What Samjhauta blast acquittals mean for ‘saffron terror bogey’ in election season

BJP and RSS have every reason to feel vindicated by NIA special court's verdict acquitting Swami Aseemanand in Samjhauta Express blast case.

File photo of Aseemanand being escorted by police personnel | PTI

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Haryana has acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case, twelve years after the terror incident killed 68 people, most of whom were Pakistani nationals, and injured many others.

The acquittal of all four accused in the Samjhauta blast case puts to rest the devious and dangerous propaganda advanced by the Congress party — that there is something called a “saffron terror”. It unabashedly indulged in propagating the narrative of “saffron terror”, and by extension vilified the entire Hindu community as adherents of a terrorist ideology.

The gradual build-up by the Congress leaders since 2004-2005 that terror activities by those professing to be part of Hindu religious and social organisations were pre-planned as a retribution for the so-called Islamic terror was a clever political ploy to substitute the party’s inaction in addressing the feeling of disenchantment among ordinary Muslims. The Congress’s campaign reached its height in 2013, when addressing party workers in Jaipur, then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of supporting organisations that were involved in “Hindu terrorism”.

But the Congress’ campaign didn’t find support then, badly hitting the party like a boomerang in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and nor could the NIA verdict possibly help it now, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which is less than three weeks away.

The BJP and the RSS have every reason to feel vindicated. The NIA special court’s latest verdict, coming less than a year after the acquittal of all five suspects, including Aseemanand, in the Mecca Masjid blast case that killed nine Muslims attending Friday prayers in Hyderabad, reaffirms the stand that acts of a few individuals cannot be held against the entire society or the community, no matter what the religion or organisation the perpetrators belong to. Giving a colour to an act of terror was as wrong as any wrong could get and goes contrary to the much touted and clichéd adage that terror has no religion.

So why did the Congress pick what could only be described as a losing cause?

In the stunning victory of the BJP in 2014, the Congress had lost considerable political support it had until then enjoyed among the Muslims, especially in the Hindi heartland. The Muslim vote bank shifted to the regional parties, which had the benefit of pandering to local and caste identities. Worried about this slow, but always on the rise, trend, the Congress realised it had to work out a strategy to win back the minority segment. And thus came the Congress’ two-pronged strategy — join the chorus of minority appeasement and create a parallel narrative to the unfortunate but nevertheless strong “Islamic terrorism”.

While there are many parties about which it could be said that they took the minority appeasement route, it is only the Congress that went on to acquire the dubious distinction of introducing the “Hindu terrorism” narrative into India’s recent political and social system, damaging the secular fabric of the country.

Although ordinary Muslims as well as the educated social leaders refused to bite the Congress’ bait, the deep polarisation resulted in an undercurrent of hurt Hindu sentiment, which went against the Congress in the ensuing elections.

Over the years, the Congress tried to steal a page from the BJP’s poll book and went on a temple-hopping spree. The party strategists expected to dent the Hindu vote bank of the BJP by donning ‘saffron friendly image’.

The NIA verdict has once again brought the entire shenanigan of “Hindu terror” by the Congress party to the centre stage of political campaign. No amount of temple hopping, Brahmin DNA, boat rides in the holy Ganga and flaunting of rudraksh will camouflage the sin of floating the “saffron terror” narrative for over a decade.

The questions that the two national parties, the BJP and the congress, have to answer are these: if terror has no religion, will the Congress apologise for introducing this element of ‘Hindu terror’ in the national discourse? Will the BJP refrain from politicising the NIA court verdict?

There is an urgent need to go beyond the judicial aspect and pass political judgements. The issue is of greater security and strategic importance impinging on our relationship with Pakistan and, more importantly, people to people relationship.

In election season, restraint, logic and moderation are usually early casualties.

The author is the former editor of ‘Organiser’.