Update: On December 28, Pragya Singh Thakur, MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was booked for the alleged hate speech that she gave in the Shivamogga area of Karnataka. On the basis of a complaint submitted by HS Sundresh, the Shivamogga District Congress Committee, the FIR has been lodged against Thakur, under the IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 268 (Public nuisance), 295A (Outraging religious sentiments), 298 (deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person), 504 (Intentionally insulting a person) and 508 (inducing person to believe that he will be rendered an object of the Divine displeasure).

The FIR against the contentious politician was filed a day after Saket Gokhale, a spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress, Tehseen Poonawalla and Citizens for Justice and Peace, a human rights NGO in Mumbai, each filed complaints against her.

Meanwhile, on December 27, Congressman Jairam Ramesh declared that he will be approaching the Supreme Court to take action against BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur for her comments made at a gathering in Shivamogga, Karnataka.  Mr. Ramesh also claimed that the MP’s comments plainly aimed to polarize society and that the local police would not take action against her because the BJP controls the State’s government.

Terror accused and BJP MP from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur also known as Sadhvi Pragya, made some inciteful remarks while speaking at Hindu Jagarana Vedike’s South Region annual convention held in Shivamogga, Karnataka.

“Love jihad, they have a tradition of jihad, if nothing they do love jihad. Even if they love they do jihad in that. We (Hindus) too love, love the god, a sanyasi loves his god,” she says. She also said that Hindus should “answer those involved in love jihad the same way”. She added that girls should be protected and taught the “right values”.

In the video, that is being circulated on social media, Thakur can be heard saying, “”Keep weapons in your homes, if nothing else, at least knives used to cut vegetables, sharp…Don’t know what situation will arise when….Everyone has the right to self protection. If someone infiltrates our house and attacks us, giving a befitting replay is our right.” This comment was made in reference to the killing of activist Harsha in Shivamogga.

She also advised parents against sending children to missionary schools  as they will grow in the “culture of old age homes and become selfish”.

Terror case-accused @BJP4India MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur calls for killing of Muslims during her speech in Karnataka on Sunday during Hindu Jagarana Vedike’s event. “Keep weapons at home. Keep them sharp. If veggies can be cut well, so can the enemy’s head,” she says. pic.twitter.com/AoDgOpNbXv

— Anusha Ravi Sood (@anusharavi10) December 26, 2022

Thakur is accused in the Malegaon blast of September 2008 where 6 were killed and over a 100 injured. She was arrested in October 2008 by Maharashtra ATS.

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The post Hate watch: “Keep your knives sharp” says terror accused Pragya Thakur appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Here is an excerpt from Subhash Gatade’s recent book, Hindutva’s Second Coming, throwing light on the ‘love of the assassin’. (Pages 272, Media House, 2019, http://www.mediahouse.online/product/hindutvas-second-coming/)

Jawaharlal Nehru was an inveterate letter writer, like many of his contemporaries.

Perhaps it was a reflection of the times in which he lived – when you had not many options to communicate – letter writing seemed to be the cheapest way to communicate.  Nehru’s letters to his daughter Indira – when she was ten years old – later published in a book form aimed at developing sensitive perception of the world are a literary treasure.

One can get a glimpse of Nehru, the architect of free India, via his fortnightly letters to chief ministers on issues of concern – which have been compiled in five volumes. His correspondence with his contemporaries, colleagues in the tumultuous period after achievement of Independence which was accompanied by post-partition riots, can give us a feel of the challenges awaiting a newly independent nation.

It would be opportune here to reread his letter to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was part of his cabinet, merely two days before Gandhi’s assassination.

“For some time past I have been greatly distressed by the activities of the Hindu Mahasabha. At the present moment it is functioning not only as the main opposition to the government and to the Congress in India but as an organisation continually inciting to violence. The RSS has behaved in an even worse way and we have collected a mass of information about its very objectionable activities and its close association with riots and disorder.” (Jawaharlal Nehru, Selected Works, 2nd Series, Vol 5, 1987, p.30).

Anybody can sense through these letters/circulars the storm which was brewing in the country, when he castigates the ‘extraordinary virulence’ in speeches of those leaders of RSS and Hindu Mahasabha and says “…I fear that the limit is being reached if it has not already been crossed’’ (-do-)

This particular letter was written with an expectation that Mukherjee — who was part of the government led by him — would condemn such acts and raise his voice against communal organisations but Mukherjee remained silent.

There are enough documentary proofs available which show how these Hindu communal groups were trying for direct provocation of ‘organised’communal violence. Dr B S Moonje, a Hindu Mahasabha leader, who was also one of the founders of RSS, had observed that to counter Jinnah “we will have to organise violence on a scientific basis”, in his Presidential address to the All India Hindu Mahajati Sammelan. (All India Hindu Mahasabha Papers, File C-105/46, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, quoted in RSS, School Textbooks and Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination ed. p 60).

Perhaps an extract from a book (Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee, Sucheta Mahajan, RSS, School Textbooks and Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination ed. p 60) is worth quoting in full to know to what extent they were ready to go.

Hindu Mahasabha workers publicly charged the national leaders with betraying the interests of the Hindus. They threatened that Nehru, Patel and Azad would be hanged and Gandhi Murdabad (Death to Gandhi) became a common slogan at Mahasabha meetings. Delhi Police Abstract of Intelligence dated 18 December 1947 reported an annual rally of the RSS attended by 50,000 volunteers, where Golwalkar described the attitude of the government as ‘un-Indian and Satanic’. At a meeting of 2,500 workers on 8 December 1947 Golwalkar said: (Kapur Commission Report, Chapter XIX: 66)

The Sangh would finish Pakistan and if anybody stood in their way they will finish him also, “No matter, whether it would be Nehru government, or any other government.” India, he said, was no place for them to live. They [the RSS], he said, had means whereby their opponents could be immediately silenced. (p 65) 

Publications owning allegiance to the idea of Hindu Rashtra were openly threatening death for Mahatma Gandhi in an oblique way. Sample this one: Dainik Hindu Rashtra wrote merely six days before the assassination: “We request that the Government of India should provide more armed soldiers for Gandhiji’s protection so long as he makes anti-national and terrible statements as above”.

Well-known journalist Bharat Bhushan had in a write-up provided details of Delhi CID’s report which corroborate this which told how “RSS chief Golwalkar threatened to kill Gandhi” (http://www.catchnews.com/politics-news/exclusive-rss-chief-golwalkar-threatened-to-kill-gandhi-1947-cid-report-1469535385.html ) It also had details of Lucknow CID’s letter which told how on 1 Dec, 1950 RSS men met at Mathura, allegedly discussed assassinating Congress leaders.

This was the ambience when Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse and his accomplices; a conspiracy which was hatched by the leading lights of Hindutva supremacist forces, chief among them was Savarkar and his close associates.

Definitely it was no ordinary killing of an individual by another, not just a murder committed by a youth in a fit of rage without any planning, rather a day long awaited by the Hindutva supremacists for which they had been planning at least since a decade and half ago.

As Teesta Setalvad in her introduction of a book (Beyond Doubt: A Dossier on Gandhi’s assassination’, Tulika, 2015, Page 1) rightly puts it, the murder was not only the first terrorist act in Independent India but it,

‘[w]as a declaration of war and a statement of intent. To those forces, which …, conspired in the killing, the act declared a lasting commitment to India as a Hindu Rashtra, and announced how the RSS and its affiliates would be at perpetual war with the secular, democratic Indian state as well as any and all who stood to affirm these principles. It remains to be seen how far they could and are still prepared to go. The assassination was also an act to signal the elimination of all that Gandhi and the national movement against imperialism stood for. Equality of citizenship and non-discriminatory democratic governance has been and remain anathema to the Sangh’s ideal political order. ..

What is disturbing to note is that this “declaration of war” normally understood as the “first terrorist act in independent India” does not carry the importance it deserves now. In fact, it is the exact opposite today. With a majoritarian government led by the ideas of RSS at the Centre, we find increasing glorification of the act and its perpetrators.

How did the killers of Gandhi [try] to rationalise their criminal act?

According to them, Gandhiji supported the idea of a separate state for Muslims; thus in a sense he was responsible for the creation of Pakistan. Secondly, the belligerence of Muslims was a result of Gandhiji’s policy of appeasement. Thirdly, in spite of the Pakistani aggression in Kashmir, Gandhiji fasted to compel the Government of India to release an amount of Rs 55 crore due to Pakistan.

Anyone familiar with that period of history can decipher that all these allegations are malicious and factually incorrect also. In fact, the idea of communal amity which Gandhi upheld all his life was a complete anathema to the exclusivist, Hindu supremacist world view of the members of the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha. And while the nation was a racial/religious construct in the imagination of the Hindutva forces, for Gandhi and the rest of the nationalists it was a territorial construct or a bounded territory comprising different communities, collectivities living there.

Looking at the fourteen-year-old history of unsuccessful attempts on Gandhi’s life – which stretched from 1934 to 1948 – it becomes clear that the conspiracy to eliminate Gandhiji was conceived much earlier than the “successful accomplishment” thereof.

A simple query comes to mind: would it be possible for us to deliberate over the fact that the idea of elimination of Gandhi emerged with lot of vehemence in mid-thirties among the Hindutva supremacists?
Remember it was the period when masses of Indian people were fighting the British colonials in myriad ways, not only the Congress but the socialists and the communists were also on the offensive. The stream of social revolutionaries led by Ambedkar- Periyar – Mangoo Ram-Achutanand etc was also engaged in launching struggles for social emancipation and the Hindutva supremacists who were far away from all these struggles, focussing themselves on building their organisation, conspiring to kill the Mahatma.

One thing is certain that with passage of time as the idea of composite nationalism started taking deep roots in the society where Gandhi was a key figure, the Hindutva warriors became more and more convinced that their project of carving out Hindu Rashtra would always remain in wilderness, if something drastic was not done. For them Gandhi was THE target because he was unquestioned leader of the anti-colonial struggle and secondly, the discourse he used and propagated — the language of religion which he believed in — the proponents of Hindu Rashtra were convinced that till he is around, they would not be able to make headway on the path of Hindu unity.

Interestingly, with Gandhi their struggle was at two levels:
First, on the idea of nationhood — whether it should be a composite one or should be based on religion.

Second, on the idea of Hinduism — for Gandhi Hinduism it meant ‘Sarv Dharm Sambhav’ whereas for the Hindutva people it meant the exact opposite.

The decade of thirties is also known for the martyrdoms of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo (23rd March, 1931) and feeling of anger and grief which had gripped the broad masses of the people then and the historic Karachi Congress which also reflected it, followed by Congress’s bold move to put forward the idea of Swaraj. The Karachi Congress which was presided over by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel where all the leading lights of the Congress were present also stipulated state’s religious neutrality. Providing details Teesta Setalvad tells us, this session

‘[r]esulted in the Congress adopting a resolution on Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy which represented the party’s social, economic and political programme.. for the first time, it tried to define what would be the meaning of Swaraj for the common Indian. Some important aspects of these resolutions were: basic civil rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, equality before law, elections on the basis of universal adult franchise; free and compulsory primary education; substantial reduction in rent and taxes, better conditions for workers… Relevant sections constituted a legal attack on the institution of untouchability,… These principled statements were later included in the Constitution of India. (Beyond Doubt, A Dossier on Gandhi’s Assassination, p 2, Tulika, 2015).

Taking the discussion forward Teesta tells how “Communal amity remained central to the constructive programmes of the Congress Party” and how attempts were made to include leading Muslim intellectuals and leaders into the Congress fold and how it was the same period when “majoritarian as well as minority communal forces were at play pushing their narrow, hate-driven, communal agendas”. According to her the evolution of a,

‘[s]ecular and composite Indian nationhood was a deep source of resentment for the proponents of Hindu Rashtra, it was the democratic and egalitarian agenda articulated by the national leadership through the Karachi resolution that they also resented. The attempts on Gandhi’s life that began in 1934 were a response to the dominant political articulations of nationhood, caste and economic and other democratic rights which directly challenged the idea of a hegemonistic and authoritarian Hindu Rashtra. (- do -, p 3).
..
 

The post Why the love for the Mahatma’s Assassin Godse appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“In Hinduism, conscience, reason and independent thinking have no scope for development…. If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. It is incompatible with democracy. Hindu raj must be prevented at any cost.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  – Dr B R Ambedkar

Pragya Singh Thakur claimed at Bhopal, April 19, 2019 that “Hemant Karkare died because of my curse.” In her own words, the policeman had treated her “very badly” while she was in custody in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. Elaborating the point, she said, “Hemant Karkare falsely implicated me. He died of his karma. I told him he will be destroyed. I told him his entire dynasty will be erased. Maine kaha tera [Karkare] sarvanash hoga.” ^[1] 

Entire dynasty of the IPS officer came under curse of a political fortune seeker while doing his duty with highest standard of efficiency, probity and competence.  The IPS officer was known impeccable integrity and indomitable courage, Hemant Karkare was cursed by an accused. This reminds me a Bengali proverb, “Death does not befall a cow in consequence of curse of a vulture, does it?” Almost all Indian languages, I am sure, must boast of a proverb as this or similar to it.

Hemant along with his colleagues chased the Pakistani terrorists, who, on November 26, 2011, waged a war against India and invaded Mumbai. The Mumbai police fought valiantly and Hemant Karkare and some of his colleagues on mission finally laid down their lives. The nation is proud of those martyrs. About eight years later, we hear that the IPS officer died of curse of a political power-seeker, contesting 2019 elections from Bhopal Parliamentary constituency, Madhya Pradesh. This nonsense or rubbish has widely been reported, commented upon and/or condemned by Indian media, columnists and opinion-makers.

The nation conferred on slain Hemant Karkare, posthumously, the Ashoka Chakra for his exemplary sacrifice. This is India’s highest peacetime military decoration conferred for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. It is the peacetime equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra, and is awarded for the “most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice” other than in the face of the enemy. 

According to a British Broadcasting Corporation bulletin, the Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11 of 2008 left 166 people dead and soured ties between India and Pakistan. During the 60-hour siege, the gunmen also ambushed a group of policemen, including three of the city’s top officers travelling in a vehicle and killed six of them. The only policeman, Arun Jadhav, with grievous injuries, survived the unprovoked brutalities launched on India to tell the world “the grisly story of his escape.” ^[2]  

Besides, Karkare, Sadhvi Pragya’s curse, if anyone takes her at all seriously, drew curtains on lives of valiant Indian Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai’s Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar who, in no way, were involved in the alleged torture of Pragya Thakur during investigations of Malegaon blasts cases. A television channel reported that India had asked Pakistan to hand over Mumbai underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim, Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar for their suspected involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks. ^[3]  

Any person with an iota of intelligence would be appalled at the direct linkage the curse straightway established between the merchants of deaths and manufacturers of terror aforementioned operating from Pakistani soil and the Hindu Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who enjoys the umbrella held by the Hindu nationalist ruling Party over her head to contest parliamentary elections 2019. The implication of the Sadhvi’s claim underlines that Pakistani terror outfits patronized by Dawood Ibrahim, Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Jaish-e-Mohammed leader  Maulana Masood Azhar  took immediate and absorbing interest in translating her curse into action with bloody and devastating consequences. A deadly gang of terrorists, including Ajmal Kasab, descended on Mumbai within ‘theek sava mahine’ or 37-38 days, to achieve the objectives and purposes of sadhvi Pragya’s curse, i. e., Hemant Karkare’s sarvanash. It is of immense national importance to decode the secrets along with the mystery enveloping the entire issue. However, no Indian worth his salt would pocket an insult as this for his motherland. This is a crying need to investigate the probably link between the two ends—a Sadhvi of India and terror outfits in Pakistan.

Part-II
Puri Jagannath & His Temple
Surrendered to East India Company in 1803

In a 14-day campaign, the East India Company captured Orissa unopposed and brought an end of oppressive Peshwa rule in 1803. The army simply marched up to Pipli within firing distance of Puri temple town. A delegation of the temple priests and pandas welcomed the victorious commanding officer of the British Army. They surrendered the control, management and maintenance of Bhagwan Jagannath, and his temple in obedience to an ‘oracle.’ ^[4]According to Swami Dharma Theertha (pre-ascetic Parameswara Menon, B. A., LLB) “the oracle of the Puri Jagannath proclaimed that it was the desire of the deity that the temple too be controlled by the Company.” ^[5] What an enigmatic desire of the Lord of the Universe!

Lo and behold the fate of bold and abiding promises Lord Krishna made in the Holy Geeta to his followers:  

“Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata
Abhythanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham
Paritranaya sadhunang vinashay cha dushkritam
 
Dharmasangsthapanarthay sambhabami yuge” ^[6]
 
Was it any better than hogwash or a pre-election promise dishonoured and neglected in compliance? Though Lord Krishna was fervently expected to destroy the invading British along with the temple priests and pandas whose mischief out of petty self-interests threw Him, his brother and sister under the feet of the British overlords.

From 1803 to 1841, the British Trading Company controlled, managed and maintained the Jagannath Temple which was the home of Lord Krishna, his elder brother Balabhadra and their sister Subhadra. Regulations were passed in 1806 and taxes collected from the pilgrims in tens of thousands resorting to Puri from all over India. They paid taxes in lakhs of rupees. The Company spent, by and large, half of the income on the temple management, rituals, maintenance and establishment and the balance half was credited to Company Exchequer, as solid profits. The priests of the Jagannath temple did not suffer any qualms of conscience for this sorry state of affairs.   
 
The question really to ask is: Are the slokas of the Bhagawad Geeta afore-quoted anything but work of fiction? Interestingly, the Englishmen, at home and abroad, condemned their own most famous Trading Company for subscribing to idolatry. No Indians ever appear to have voiced any grievance against British occupation and control of Jagannath Temple for about four decades when they minted tons of money.  They also taxed pilgrims at Gaya, Tirupati, Prayag, etc. with enormous benefit. The British shared income from taxes with priests in these centres and so they were kept in good humour.  
 
The BJP Sankalpa Patra Lok Sabha 2019 on national security enunciated ‘Zero tolerance’ approach to terrorism as follows:
 
“Our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest only…. We will firmly continue our policy of ‘Zero Tolerance’ against terrorism and extremism and will continue our policy of giving free hand to our forces in combating terrorism.”  [01]
Lord of the Universe, Jagannath was desirous of enjoying the superior control, management and maintenance of the foreign rulers! No countrymen seemed to have ever questioned Jagannath’s attachment for British rulers! Pragya Thakur’s curse invited Pakistani terrorists right in Mumbai with terrible consequences. Should she not at least be asked to enlighten the countrymen how did a gang of dreadful Pakistani terrorists become so handy in materializing her curse, waging a war against their sovereign neighbour? Does the blueprint of national security of BJP in their Sankalp for Lok Sabha 2019 presented before the country stand to be compromised by someone like of the Sadhvi? 
 
(*The writer, a retired IAS officer and former Vice-Chancellor, Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Dr A K Biswas can be contacted at biswasatulk@gmail.com.)

^[1] The Hindu, April 19, 2019, Bhopal, “Hemant Karkare died because of my curse.”
^[2]  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46314555
^[3]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_2008_Mumbai_attacks
^[4]  Swami Dharma Theertha, Menace of Hindu Imperialism, 2^nd edition, Har Bhagwan Happy Home Publication, Krishnanagar, Lahore, October 1946, p. 166.  
^[5] Ibid.
^[6] Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 4, Verse 7-8
 

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Expressing his sharp disapproval of BJP’s  decision to nominate a terror accused from the Bhopal seat, Akhtar said, “Don’t go by her appearance. Just because a person looks like a saint doesn’t mean the person is a saint. Don’t forget that when Ravana came to abduct Sita, he too was dressed like a saint.” Akhtar was speaking at a press conference in Bhopal on May 2.

Further hitting out at BJP’s ‘poor choice’ of candidate, Akhtar said, “You (BJP) should have looked for a place which is inhabited by illiterate, communal people and made her contest from there. Democracy can only flourish if there is a clear demarcation between the state and religion.”

Warning the BJP against mixing religion with politics, Akhtar emphasized that countries where state and religion work together, democracy can never work. He then went on to cite the examples of the Middle-East and Latin America.

The complainant has alleged that Akhtar had intentionally made objectionable remarks against Pragya in order to provoke the voters. The complaint also mentions about another statement by Akhtar wherein he said that not all saffron clad people are sadhus, similarly Sadhvi Pragya also isn’t a sadhu.

The petitioner has requested the court to act against Akhtar under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code that deals with defamation. The hearing is scheduled for May 24.

Akhtar had earlier drawn ire from the right-wing Hindu extremists after he said that ghoonghats and burqas are the same so both should be banned. Responding to the demand for banning burqa in Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamna, Akhtar had said, “There is a controversy over the burqa. Iran is a hardliner Muslim country, but women don’t cover their faces there. A new law in Sri Lanka bars women from covering their faces. Whatever is your attire, the face should be visible.” Adding further, he said, “If someone wants this kind of law here, and if this is somebody’s opinion I don’t have any objection. But before the end of last phase of elections, the government must announce that no woman will be allowed to use ghoonghat in Rajasthan. Faces covered with the burqa or the ghoonghat, it’s the same. If both would be removed, I would be happy.”

Rajput Karni Sena, a Rajasthan-based organisation, issued death threats to Akhtar over these comments. Jivan Singh Solanki, president of the Maharashtra wing of the Karni Sena, published a video in which he is heard saying, “We will gouge out your eyes and pull out your tongue if you don’t apologise. We will enter your house and beat you.” Warning Akhtar of dire consequences if he doesn’t apologise, Solanki said, “The burqa is associated with terrorism and (is a question of) national security. We have asked Akhtar to render an apology within three days or face the consequences.”

Later, Akhtar clarified his statement by tweeting, “Some people are trying to distort my statement. I have said that may be in Sri Lanka it is done for security reasons but actually it is required for women empowerment. covering the face should be stopped whether naqab or ghoonghat.”

Akhtar showed neutrality by saying that Congress president Rahul Gandhi hadn’t done anything to prove that he is capable of becoming a prime minister. He then praised BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee but expressed discontent with PM Modi and called BJP president Amit Shah his “assistant.”

With every passing day, expressing dissent or speaking against the ruling government makes one appear as ‘anti-national.’ This is posing a severe threat on our constitutional freedom of speech and expression. Such judicial actions and threats by people close to the party affects the democratic structure and the foundation of our nation.

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Though Thakur had apologised for her comment on Karkare, the EC found them “unwarranted”. An FIR has also been filed against her under section 188 (disobedience to a public servant’s order) of the Indian Penal Code. “…the Commission has carefully gone through the contents and averments made in the aforesaid reply of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and found it provocative and also on religious lines that have the propensity of spreading hatred among various communities…,” the order read.

Karkare was leading the investigating team of the 2008 Malegaon Blast case in which Sadhvi Pragya is a key accused. She had said, “Maine kaha tha tera sarvanash hoga (I cursed and wished that he would be finished),” and, “An inauspicious period started for Hemant Karkare when I was arrested. Exactly 45 days later he was killed and that was the end of the inauspicious period.”  EC had served a notice for the same.

However, Sadhvi Pragya continued with her outrageous remarks. On April 20, Thakur had said, “Ram Mandir hum banayenge aur bhavya banayenge, hum todne gaye the dhancha, maine chadhkar toda tha dhancha, iss par mujhe bhayankar garv hai. Mujhe Ishwar ne shakti di thi humne desh ka kalank mitaya hai” (A grand Ram temple will be built. I had gone to demolish the structure and had climbed atop it to break the structure. I am tremendously proud of this. God gave me the strength to wipe off a blot on this country). EC then issued a second notice.

Though the EC has been praised for the ban, opposition parties are yet demanding for Sadhvi’s nomination to be cancelled owing to the severe criminal charges against her.

The Congress candidate from Bhopal, Digvijaya Singh, welcomed the order. “It is natural when the BJP fields (a person) accused of terrorism and those (who) indulge in the politics of communal hatred. It would be better that the nomination of such candidates was cancelled for safeguarding the ideals of democratic values,” he tweeted.

Thakur said she would appeal the decision. “I will abide by the law. Legal experts are looking into the EC decision. I will appeal against the same,” she said.

The ban has come into force from 06.00 am on Thursday morning.

Related Articles:

1. Election 2019: BJP’s fielding of Sadhvi Pragya advances their Hindutva agenda
2. Sadhvi Pragya says she was “proud” of Babri demolition, gets EC notice
3. PM Modi Defends Malegaon Blast Accused Sadhvi Pragya’s Candidature

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“Why should I regret over the demolition of the structure? I am proud of it. A few unwanted elements were trying to enter Lord Ram’s temple, we had to remove them. I am proud of it. This has awakened the self-respect of our country. We will construct the Ram temple,” Thakur said, per The Indian Express.

FirstPost noted that she said, “Ram Mandir hum banayenge aur bhavya banayenge, hum todne gaye the dhancha, maine chadhkar toda tha dhancha, iss par mujhe bhayankar garv hai. Mujhe Ishwar ne shakti di thi humne desh ka kalank mitaya hai (A grand Ram temple will be built. I had gone to demolish the structure and had climbed atop it to break the structure. I am tremendously proud of it. God gave me strength to wipe off a blot on this country).”

Per India Today, Thakur said, “The Congress has ruled for 70 years and look what it has done. Even our temples were not secure. By gathering and demolishing the structure of the Babri Masjid, the Hindus have awakened the self-respect of the country. Where will the Ram temple be constructed if not in this country?”

Sudham Khade, Bhopal’s District Election Officer (DEO) issued a notice to Thakur after her remarks, and asked for an explanation for her comments, the Hindustan Times reported. The notice stated, “The statement seems to be in violation of chapter 4 of the model code of conduct which states ‘No activity, which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different caste/communities/religious/linguistic groups, shall be attempted’.”

This was the second Election Commission notice that Thakur received. Previously, she received one after making comments targeting Hemant Karkare, who was slain during the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai. She alleged that the late ATS chief abused and tortured her, per News18. She said, “Maine kaha tha tera sarvanash hoga (I cursed him that he would be finished),” and, “Inauspicious period started for Hemant Karkare when I was arrested. Exactly 45 days later he was killed and that was the end of the inauspicious period,” News18 reported. 

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Image Courtesy: Manorama Online

Standing against Congress bigwig Digvijay Singh, Thakur is contesting from the same state in which she was arrested in 2008. The Bhopal seat has been held by the BJP since 1989. Her candidature comes in the wake of former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Uma Bharti, both declining to contest from the constituency.

Soon after the BJP’s official declaration of her candidature, Thakur made her intentions of advancing the Hindutva agenda very clear. One of the first statements from Thakur during her press conference was: “They (Opposition) insulted the Hindu dharma, the Sanatan dharma and Hindutva. They insulted the bhagwa (saffron) flag. It will be one of our major issues in the coming elections.”

The BJP’s fielding of Sadhvi Pragya establishes the centrality of the Hindutva agenda to their election campaign. 

The Malegaon Blasts and Thakur’s role

On 29 September 2008, around 9:30 in the night, a blast took place near a hotel in Bhikku Chowk in which more than ten people were killed and over 100 people, including several policemen, were injured. The bomb was reportedly planted in a motorcycle which was found near the site.

The Mumbai police had called it a terrorist attack and deployed the Anti-Terrorist Squad to assist in the investigation. 

The investigation, led by ATS Mumbai chief Hemant Karkare (who was later killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack at the Taj Hotel), made pioneering revelations linking terror attacks in the country to right-wing organisations. The team travelled to Pune, Nashik, Bhopal, and Indore, and three arrests were made. These included Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu. The bike that was used for the blast was traced to Pragya Thakur. Thakur, then 38, had been an ABVP activist before she turned to spiritualism. She took sanyas in 2007 and adopted the alias Purnachetananandagiri.  She went on to set up two organisations – the Jai Vande Mataram Janakalyan Samiti and the Rashtriya Janjagran Manch – in Indore.

At the time, the trio had been slapped with charges of murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds. They had also been booked under the Explosives Act. The remand application mentioned that among other evidence, the police had recorded telephone conversations of up to 400 minutes between Pragya and her co-accused after the blast.

Material seized during searches showed that the militants responsible for the attack were part of a Hindutva outfit called Abhinav Bharat, run by Sameer Kulkarni. Army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay were also arrested. The role of a self-proclaimed seer named Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey also emerged.

Endorsement by the Hindutva Front

In October 2008, the Shiv Sena published an editorial proclaiming that the sadhvi was being falsely framed.

Soon after, one by one, leaders from Hindutva groups started coming out in support of the sadhvi and other co-accused. Some also felt, however, that this support was not as full-throated as was necessary. Fellow sadhvi Uma Bharti Party expressed shock that the BJP and the broader Sangh Parivar were “disowning” the sadhvi. “When they wanted, they used her,” she said.

As the political wrangling developed, the Hindu Mahasabha decided to provide legal aid to the suspects from Pune – Upadhyay and Kulkarni. The national president of the Mahasabha, Himani Savarkar, also based in Pune, confirmed this.

The broader network of Hindutva organisations soon flocked together. Endorsing the Shiv Sena’s announcement of extending legal aid to Malegaon blast suspects, BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javedkar said, “For that matter, even RSS has promised help. It is not wrong for private funds to be utilised for helping someone. It is everyone’s right.” He added that the party’s stand had been the same from day one – that no one should be discriminated on the basis of religion, caste or sex.

The same day, L. K. Advani, the then BJP Chief, alleged that the majority community had been linked to terrorism to woo the minorities. He also said, “It has become clear that the ATS is acting in a politically motivated and unprofessional manner. After going through her (Thakur’s) affidavit, I have to express my shock and outrage, which I am sure all Indians will share. In view of the shocking charges made against the sadhvi by the ATS, and the fact that the present investigating team has lost all moral authority, I demand a change in the present ATS team and that a judicial inquiry be ordered to probe the charges made by Sadhvi Pragya and the manner in which unsubstantiated allegations have been made against army personnel.” 

Pragya Thakur, along with Lt Col Prasad Purohit, were also linked with the Samjhauta Express attack after it was established that the suitcase bombs, which had blown up two bogies of the Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express train in February the previous year, had been assembled in Indore.
In December 2010, the CBI arrested Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Aseemanand, who confessed before a magistrate that the Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008 were carried out by radical Hindu groups as “revenge against jihadi terrorism”. He said that the plan to target Muslims was hatched by a group led by former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. He said the group was behind the Samjhauta Express, Ajmer Dargah and Mecca Masjid blasts of 2007. Aseemanand subsequently retracted his statement and has now been acquitted of all charges.

The Indian Express reported that in 2011, the Home Ministry handed the case over the case to the NIA and filed a chargesheet in 2016. The chargesheet exonerated Pragya Singh Thakur and prosecuted Col Purohit, but with the caveat that the evidence was weak. It dropped charges under MCOCA against all accused and described Karkare’s investigation as fudged.

The bike, the NIA said in its charge sheet, was in Thakur’s name, but was being used by someone else for two years prior to the blast, the NIA claimed, citing witnesses.

The agency also said not a single statement had been recorded in front of a magistrate (under Section 164 CrPC) saying she was part of the conspiracy meetings. All witness statements had been recorded under MCOCA before a police officer — and given the agency had dropped MCOCA, these statements had lost evidentiary value, it said.

In May 2017, however, two key witnesses, who had made incriminating statements against Thakur to the ATS, changed their statements after the NIA re-examined them. Three others had also implicated her, but of them, one had died, one was said to be “missing”, and the third had already retracted his statement earlier.

Jyoti Punwani in her report for the Scroll argued, “It is not clear why the National Investigative Agency, which took over the case in 2011, suddenly decided in late 2015 to re-examine witnesses. According to media reports, the central agency was all set to file a charge sheet in the case in 2014 when Narendra Modi’s government was voted in at the Centre. The investigation was then reportedly handed over to another officer.”

In 2017, “RIP Indian justice” was trending on social media when Pragya Thakur got bail. She was granted bail following the dropping of charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court citing medical reasons.

Addressing a press conference after her bail, she accused the Congress-led UPA government of hatching a “conspiracy” resulting in her nine-year “ordeal”. “It (the conspiracy) was (meant) to endorse the bogey of saffron terrorism, a term coined by P Chidambaram (former home minister). I am innocent,” Sadhvi told reporters.

This was the first time Thakur was granted bail since her arrest in October 2008. Immediately after her arrest, she had applied for bail under normal bail provisions only to have her application turned down. The bail plea was rejected both by the trial court and the High Court in 2012 and 2014 respectively and finally once again in November 2015. This repeated denial of bail indicated the grave implications of the charges against her.

Following the charge sheet, Thakur was granted bail by the NIA special court. However, it did not accept Thakur’s exoneration and ordered in December 2017 that both Purohit and Thakur would face trial under the UAPA.

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is currently facing trial for terror charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act: Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) and under the IPC for murder, criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between communities.
The fielding of such a person, with such a catalogue of grave charges against her apart from a long background of vicious communal activism, sends a clear signal yet again to the electorate that Hindutva is the main plank for the BJP in the current Lok Sabha elections.   

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

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