Was ‘Saffron Terror’ coined by the Congress to appease Pakistan and denigrate India?

Ashali Varma

The recent acquittal of all five accused in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast in Hyderabad, 11 years ago, together with the Ishrat Jahan case and others depicts a devious commitment by the ruling Congress Party to foment a theory of Hindu Terror.

The bomb blasts happened under the Congress rule and the case was probed by the Hussaini Alam police for the first two months. The police probe suspected Bangladesh based Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HUJI) and caught five suspects who were given narco tests at the Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital where they confessed to have carried out the terror strike with RDX supplied by associates from Bangladesh, according to an article in the Times of India on 17th April. That should have been enough to implicate them along with the physical evidence.

However, the case takes a curious turn, when the Central government under the Congress rule hands it over to the CBI. Then quite unexpectedly, without much evidence, four year later the suspects change from HUJI terrorists to so called Hindu activists. They are tortured and made to confess and the probe takes another aspect from HUJI terrorists to Hindu Terror. The home secretary at that time said that there was no evidence against the five people. Even a source from the NIA said as much.

Why would the Congress perpetuate in case after case the element of Hindu terror and then make a solid argument for it in the world media?

They did it in Ishrat Jahan Case; the Batla House case where a senior police officer was gunned down by terrorists but they claimed it was a fake encounter. Sonia Gandhi according to her minister Salman Kurshid cried for three days non-stop for terrorists who had been killed but did not shed a tear for the courageous senior police officer who was gunned down by the terrorists when he entered their hideout!

The Congress even muddied the waters in the Samjhauta Express blasts. Though US intelligence had evidence it was a Lakshar-e-Toiba operation and that Arif Qasmani from LeT was involved in the attack, the Congress ministers again blamed Hindu terror, which the Pakistanis picked up gleefully and are still bringing it up when anyone askes them why Hafiz Saeed the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai blast has not been locked up yet. Why did they need to give Pakistan’s terror outfits oxygen and make Hindus look like terrorists?

 

It gets even worse as not only the Congress Party but even its partners were into deception.

On 11 July 2006, the chief minister of Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar admitted, on record, that he had “deliberately misled” people following the 1993 Mumbai blasts by saying there were “12 and not 11” explosions, adding the name of a Muslim-dominated locality to show that people from both communities had been affected. He tried to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots by falsely portraying that both Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been affected adversely. He also admits to lying about evidence recovered and misleading people into believing that some of it pointed to the Tamil Tigers as possible suspects. Sources say that he was trying to distance himself from the Dawood connection as the Don had many politicians in his payroll.

Ashish Kulkarni, an aide to Rahul Gandhi and one of his election managers resigned a year ago. In his resignation letter, he cited the reasons: The Congress party was seen to be siding with the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir; the party was veering to the far left; it was also perceived to be anti-Hindu; the party catered to outright nepotism and was seen as elitist; finally, there was too much minority appeasement.

But the whole effort in ten years of Congress rule was to shift the blame from Pakistani terrorists to Hindu. Why? What did they have to gain from this except to tar the image of ordinary Hindus and even pervert justice from Muslims living in India—to Divide and Rule as the British had done.

On April 17th 2018, in a press conference by the BJP, replying to the Congress take on the Hyderabad case judgement, Sambit Patra made a point by point rebuttal on what Rahul and his Congress cronies had to say. Caught on the wrong foot on the Hindu Terror angle, the Congress spokesman went on TV to challenge the BJP that no one in the Congress Party had ever said anything about Hindu Terror.

But the BJP had proof in the form of a telegram released by Wikileaks. The telegram was sent by US Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, to the US State Department on the 3rd of August 2009 and signed by him. In the telegram, which the BJP showed to the media, Roemer writes about a lunch given in the honour of the visiting Secretary of State by then PM Manmohan Singh on 20th July 2009.

 

Note this was said just nine months after LeT had attacked Mumbai on the 26th 0f November 2008. In the telegram, the Ambassador, observed that Gandhi was referring to tensions created by polarizing figures in the BJP, such as the Gujarat CM Modi. At the time there was no such tension in India and Modi’s firm grip on security in Gujarat had seen to it that no riots occurred.

The strange truth is that both Sonia and Rahul have been persistently playing the Hindu Terror card and make it a point to speak about it to visiting dignitaries. A well-known journalist even wrote about the time President Obama visited India soon after PM Modi was elected and at the President’s dinner Sonia was seated next to Obama. She is alleged to have spoken to him about how India was becoming an intolerant country! The next day Obama gave a speech on how India should remain tolerant.

In a video shown with clips from major TV Channels, the BJP at the press conference proved that Sushil Kumar Shinde, Chidambaram, Digvijay Singh and other ministers of the Congress government had consistently spoken about Hindu Terror and even coined the word Saffron Terror. This when India had faced multiple terror attacks from Pakistani based modules, many under the Congress rule. Note that the LeT was formed in 1987 with funding from Osama bin Laden!

But the Congress thinks that India faces more threats from Hindus. This visceral dislike for 80 percent of India’s population from a party that ruled India for around 50 years is shameful. Worse still the propaganda has spread worldwide and now there are TV channels and newspapers around the world who have picked up on this theme. It seems this family and party are not satisfied by just looting India—they actually want to bring a 5000-year-old, inclusive civilization down.

 

(Ms Ashali Varma is a journalist and writes regularly for overseas periodicals)