Sadhvi Pragya was arrested by Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on the early hours of October 11. It was not before November 5 that she was produced in court. This amounts to criminal intimidation and abduction, which unfortunately in this case is being carried out by a law enforcement agency. Since the day of her arrest, the Mumbai ATS has by action and deed turned into ?Sonia Terrorist Squad? and the target of this ?secular? squad and its Italy born political master is once again a saffron saint, another guardian of Indian culture and values.
The targeting of Hindu faith and its icons is not a new story. Through western media, mass propaganda and recently through the misuse of law enforcement agencies, from Ram Janmabhoomi to Swami Jayendra Saraswati and from Ram Sethu to Sadhvi, the pro-church and pro-West forces have time and again tested the patience of the humble Hindus. The formula is the age-old phenomenon used widely for conversions, a lie said loudly and repetitively can shadow the truth for some time, and the patience in born in Hindus is an added advantage, a guarantee that these forces will get away with it once again.
So, first it was Swami Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi, then the big and shameful cover up of burning Hindus alive in Godhra calling it an ?accident? and maligning the image of the entire Hindu society through money lusting NGO'sin Gujarat. Next came the biggest lie of the century, filed as an affidavit in the highest court. The affidavit said that Shri Ram was a myth and He in fact never existed. So it was not a surprise when just before the country went in for elections in six major states with the general elections soon to follow, the foreign originated rulers unleashed a new form of terrorism?targeting Hindu icons and the network of pro-Hindu organisations in the name of counter terrorism.
It is a tragedy that in a nation of more than 800 million Hindus, few would understand the irony of the threat and heat faced by those aggressively combating for its existence. Why else would the modus operandi of the Mumbai ATS go unquestioned by the media, authorities and courts alike? As per law and special powers awarded to ATS in the country, arrests can be made from any part of the country without informing the local authorities, but in such a case the arrested should be produced in any court of law within 24 hours. This norm has been largely violated and abused by the ATS in its recent operations in Madhya Pradesh. Anil Kumar, the Inspector General of Police for Indore Zone confirmed on phone that he had no information of the arrests made by the ATS and the whereabouts of those arrested in his area. Similar was the case in Jabalpur and Bhopal. However, the truth is that various members of pro-Hindu social organisations went missing overnight.
In Indore, Dilip Nahar, Dharmendra Bairagi and Ramji Kalsangra were picked up by the ATS at gunpoint. The local authorities were not informed and neither were they produced in any court of law anywhere in the country. It was on the night of October 16 that the Mumbai ATS tortured Shivnarayan, accused by ATS in the Malegaon case to call up Dilip Nagar for help. When Dilip rushed to the spot, he was picked up at gunpoint by men who were not in uniform. Earlier Dharmendra Bairagi was also harassed and picked up in a similar fashion in Dewas. Both Dilip and Dharmendra were kept in unlawful custody and tortured to their limits. It was only when Dilip'sfather filed a complaint of illegal abduction against the Mumbai ATS in Lasudia police station in Indore that the Mumbai ATS released Dilip and Dharmendra from their custody. Both have sustained injuries and their bodies bears marks of 18 days of physical torture. The family of Ramji Lal has also accused the ATS of kidnapping him, and till date have no idea of his place of illegal detention.
Sudhakar Chaturvedi, the organising general secretary of Abhinav Bharat was illegally detained for several days by the ATS, and his arrest came to light when ATS forced him to call Mayaram Jeswani, an office bearer of Abhinav Bharat to Jabalpur railway station. Mayaram could not make it and instead Raju Rai, another office bearer of Abhinav Bharat was illegally detained by the ATS, taken to an undisclosed location and harassed and tortured, before being released with threats of a ?direct encounter? if he opened his mouth to the media. There are also media reports of the Sadhvi being severely tortured earlier and her being admitted to a private nursing home in Mumbai with grave injuries. In Indore, The ATS also broke opened the locked house of Shivnarayan in the absence of his family and left behind a ransacked house. Even after being awarded judicial custody and being sent to jail, Sadhvi'sfamily was denied a meeting with her and repetitively harassed when they went to meet her in a Mumbai prison. The list of law violations and terror tactics of the Mumbai ATS is endless.
So the current incidents appear to be only the beginning of a larger plot to ban nationalist organisations just before elections paralysing their ideology, so that in the event of an imminent defeat, they can easily head the Emergency way as in 1975. What they are yet to realise is that they have largely mistaken the tolerance of the Hindus to be their cowardice just as they also underestimated this nation'slove for its democracy. Such attempts of annihilating the Hindus and democracy will only result in the final end of those who plan it.
(The writer can be contacted at vermasangeet@rediffmail.com)
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