“I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, / tolerance, but we accept all religions as / to be true. I am proud to tell you that I belong to a religion in whose sacred language, the Sanskrit, the word exclusion is untranslatable. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.
—Swami Vivekananda Vivekananda in his opening Speech at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, on September 11, 1893, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 9, pp. 429-430
After 17 years, finally, the truth has prevailed with the acquittal of Sadhvi Pragya, Col Purohit and others in the Malegaon blast of 2008. On July 30, Union Home Minister Amit Shah boldly declared on the floor of the Parliament, while participating in the debate on Operation Sindoor, that a Hindu cannot be a terrorist. The NIA court verdict has further ratified the known truth. While revisiting the entire secular drama of concocting the ‘Hindu Terror’ myth, what we need to analyse is the reason behind such a sinister plot and the reason why Hindutva (Hinduness) and Terrorism cannot go together.
Malegaon did not experience bomb blasts for the first time in 2008. The Muslim majority town, which has been communally sensitive and known for violence, had experienced a series of blasts in 2006 as well. In fact, from 2004 to 2008, terror attacks rocked 17 cities of Bharat, sponsored mainly by Pakistan, under the Sonia-Gandhi-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. Especially from July 2005 Jaipur train bombings till the Mumbai terror attack of 26/11, there were a series of incidents pointing fingers towards the problem of Islamic radicalism and Jihadi networks working at the behest of Pakistan. Some retributive action was expected against terrorists and their sponsors across the nation. Instead of strengthening the intelligence, diplomatic and military options, the UPA Government chose to find a new political narrative called ‘Hindu Terror’. According to RVS Mani’s account from his experience in the Home Ministry, since the Nanded case in May 2006, a systematic attempt was made to build this theory. The playbook, Sharad Pawar had tried in the 1993 Mumbai Serial blasts by planting a theory of a thirteenth bomb in a Muslim majority area, when the actual bombs took place at twelve locations. Through this deadly policy option, the Congress-led Government did debauchery in multiple ways.
Congress tried to sort out the political opposition, including the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, State Home Minister Amit Shah and then Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath. In a democracy, you have every right to fight elections in the court of the people. Instead, the Congress Party and its Communist allies preferred to use investigative agencies to frame opposition leaders, which is nothing but the murder of democracy.
In all these terror attacks, many innocent people lost their lives. The preliminary investigations found links with the organisation, such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) or related sleeper cells. However, with the sudden onset of political interference, the direction of the investigation in the Malegaon, Samjhauta, and Ajmer Blasts, etc., was directed towards the Hindu nationalist organisations and leaders. People were tortured without following due process of law, an upright officer was demonised, a Sadhvi was given a barbaric treatment, and the entire Hindu society was targeted to prove the fake idea of secularism. The basic principles of justice were compromised, human rights to the accused were denied, and the victims of terrorism were betrayed with a flawed investigation.
The biggest delinquency in this entire process is jeopardising national security. The core issue was mitigating terrorism and not finding the religious colour of the same. Globally, it is a known fact that more than fifty major terror organisations were killing people or indulging in what they believed to be ‘Jihad’ in the name of Islamic Radicalism. The fraudulent conception of secularism finds this politically incorrect, while linking Hindu Dharma to terrorism and proclaiming it as a greater threat than radicalism or Maoism is considered a great moral position.
The ideology of terrorism is rooted in the idea of religious supremacy and violence as a justified means to create terror in the minds of ordinary people to attain political objectives. As Swami Vivekananda articulated in his Chicago speech, Hindu thought and civilisational practice accept and respect all ways to be true and therefore go beyond the negative connotation of just tolerance. Naturally, the idea of killing someone on religious grounds is non-Hindu. Ahimsa or non-violence is considered virtuous in all Indic faiths, and violence is permitted only for the protection of Dharma–the righteousness from Adharma. People like Col Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya who stood by all the torture and like a true Hindu resisted Adharma to establish the truth.
Giving a clean chit to Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terrorism and framing Hindus in the terror bracket are two sides of the same strategy that has communalised the polity and jeopardised national security. Prioritising Palestine over Pahalgam is also part of the same psyche, keeping the vote-bank considerations over the national interests. Unfortunately, even in opposition, Congress and allies are continuing the same strategy of strengthening the enemy position at the cost of national interest, as witnessed during the discussion on Operation Sindoor.
The acquittal of all accused in the Malegaon Blast 2008 case, including Col Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya, has thoroughly debunked the Hindu terror theory of the secularists. Now, Hindu civilisation based on the idea of acceptance and respect for all ways of worship, cannot opt for terrorism as an ideology should be our national consensus. Any attempt to demonise and demean the oldest living civilisation on earth should be considered Adharma. Victory will be there, where Dharma is!
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