2000, The Asian Age
BJP trying to woo Muslims for more votes: Sher Khan
Former Union minister Aslam Sher Khan has blamed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union home minister LK Advani for not keeping their word about upliftment of minorities and said the BJP’s new incarnation is a well-calculated move to mislead minorities and dalits on the eve of Assembly elections in five states. Mr Sher Khan, who had joined the BJP in 1997 said that he quit the party within one year after realising that the BJP had no love for Muslims and dalits and wanted to use them as a ladder to achieve power.

…and performance

Two states, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, both under BJP rule, have truly imbibed saffron values of governance. For Muslims, Christians and Dalits inhabiting these two states in northern and western India, the past two years have meant living in vastly altered circumstances — always under threat, sometimes physically attacked.
What has been the lived experience of India’s minorities in these two ‘laboratories of Hindu rashtra’?

Since 1998, when VHP-Bajrang Dal squads hounded Muslims out of their villages in Randhikpur and Sanjeli, life for the Muslim in Gujarat is marked. Where he lives, what he eats, how he celebrates his festivals – everything is under close surveillance.
Last month, ‘retaliation’ against Gujarat’s Muslims for the killing of Amarnath yatris in Kashmir by Pakistan-inspired mercenaries, meant a loss of Rs 20 crore worth of Muslim property in Surat (powerlooms), Sabarkantha (printing presses) and elsewhere in the state.
In July 1999, the Kargil war had its spillover in Ahmedabad’s own ‘war zones’ as BJP’s Yuva Morcha splashed provocative graffiti in Muslim areas to taunt and provoke Indian Muslims – “Ab to nagara baj chuka hai, sarhad pe shaitan ka/ Nakshe par se nam mita do, paapi Pakistan ka/ Khun se tilak karo, goliyon se arti/Pukarti hai yeh zameen, pukarti Ma Bharti”.
Muslims are forcibly prevented from buying property in ‘secular’ areas of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Baroda and other Gujarat cities and forced to reside in ‘ghettoes’.
At the Hindu-managed VR Somani and Bhakta Vallabh schools, where 95 per cent of the students are Muslims but the teachers are Hindus, the teachers have adopted a unique technique of getting at the students: they just do not teach.
Muslim students and teachers in schools in many cities in Gujarat are forced to sit, or be invigilators, for examinations on Eid day.
In many Gujarati-medium schools run by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, at the beginning of the class, Muslim students are asked to sit separately.
A recent circular by the Gujarat Education department will force all students to write their names on examination sheets of school and government examinations. This will leave the religious identity of the student in no doubt, making discrimination possible and introduction of the religious element in the assessment of answers.
Dozens of prominent politicians belonging to the ruling BJP in Gujarat and its allied organisations, like the VHP and Bajrang Dal, have been named in police FIRs (see Communalism Combat, October 1998 and April 2000. The Gujarat DGP, CP Singh, even admitted to the culpability of these organisations but needless to say no action has been taken.
Since 1998, more than 200 Christian institutions – both secular and religious — have been attacked and Christian religious persons killed or assaulted; a vast majority of these attacks have taken place in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
A virtual curfew during Christmas at the Dangs in south Gujarat in 1998 was a shameful travesty of the Indian Constitution. In December 1999, too, despite protests, Christians in the area had to suffer protests and terror.
The echelons of the higher judiciary and the police and paramilitary are being filled with devoted RSS followers committed to a sectarian and inequitous polity.
Not a single educational institution has been granted minority status during the entire tenure of the BJP in UP, off and on since 1990.
As of now, not a single district magistrate or a superintendent of police in UP is a Muslim.
The UP state Minorities Commission was scrapped during Kalyan Singh’s first tenure. Under pressure of a coalition partner, the Gupta-led ministry has now revived the commission; but only in name.
In 1998, Kalyan Singh’s tenure was marked by gross human rights violations, wherein most of the victims of brutal encounters by the state police were Dalits and Muslims;
In 1998, the UP minister of state for home announced an insidious plan linking every state-run school to the local RSS sarsanghchalak (known as the kulp yojana, it ran into rough weather after a storm of protests but it has not been formally withdrawn); Neither Keshubhai Patel’s promise of 1995 — “You will see how well we treat Muslims and other minorities under our rule” – nor LK Advani’s 1996 ‘guarantee to every Muslim” — “security, justice, equality and full freedom of faith and worship,” — has been of much help to the hapless Muslims and Christians of Gujarat. Bangaru Laxman’s invitation to Muslims notwithstanding, apparently, Hindutva and religious minorities simply don’t mix!

The BJP’s new social bloc

August 31, 2000

‘The BJP’s new social bloc’, an analysis by CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies), based on the electoral outcome and the findings of a nation–wide post-election survey (Lok Sabha polls ’99) published by the fortnightly magazine ‘Frontline’ offers interesting insights into the political compulsions behind the BJP’s decision to woo the Muslims, dalits, adivasis. The study clearly shows that the BJP simply cannot hope to grow beyond the plateau on which it presently finds itself unless it succeeds in befriending Muslims and Dalits.

It is evident from the tables reproduced here (Courtesy: Frontline and CDS) that:

The BJP has certainly come a long way from is identity as a Bania-Brahmin party. But the fact remains that as one goes down the caste ladder, electoral support for the BJP declines consistently and dramatically. The post–poll, all–India survey conducted by the CSDS showed that as against 46 per cent of the upper caste Hindus who voted for the BJP, the party could get only 19 per cent votes of the adivasi and a much lower 12 per cent of the Dalit votes. In sharp contrast to these figures, 49 per cent adivasis and 40 per cent dalits voted for the Congress. Even the BJP’s allies in the NDA coalition could manage only 12 per cent of the total adivasi and 10 per cent of the Dalit votes.

The CSDS analysis observes: “Although both these figures (percentage votes of Dalits and adivasis for the BJP) are higher this time (1999 polls) compared to the 1998 elections, it is clear that these groups are not the primary constituents of the new social bloc”.

A mere 6 per cent of the ‘Upper (Caste) Muslims’ (Ashrafs) voted for the BJP, while the ‘Lower (Caste) Muslim’ votes for the BJP were almost negligible (2 per cent of the total). This contrasts even more sharply with Muslim support for the Congress — 59 per cent ‘Upper Muslim’ and 58 per cent ‘Lower Muslim’. The alienation of the Christian community from the BJP, is equally evident from the figures.

Considering that between them, Dalits, adivasis, Muslims and Christians, make up for around 37 per cent (well over one–third) of the total electorate, the BJP’s political compulsion in wooing them is evident. Equally well, the existing hardcore support of the BJP has come through its identification and association with the strident Hindutva pursued consistently by other segments of the sangh parivar — the parent RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and its allies such as the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the Hindu Munnani in Tamil Nadu.

In other words, the BJP is being pulled in two diametrically opposite directions — ideologically towards a strident Hindutva, and electorally towards centrism and an inclusive agenda. So far, the BJP has tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. But the limits of such realpolitik is becoming increasingly obvious. The saffron brotherhood is showing signs of growing disenchantment because of the BJP’s conciliatory gestures towards the minorities, while the minorities continue to be suspicious of the party because of its continued attachment to the saffron brotherhood. Is there a danger that the BJP might end up falling between two stools?

The CSDS analysis also clearly shows that in the perception of the voters, the BJP remains a party of the rich. The poorer an upper caste voter is, the lower his preference for the BJP; the richer an adivasi or Dalit is, the greater his attraction to the BJP. Taken together, “both caste and class converge in the BJP’s support base”.

In short, despite its impressive growth, the BJP continues to be seen as a party of the upper castes/upper classes. The new social bloc has helped elevate the BJP from its position of “majestic isolation” to the political high ground it presently occupies. But the existing arrangement, is, obviously, not good enough for the party that aspires to rule India on its own. The apparent disenchantment of the OBCs in the electorally critical Uttar Pradesh only compounds the situation.

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8 No. 62, Cover Story 3

If Laxman plays Hanuman…

August 31, 2000

The new BJP president, Bangaru Laxman, may well turn out to be the first Dalit to occupy the Prime Minister’s chair. But India’s SCs and STs stand to gain little from such a likely scenario

Bangaru Laxman’s statement, after he formally took over as the president of the BJP, that “Nagpur is a place of both Ambedkar and Hegdewar” must have come as a surprise to the upper caste leaders of the RSS, particularly its chief, KS Sudharshan, who must all be Ambedkar haters. Nagpur, ironically, is the headquarters of both Ambedkar’s Buddhism and Hegdewar’s Brahminism.

Laxman made it somewhat clear that he would like to be loyal to both Ambedkarism and Brahminism but this may prove to be an impossible task. Laxman’s colour (the Dravidian black) is itself an anathema to the Aryan racism that Hegdewar and Golwalkar stood for. Laxman’s position at the top of the party pyramid and having to live with his ‘un–Hindu’ statements are certain to be seen as the result of the unfortunate presence of Ambedkarism in the Indian politico–social space.

The Hindu spiritual world has been hoping against hope all these years that it would not have to see a day when the Chandalas emerge as a powerful force and undermine the divine dictum of the Adi–Brahmin-Purush, Brahma, that the Chandalas forever remain untouchables. Ambedkar has become a modern Buddha and Laxman knows that only too well. But for the Ambedkarite presence in the Indian political scene, Laxman would still be elsewhere, possibly stitching a shoe and certainly not the president of a party that was meant to be a Brahmin–Baniya saddle.

Arun Shourie, who called Ambedkar a “False God”, must have licked his own boots as Laxman made his presidential pronouncements. Laxman’s statement proved that however weak a Dalit might otherwise be, when in a position of power he can make a difference.

The appointment (not election) by Vajpayee of Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit leader from Hyderabad, as the president of the BJP has been done with a design to woo the votes of Dalits and appeal to South Indians as the BJP has been accused of being an enemy of both Dravidism and Dalitism. As a party that aspires to be a ruling party on its own, the BJP has to overcome both these images.

In the sufficiently well established line of Dalit leaders like Jagjivan Ram, Damodaram Sanjeevaiah who were given similar positions in the Congress party, some Dalit leader was badly needed to salvage the anti-Dalit image of the BJP. Laxman, given his name, colour and caste, appeared to be the most suitable person. What Laxman can do to Dalits depends on how the educated Dalits assert themselves and how an ageing Kanshi Ram builds his party. In politics, the strength of the Bahujan Samaj Party helps in the Dalit bargain with other parties. It is in this political backdrop that Laxman climbed the BJP ladder.

The problem for the BJP would however be, that like Jagjivan Ram and Sanjeevaiah, Laxman seems to be behaving unpredictably. He has publicly stated that he got this post because of Vajpayee and like Rama Bhakta Hanuman even touched the latter’s feet of Vajpayee. In the process he has placed the self–respect of Dalits at the feet of a classical Brahmin. I do not think Jagjivan Ram and Sanjeevaiah ever did this to Nehru. But to overcome this surrender to a political ‘Swamiji’, he said his attempt would be to combine Ambedkar with Hegdewar.

This very statement, however, creates a tension in caste ideology. Laxman has to salvage Hinduism, which does not want to give Dalits the right to priesthood, but the party that emerged to safeguard upper caste interests has to mobilise Dalit votes. Hinduism as a religion destroyed the moral foundation of Dalits and without reforming that religion a Hindu political party cannot salvage the situation.

This is the reason why more and more Dalits are looking towards either Christianity or Buddhism. The Hindutva forces know pretty well that apart from Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram what threatens Brahminism is the “Acclesia in Asia” document that Pope John Paul II released at Delhi during his visit to India last year.
The Pope said that the Cross was planted in Europe in the first millennium, in America and Africa in the second millennium, and that Christ will return to his birth place – Asia — with all the strength at his command in the third millennium. The Christian resolve seems to be that the last segment of global spiritual slavery — India’s untouchables — have to be liberated by all means in this century. This resolution of global Christianity coupled with its cultural liberalism poses very serious challenges to Brahminism today.

Whenever Hinduism found itself in deep crisis because of the Shudra-Chandala revolt, it took the help of a Shudra or Chandala to overcome that crisis and they made these Trojan horses speak their language. Valmiki, a Dalit, was made to write the Ramayana, as they wanted it to be written; again a Krishna was made to write the Gita, as they wanted it to be written. Only Ambedkar refused to do that and that has pushed Hinduism in to a deep crisis.

Given the threat of globalisation and Christianity in the era of Ambedkarism in India, Laxman has been chosen to overcome the present crisis of Hinduism. But Laxman is too inadequate a person to salvage the situation. Despite the promise that Krishna would incarnate, yuga after yuga, to protect Brahminism would not turn up in this yuga because of the God who originated in Israel and has produced globally commanding capitalism and the English language. The gods who understand only Sanskrit are suffering a heavy loss of social base in their own land. The Dalits are the main social base of the expanding Christianity. The sangh parivar has to do something about it. Laxman seemed be the only alternative.

Neither Hinduism nor the Hindutva organisations can offer spiritual and social liberation to Dalits, tribals and OBCs. The OBCs are fixed to Hinduism like nuts and bolts; hence the sangh parivar does not see any threat from OBCs in spiritual terms. The sangh parivar does not mind marginalising any number of OBCs in the political sphere, too. Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharati are cases in point of this marginalisation. But that is not the case with SCs. But because of the overall impact of the organised church and Ambedkarite Buddhism, the SCs and STs have become a social force who can lobby for their Dalit cause in international fora.

The OBCs could not evolve as a force to interact with the West. They could not modernise and acquire proficiency in English, which could loosen their nut and bolt location in Hinduism and allow them to look for global recognition of their position. So they are becoming a butt of ridicule in the hands of Brahminical forces within the sangh parivar. Kanshi Ram once rightly said that the ruling classes of India are afraid of only SCs because they are a force to reckon with in the bureaucracy and in politics and section of them have got westernised.

So Laxman becomes a useful tool to address some of the socio-spiritual and economic problems that Hinduism as a religion and Hindutva as a political force are facing today. If Laxman realises the historical context in which he has been given this position, he can work his way to South Block and become the first SC Prime Minister of India. After Vajpayee, there is no leader from the BJP top brass who is acceptable to all the NDA constituents. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have already burnt their fingers with their right–wing extremism.

Laxman, who kept a low profile in the aggressive phase of the BJP, leads a non–controversial life style and has no base of his own in the party or at the mass level. These are good qualifications for a Dalit to be seen as a candidate for the Prime Minister’s post.

Laxman has all the qualities that PV Narsimha Rao had when he emerged as a Prime Ministerial candidate in the Congress party after the death of Rajiv Gandhi. Laxman’s Dalit background is an added bonus. Judging by how Laxman has been speaking and conducting himself after being appointed the party president he is moving in the right direction. His statements on the minorities and Ambedkar seem to have been well–received in political circles.

Laxman is right when he says that minorities are “blood of his blood and flesh of his flesh” in so far as he speaks as a Dalit. When talking of Ambedkar or of minorities, Laxman is speaking like a Dalit. Laxman is also expected to ease the BJP’s relations with Christians as the latter also feel quite comfortable negotiating with Laxman as head of the party rather than some upper caste leaders. Thus, there is good mettle in him to aspire to becoming the first Dalit to occupy the Prime Minister’s chair.

But all this will be possible only if Laxman plays the part of Hanuman very carefully in a party of Aryan Brahminism. He must not think of crossing the laxman rekhas drawn by his Lord, Vajpayee. Of course, he can acquire his own small temples here and there. But his limited spiritual space will be safe only as long as the real Hindu heroes operating from Hindu temples feel secure with him as their watchdog. Advani, a Sindhi, a non–practising Hindu but a hard-line Hindutvavaadi, does have much support of the Hindu Brahmin priests. The NDA leaders do not trust him either.

The Indian media, too, takes its cues from the temple of Brahminism before it projects somebody as an acceptable man or woman for the highest position. The Indian media used to hate Ambedkar. It hates Kanshi Ram. Its love–hate relationship with KR Narayanan turned into a pure hate relationship after he delivered his two historic lectures on the occasion of Republic Day this year. Laxman is still a bird in the egg so far as the media is concerned. If he chooses to play the role of Hanuman well, the future for him is very bright.

But the Dalits as a historical community have every thing to loose. Just as the first Dalit president of the BJP, even the first Dalit Prime Minister of India would come and go without changing the socio-spiritual and economic status of Dalits even an inch. But many Kanshi Rams can be vanquished with this Dalit weapon called Bangaru (gold) Laxman.

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8 No. 62, Cover Story 4

Not a single educational institution has got minority status during the BJP’s rule in UP’

August 31, 2000

Bangaru Laxman’s invitation is nothing but a stunt. Their intentions are dishonest. On the one hand, he issues a daawat to Muslims; on the other, Laxman maintains that the BJP remains committed to Hindutva. If they are still committed to Hindutva, they must be committed to Golwalkar’s vision on the place of minorities in ‘Hindu India’ (see main copy).

On the very day that Laxman extended his invitation to Muslims he and Vajpayee went to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur to renew their pledge that they remain committed to their RSS roots. How can we take them seriously?

Laxman has also said that the ‘controversial issues’ are not relevant today but they remain on the BJP’s agenda. And his mentor, Atal Behari Vajpayee has stated in the Lok Sabha that his party has not abandoned those issues. In that case, do they want Muslims to help them come to power on their own so that they can then implement Hindutva’s agenda?

In any case, what standing does Laxman have in the BJP? The sangh parivar, very conveniently, has 25 different organisations, so that different leaders or different organisations can say different things at the same time. How can Muslims believe one of them and not the others?

Now that elections are due in UP, every few days, they catch some Muslim and dub him an ISI agent. Assuming that some of the Muslims arrested are, in fact, involved in passing on information to the ISI, the fact remains that they are mere carriers. Who are the big culprits, those occupying important government positions and have access to sensitive information that they pass on through these carriers? Why are none of them caught? This is nothing but a ploy to terrorise and demonise ordinary Muslims.

Now the RSS has announced it will act as ‘secret police’ to identify ISI agents and report them to the police. RSS volunteers have been provided the mobile phone numbers of the state’s director general of police and the home secretary so that they can pass on information directly to top officials. In other words, the RSS will now decide who is an ISI agent and who is not. Can you imagine what this means?

Some years back they had talked of taaleem (education), tijarat (employment) and tanzeem (organisation) for Muslims. If the UP experience is anything to go by, they have done nothing at all.

Take taleem, for example. Their main contribution is this field is to have declared that Muslim madrassas where children get some education are all ISI addas. Secondly, not a single Muslim educational institution has been granted minority status in their entire tenure.

They talk of fairplay with Muslims. Let them name one district in UP today where either the district magistrate (DM) or the district superintendent police (SP) is a Muslim.

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8 No. 62, Cover Story 7

Why hasn’t Laxman uttered a single word about Christians, the current target of the sangh parivar?’

August 31, 2000

Even if we assume that Bangaru Laxman is sincere, before Muslims can take him seriously, he should publicly declare that the BJP has nothing to do with the RSS. We know that the BJP is the brainchild of the RSS. The RSS top brass always decides who assumes leadership of the BJP. The RSS wants to treat India’s Muslims in Hitler’s fashion. How, then can we believe the political wing of the same RSS, when it talks of Muslims being ‘blood of our blood’ etc.?

If Laxman tells us that the BJP president determines the policies of the party, he must explain how when Vajpayee was the BJP president and talked of ‘Gandhian socialism’, other leaders of the BJP were openly hobnobbing with Gandhiji’s assassin, Nathuram Godse and the RSS mouthpieces, Panchjanya and Organiser, were singing a different tune.

If Laxman really has a different attitude to India’s minorities, why has he not uttered a single word about Christians who are the main target of the sangh parivar today? As a part of India’s minorities, I would say that if Laxman really wants to take Muslims into confidence, he should first of all win the confidence Christians. To do that convincingly, he will have to openly condemn the Bajrang Dal and the VHP for targeting Christians.

Besides, a BJP MP from Orissa is openly raising money for Dara Singh’s defence. The concerned MP should be immediately expelled from the BJP. And finally, on the Babri Masjid issue, is Laxman prepared to make an unequivocal statement that he will ensure that the BJP respects the court’s verdict.

We do not expect any satisfactory answer from the president of the political wing of the RSS. Therefore, the only conclusion is that Laxman is making these statements merely to hoodwink some Muslims. Basically, all that the BJP is interested in is some ‘bonus’ Muslim votes for its own political benefit.

In my view, just as hostility towards India is the very basis of Pakistan’s existence, the BJP is founded on anti–minority sentiments. How can either be expected to undermine the very foundation of their edifices?

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8 No. 62, Cover Story 7

‘We have got cooperation from government officials irrespective of the party in power’

August 31, 2000

To be honest, our work has nothing to do with any political party. Ordinary Muslims are ill–informed about the opportunities that exist for government jobs. Our emphasis is in creating this awareness in the community, seeking the help of government officials and trying to remove any bottlenecks that might exist.

Take the example of jobs for Muslims in the police force. Muslims need to know that the first step in getting a police constable’s job is to get your name registered with the employment exchange. If your name is not registered with the employment exchange, how will you get jobs?

We placed ads in Urdu papers, told them to go. They went, they got jobs, there was no hitch at all. In this connection, I must say that three successive police commissioners of Mumbai, under different governments, have been equally positive and supportive.

Similarly, in the matter of jobs in the army, I had a very positive, encouraging response from a colonel. He was very clear that people of all communities are equally welcome in the Indian army. We did not face any special problem at the level of government servants while the Shiv Sena–BJP government was in power in Maharashtra or because the BJP was or is leading the government in New Delhi.

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8 No. 62, Cover Story 7

Muslims not the only culprits’

July 31, 2000

Sanjay Nirupam is the editor of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Dopahar ka Saamna. He is also a Rajya Sabha MP. By virtue of his double distinction one would imagine that he is a well–informed man. In the popular weekly programme, ‘The Big Fight’, telecast by Star TV a few weeks ago, Nirupam was the ‘big fighter’ on the Sena’s behalf in the debate over whether the Maharashtra government should or should not act on the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission pertaining to the Mumbai riots. Teesta Setalvad, on the other hand, argued strongly in support of the implementation of the commission’s recommendations.

During the programme, Nirupam repeatedly demanded to know why people arrested in India for spying for Pakistan or acting as agents of the ISI were all Indian Muslims.

In raising this question, Nirupam was either lying or furnishing proof of his utter ignorance on the subject. For Union home minister LK Advani could any day remind him, if he so desired, that of the several persons from his own ministry who were arrested on charges of passing on vital information to Pakistan in the midst of the Lok Sabha polls last year, not one was a Muslim.

We would like to draw the ill–informed or communally motivated Nirupam’s attention to the answer given by the IG Intelligence, BSF, Vibhuti Rai to a question on ISI agents in India. (See Rai’s interview in this issue).

We challenge Nirupam to prevail upon Big Brother Advaniji to release a full list of all those charged with acting as agents of Pakistan/ISI since Independence. Meanwhile, to cite just a few instances, we reproduce below excerpts from news reports published by different national newspapers in recent years pointing out that non–Muslims, too, have been nabbed for acting against the national interest.

Arrested Pakistan militant is Hindu

JAMMU, August 11: For the first time in the over a decade long period of militancy, the Jammu police have arrested a Hindu youth who is a dreaded Pakistan-Afghanistan militant. Four of his associates, including two Hindus were also arrested. They were sent to Jammu by Major Irfan of Inter–Services Intelligence (ISI) to disrupt the city on Independence Day.

A huge quantity of arms and ammunition, two very powerful explosive devices including a milk container IED and a tiffin–bomb (filled with RDX) were recovered during the arrests.

The arrested militant, who had joined Hizbul Mujahideen sometime back after his differences with Harkat–ul Jehad Islami (HUJI) outfit, has been identified as Bharat Kumar alias Bharat Singh alias Bharat Malhotra alias Munna (code name Tariq), a resident of Jammu City’s outskirts. His four associates include Harjit Singh alias Jeeta of Jammu, Sodagar Singh of RS Pura, Sammi–ul–Rehman alias Sammi and Sheikh Mukhtiar, both residents of Jammu. (Mid–Day, August 11, 2000).

"The ISI is now luring Hindu youth from Jammu and Muslim boys from Uttar Pradesh to act as couriers for them in an attempt to hoodwink the security forces.

(From the Intelligence report on ISI)

‘ISI presence in India is massive’

MUMBAI: Top state government officials yesterday said that the access of Pakistan’s Inter–Services Intelligence (ISI) was not restricted to Muslims here alone.

"More than Muslims, ISI agents are said to be mingling on the sly with members of the majority community and that makes our job of combing these dangerous elements real difficult and challenging," these officials admitted.

They said there were more undercover ISI agents among the Hindus than in the Muslim community. "And we suspect that ISI contacts in the majority community are highly educated and influential people with connections in politics," officials said.

According to these sources, money, which was said to be available aplenty with the ISI, was the single most factor that ‘brought’ the dreaded outfit ‘sympathisers’ in the majority community.

"It is a misnomer then that ISI men take shelter in Muslim areas and mingle only with the minority community. The fact, ironically, is they mostly mingle with the Hindus and may be operating from such localities where you have the least suspicion of finding them," officials said.

(Afternoon Despatch and Courier, July 15, 1998).

Cop sacked for links with ISI

Bombay, Oct. 22 (PTI) Police Commissioner A. S. Samra has removed a police inspector from service in connection with his involvement in the case of an Iranian national, suspected to be a spy of the Inter–Services Intelligence of Pakistan, who was nabbed in the city.

Inspector Prabhakar Ingle, attached to Pydhonie station in South Bombay, was the chief investigating officer in the case involving the Iranian national.

The Commissioner served a notice to inspector Ingle on Wednesday night terminating his services under Article 311 of the Constitution of India under which the police chief has the powers to remove from service any staff member if there is a prima facie case of his links with anti–social elements.

On similar grounds, Mr Samra had removed from service two senior inspectors of police, Mr Vinayak Patil of Antop Hill police station and Mr S. P. Kalankar of Oshiwara police station, in May and July last, respectively.

(The Hindustan Times, October 23, 1993)

Another defence staff held for spying

AHMEDNAGAR, AUG. 8. Close on the heels of arrest of a senior officer of the Army’s Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) here on Monday, police apprehended another employee on charges of spying for Pakistan’s Inter–Services Intelligence (ISI).

Police sources told PTI here today that Achut Menon, a technical assistant in VRDE, had allegedly supplied vital secret documents to the ISI.

The Additional Sessions Judge (First Class) here today remanded Menon to police custody for 12 days, the sources added. Police had last night arrested Sunil Kadanna Chinchane (40), who had stolen classified information and allegedly sent it to Pakistan through the Internet.

(The Hindu, August 9, 2000, news report)

ISI infiltrated into Dalits, OBCs : Book

NEW DELHI, DEC 26: The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has infiltrated into the Dalits and other backward classes to carry out subversive activities against India, a new book on Kargil says.

Pak Proxy War: A Story of ISI, Bin Laden and Kargil, by Rajeev Sharma claims the ISI has been recruiting members of Dalit and the other backward classes since the mid–90s with the help of the under-world in Mumbai, Dubai and Nepal. The underworld funded the ISI’s design and promoted a nexus among Muslims, Dalits and the backward classes at its bidding, it points out. It goes on to add that the ISI also targeted members of renowned Muslim organisations who did not buy their plan.

(UNI, The Indian Express, December 27, 1999)

ULFA informs ISI via Internet

Darshan Balwally (Guwahati, June 25):

The inscrutable Internet is proving a challenge to the intelligence wing of the Indian Army in keeping track of the messages allegedly passed on to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) wing of Pakistan by the banned United Liberation Front of Asom. Faced with the Herculean task of tracking down websites, allegedly established by the insurgents, the 4th Corps of the Army, at Tezpur, has recently acquired specialists endowed with skills to peep into suspicious websites.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an extremely knowledgeable source in the Indian Army admitted recently that "we had ‘electronics experts’ flown in" some days ago. However, more sinister, according to senior Army officials, is ULFA’s rapidly becoming hi–tech. Armed with computers, the ULFA cadres/ sympathisers are suspected to be feeding information to various sources within and outside the country through websites.

(The Hindustan Times, June 26, 1999).

"If a section of minority community is involved in anti—India activity then so are the members of the majority community who have reportedly joined the ISI for easy money. It is the majority community that dominates the ULFA whose links with ISI have been confirmed".

(From the Intelligence report on ISI)

Meghalaya couple arrested

On Sept 27th 99, the Meghalaya police arrested a couple suspected to have close links with ISI with an amount of Rs.46,000 fake currency. Couple was identified as Rajendra Rahul Yadav and Minu Marak from a village in Meghalaya district.

(From the Intelligence report on ISI)

I am not an ISI agent, says Raja Bhaiyya

…Mr Sandhu in an interview to India’s Most Wanted programme, telecast on Zee TV last week, had said that Mr Raghuraj Pratap Singh, also known as Raja Bhaiyya, was working as an ISI agent and supplying arms to the notorious Brijesh Singh gang of UP, besides harbouring criminals of the rival Mukhtar Ansari gang.

UP minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh reacted by demanding a CBI enquiry against himself so that a verification of the IPS officer’s charges could be made at the earliest. According to the minister, relations between himself and the officer have been strained since the time the officer was posted as superintendent of police in Pratapgarh district.

(The Asian Age, June 9, 1999)

ISI–trained Sikh militants find haven

in Bengal

Calcutta: AT LEAST 200 Sikh extremists, all trained by the Pakistani secret agency Inter Service Intelligence, are now very much in West Bengal, Punjab director–general of police KPS Gill said. This has sent shivers down the spine of almost every sleuth engaged in intelligence activities, leave alone the highly tensed up higher officials.

These extremists belong to the Khalistani Commando Force and the Babbar Khalsa group but there are half a dozen dreaded activists belonging to the Panjwa group and they carry a cash award of Rs 50 lakh if caught red–handed. If state police intelligence higher–ups are to be believed, a Gurdwara near Baranagar and another in south Calcutta shelter some of these extremists.

(The Observer of Business and Politics, January 12, 1994).

Archived from Communalism Combat, August 2000, Anniversary Issue (7th) Year 8 No. 61, Cover Story 2

‘If our minorities loose faith in the Indian state, they will be easy prey for the ISI’

July 31, 2000

Teesta Setalvad spoke to the IG Intelligence, BSF, Vibhuti Narain Rai in Delhi.

Pakistan’s Inter–State Intelligence agency is increasingly being mentioned as the hand behind most extremist acts in the country. What are the facts about the ISI’s involvement in them? How much of it is xenophobic fiction?
The ISI is a frightening reality today. I personally feel that as an institution, it is the biggest challenge and threat which the Indian state is facing today. We must face this challenge unitedly as a nation.

Today, if a Hindu girl marries a Muslim boy in Gujarat, sections of the media and Hindu extremist groups label it as the handiwork of the ISI! In the circumstances, do you not agree that the central government owes it to the people of this country to publish a White Paper on the ISI, to furnish proof of its network and activities in India?

I think we should publish a White Paper that details the scope and reach of the ISI and the threat that it represents. This will put all the facts before the people on the far-reaching network of the agency and its activities. Such a document will also prevent the attempt by some to use the ISI as a bogey, as one more stick to bash some of our own people with!

To prevent the creation of such irresponsible phobias — in the sixties and seventies, if you recall, the CIA hand was behind every incident in the country — we need such a responsible document that places the findings of professional investigation before the public. At the same time, it should be candid about our own internal mistakes.

Doesn’t the government’s refusal to place such a document before Parliament and the people help fuel more rumours and phobia about the ISI and which in turn is given communal-sectarian connotations by extremist organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena ?
I repeat that such a White Paper in the nature of a public document should be released. And we must have the strength and capability of realising our own mistakes internally. This document must contain details of the intelligence collected, dangers to be guarded against. It must take our people, especially the intelligentsia, into confidence.
We should not provide breeding grounds to the ISI. If our minorities loose faith in the Indian State, due to acts of commissions and omissions of the police or other agencies they will be easy prey for the ISI.

Could you elaborate?
What were the bomb blasts in Mumbai after all? We presented a golden opportunity to the ISI to utilise the despair and disenchantment caused by the viciously motivated violence against the minorities in December 1992 and January 1993.

Given the sensitive nature of the situation, how must a force like the ISI be tackled?
A threat like the one posed to India by the ISI has to be tackled on two fronts: one, as a law and order issue, internally; and, two, on the international front. On the first front, the implementation of the law must be firm and neutral. In fact, the neutrality of the police force, paramilitary and other wings of the law and order machinery are absolute prerequisites if the ISI threat is to be tackled effectively.

There is no other country in the world that can boast of a minority that is 120–million strong. Yet, it is this community whose ‘nationalistic credentials’ are constantly ‘suspect’ because of the religious–communal dimension of the ISI–driven propaganda.
The second front on which the ISI must be dealt with involves ultra-professionalism and political expertise because here we are dealing with international crime that is geared to exploiting our weaknesses from within.

Has the ISI hand been established in recent bomb blasts in churches in Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka?
Investigations are still on but I will not be at all surprised if the ISI hand is finally proven. Pakistan is an ideological state based on the two-nation theory and the peaceful co-existence of different communities on Indian soil disproves the very foundation of Pakistan. To negate this peaceful co–existence, the ISI would go to any extent.
Ironically, at the other end of the spectrum are Hindu fascist organisations whose basic philosophy, too, militates against the idea of different religious communities and peoples of many identities living together, co–existing. Their approach, too, supports Pakistan’s two–nation theory.

I personally would not be at all surprised if a criminal like Dara Singh, who is espouses hatred against Indian Christians, is found to be an ISI agent!
If we, as the Indian State, as the law enforcement authorities, or as Indian civil society, refuse to distinguish between the ISI and Indian Muslims and constantly blur this crucial distinction, we are playing into the hands of the ISI. We are supporting the genesis of the two–nation theory, which is exactly what the ISI wants.

Any organization, whether Hindu or Muslim, which propagates hatred and believes that Hindus and Muslims represent two different civilizations and have no commonalities is playing the ISI game.

Are there any typical areas in the country from within which the ISI recruits its potential agents?
From our intelligence reports, we have been able to glean that the ISI’s strategy is to take its recruits from industrial towns with floating populations. For example, Panipat (Haryana) and Pilakhuva (Uttar Pradesh) where we have weaving/dyeing and chemical explosive units.
In these towns they create their hideouts in what are known as ‘safe houses’, from where they build up their contact persons. For example, in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, we unearthed an ISI network that was spying on the Air Force base there. The links are closely developed and nurtured. It is only when one of these links breaks that the plan/conspiracy is unearthed.

In India we blame the ISI, in Pakistan RAW is constantly blamed for acts of insurgency. For example, RAW was claimed to be behind a spate of recent bomb blasts in trains in Sindh etc. Are not the agencies of both countries using similar tactics to de-stabilise local law and order situations? Why blame only one of them?
I do not deny that RAW may also be using some counter–insurgency tactics within Pakistan. But the ISI is much more professional and much more ruthless than us. They function within a scenario where there is no democracy, no autonomy and no shortage of funds.

In the whole of South Asia, today, narco–terrorism is controlled by the ISI and India is being used as a conduit with narcotics being smuggled via Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu. After the bomb blasts in Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim shifted his base from Bombay to Karachi and is reportedly working for the ISI.

Is there any community–specific recruitment by the ISI given the communal undertones of the animosities between the two countries?
If you were to examine in detail all the espionage–related arrests made since Independence, we can see that non–Muslims — Hindus, Christians and Sikhs — have all been caught for spying. This includes those caught for spying at the army headquarters, defence establishments, our top scientific establishments. Monetary gains and the greed for more are not confined to a particular community! For money, hard cash, anybody will do anything.

However, when it comes to the burgeoning of madrassas and the kind of teaching that takes place within them, other factors play a role. It is only when a section of people, an entire religious community in this case, feels wronged and alienated — and can there be any question that that is how India’s religious minorities are feeling at the moment? — when their faith in the impartiality of the state machinery is completely eroded, that they become easy prey for the designs of an outfit like the ISI. We are allowing the ISI to penetrate here by our own mistakes. Apni galtiyon se ham ISI ko palne aur phailne ka mauka de rahen hain. They are growing not because of their own capabilities but because of our mistakes.

But madrassas have for long been a fact of life in India just as pathshalas and other religion-driven educational institutions have been. Then why talk only of madrassas? Have their been any studies conducted on the curricular content of teaching within the traditional madrassas and those that have reportedly mushroomed in the border areas between India and Nepal and India and Bangladesh in recent years?
No comprehensive study on the curricular teachings within madrassas has so far been made. But we do have the concrete example of Tripura where state intervention has yielded positive results. In Tripura, the state was contributing to the grants made to madrassas. The state’s DGP suggested a deepening of the madrassa curriculum to include within its scope vocational training like computer application. This has made a marked difference in the opportunities available to the students who emerge out of these institutions in terms of job prospects.

What have our agencies concluded about the nature and orientation of the ISI, its thrust, focus and intentions?
The ISI is a ruthless organisation. It needs to be combated strongly and firmly. We have inputs about its activities in Delhi, Assam, UP, Andhra Pradesh and border areas.
A common pattern observed is that potential ISI recruits hail from the lower middle class. The madrassa and madrassa education plays a crucial role in preparing the mind–set of youngsters. Having been taught in essence that jehad is an integral part of Islam, they are then willing to transgress all limits to achieve their aims.

For example, part of the training that takes place at Muridke by the Dawa–ul–Irshad (where recruits of the Lashkar–e–Toeba hail from) in Pakistan is to teach the young Muslim who hails from a poor background is that he is not a real Muslim unless he undertakes this mission of jehad.

We have the phenomenon of an increasing number of such madrassas mushrooming in parts of India, especially in the border areas of Nepal and Bengal. Where will the recruits from such institutions go, what will they do once they emerge from these madrassas? The madrassas offer no vocational training, the entire approach to education is to control thought and stifle dissent (See ‘Moulding of a moulvi’s mind, CC, January, 1995). For a recruit emerging out of here, jehad becomes an occupation. What else are they fit for, only one in so many can become a muezzin in a mosque?

The very idea of building madrassas that impart education with a very limiting curriculum is to create potential recruits for the ISI.

But madrassas have existed for centuries. So, how justified is the assumption of the Indian intelligence agencies that the recent sprouting of madrassas, especially in border districts, is part of an ISI grand design? How justified is the assumption that these madrassas, like the ones in Pakistan, have the same ideological thrust towards jehad and pan-Islamism?
Madrassas have been used by the ISI for recruiting new agents and for subversive propaganda against the Indian State. Personally I feel that madrassas are against Muslims themselves. The education and orientation imparted within the madrassa system does not help the community in acquiring a progressive, scientific and modern outlook. Rather, it makes them backward and incapable of facing the challenges of living in contemporary society. You will rarely ever find a rich or politically well–placed Muslim sending his children to a madrassa.

Some organisations seem to be deliberately creating the impression in the public mind that Muslims alone get lured by the ISI. Since this is not true, why can’t the government release a list of those arrested for spying for Pakistan to counter such motivated propaganda?
Normally when an ISI agent or spy working for Pakistan is arrested, his names and details are published in newspapers. There can be no harm done if a consolidated list is published from time to time. I would again like to reiterate the fact that large numbers of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians have been arrested over the years for spying for Pakistan. In many cases it is monetary gain which is the motivating factor.

Archived from Communalism Combat, August 2000, Anniversary Issue (7th)Year 8 No. 61, Cover Story 3

1...2,6802,6812,682...2,696 Page 2,681 of 2,696

Saffron promises and performance

Saffron promises…

…and performance

The BJP’s new social bloc

If Laxman plays Hanuman…

The new BJP president, Bangaru Laxman, may well turn out to be the first Dalit to occupy the Prime Minister’s chair. But India’s SCs and STs stand to gain little from such a likely scenario

Not a single educational institution has got minority status during the BJP’s rule in UP’

Why hasn’t Laxman uttered a single word about Christians, the current target of the sangh parivar?’

‘We have got cooperation from government officials irrespective of the party in power’

Muslims not the only culprits’

‘If our minorities loose faith in the Indian state, they will be easy prey for the ISI’

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