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The Mecca Masjid verdict on April 16,2018 that exonerated the so called face of ‘Hindu terror’, Swami Aseemanand, with four other accused — came as a shock for Congress under whose rule the term ‘Saffron Terror’ was coined to target and humiliate the people having pride on the cultural ethos of the nation. There is no doubt that this term was constructed for political gains and to rationalize the terrorism by extremist left groups and radical Islamic groups. A former official RVS Mani told the media that Home Minister (P. Chidambaram) was involved in changing the files… To hide the truth, to change the truth and to change whatever was already submitted in the court through an affidavit, this is what Chidambaram and others in the Congress dispensation were doing just in order to prove saffron terror. It is time that Congress and its leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi must apologise to the nation.
BJP National President Amit Shah on April 21, 2018 has rightly held Congress president Rahul Gandhi responsible over the party’s attempts to “defame” Hindus in terror cases. Amit Shah has asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to apologise for remarks made by Congress leaders over saffron terrorism. “I want to ask Rahul ‘Baba’, your leaders have talked about saffron terrorism…you need to apologise…decide how low you can stoop”, he said. Rahul Gandhi must apologise to Hindus for labeling them “terrorists”, he said on 18 April 2018 while slamming the Congress president for “indulging in communal and vote bank politics.”
Speaking at a function in Bengaluru Shri Shah said, “In pursuit of vote bank politics, the Congress popularised the phrase ‘Hindu Terror’ and tried to implicate some Hindu activists in the Meccas Masjid blast case in Hyderabad over a decade ago.” He went on to say that “Now an NIA court has acquitted them.”
The National Investigation Agency or NIA court in Hyderabad acquitted all five “Hindu activists” on 16 April 2018. This included Swamy Aseemanand who was accused of triggering a bomb blast in the mosque that killed nine worshipers near the iconic Charminar in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007.
Shri Shah also alleged that “The Congress also tried to substantiate its charge by foisting false cases against Hindus and pressuring investigating agencies to implicate them in the blast case.”
“Congress leaders, including P. Chidambaram, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Digvijay Singh carried out ‘Hindu Terror’ campaigns and tried to defame Hindus both within, and outside the country in order to appease a section of society,” he said.
He went on to say that the court verdict which acquitted all the accused, “exposed the Congress party and its leaders.” He went on to say that “If the Congress does not apologise even now, then people will definitely punish them.”
Elaborating his statement, Shri Shah said “The people of Karnataka are waiting to punish the Congress in the May 12 state assembly elections.”
Speaking about Rahul Gandhi in the context of the Hyderabad blasts, Shri Shah recalled a conversation in which Rahul Gandhi told then US envoy Timothy Roemer in 2009 that “Hindu Terror” was something to be more worried about than even Pakistan’s terror outfit Laskar-e-Taiba. Rahul Gandhi had made this remark to the US envoy nearly a year after LeT had carried out the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
Mr Roemer mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s remark in his report to the US State Department on August 3, 2009.
Furthering his attack on the Congress, Shri Shah said, “Anti-national criminals have had a free run in Karnataka as the ruling Congress regime was soft on them. As many as 24 Hindu activists were allegedly killed in the state over the last two years, but none had been brought to book.”
It is to be noted that all five accused in Mecca Masjid blast case acquitted. A decade after a bomb blast killed nine worshippers at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, a NIA court on April 16, 2018 acquitted all the five accused Hindu activists who stood trial. Out of a total of 10 accused named in the case, only five faced trial, as one died while the others are still absconding. Hindu activists Nabakumar Sarkar (alias Swamy Aseemanand), Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar (alias Bharat Bhai), and Rajender Chowdhary, against whom the charges were framed, were all acquitted.
Congress coined the term, “Saffron Terrorism”
Though today the Congress denies ever coining terms like ‘saffron’ or ‘Hindu’ terror saying it was of firm belief that terror cannot be linked to any religion or community, and made it clear its leader Rahul Gandhi or the party never used such phrase. But if the facts are to be taken into account, top Congress leaders have many times used this term to target Hindus in particular and people of the country in general.
The then Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Jan 20, 2013 said, “BJP and the RSS were behind the blasts aboard the Pakistan-bound Samjhauta Express, in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid and the Malegaon mosque in Maharashtra. But they blamed the minority community for the crime.” He had claimed that BJP and RSS were promoting “Hindu terrorism”, and had received backing from the party.
On Aug 25, 2010 the then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Aug 25, 2010 cautioned the chiefs of State police forces, security and intelligence officials against continuing attempts to infiltrate militants into India as well as the recently uncovered phenomenon of “Saffron Terrorism”.
According to a cable by U.S ambassador to India Timothy Roemer which was released by Wikileaks Dec 17, 2010 Rahul Gandhi feels that “the bigger threat (to India) may be the growth of radicalized Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community.” Mr Roemer mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s remark in his report to the US State Department on August 3, 2009.
In 2013, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, while addressing a Congress ‘Mahasammelan’ at Kukshi about 110 kilometres from Dhar, had said: “I have no hesitation in saying that all Hindu terrorists who have been caught have links with the RSS but it must be explained as to why all of them had links with the outfit.”
The Congress and its allies should understand that for political gains the image of this great nation cannot be tarnished and values and ethos of national culture and civilization cannot be undermined. It was a criminal act to implicate and torture so many innocent people at the altar of manufacturing the myth of ‘Saffron Terror’, which has now backfired with the acquittal of all the innocents. As the myth of ‘Saffron Terror’ or ‘Hindu Terror’ stands exposed, the Congress must immediately apologise.