Azad
Saffron: The colour of sacrifice, spirituality and saints. If there is a color which symbolizes all aspects of Hinduism, it’s saffron – the color of Agni, which reflects the Supreme. It has been representing Bharat, its people and there values since time immemorial. Till recently before we acquired ‘Tricolor’ as our national flag, saffron represented India’s national color. It was an important tool for Poets and writers in awakening of nation against foreign rule with songs like “मेरा रंग दे बसंती चोला“! (How saffron came into being)
There are not many takers yet but there will be soon. As the govt. seems to be in an overdrive to prove its secular credentials by trying to show that it will take ‘Hindu Terror’ as seriously as it has taken ‘Islamic Terror’! If i let aside the fact that the basis of this ‘Saffron Terror’, Malegaon blasts, are not yet solved and why to talk about getting them solved when even after 18 months ATS is not even able to file a mere chargesheet against the accused who are rotting in custody, there is not a shred of evidence linking terror to entire Hindu Dharma. No Hindu organisation, political party or individual has come up and supported the cause. Then how and why is the term ‘Saffron terror’ so much into vogue by the TRP hungry media channels. The basic difference between Saffron Terror and Islamic terror is, whenever their is an incidence of mass terror, one or the other organisations like LeT, Al Quaida or Hijbul comes up and takes the responsibility claiming that it was done to save Islam.Past two years have been all about maligning ‘Saffron’ with all means possible. People who time and again protested against association of a particular color with terrorism have been the front-runners in promoting this new born concept. Just because Green was so long associated with ‘Islamic Terrorism’, the origination of ‘Saffron terror’ has become a cause of celebration among such people. Last days, parliament had to be adjourned twice because our Home Minister made remarks about so called ‘Saffron Terror’ .
Late Hemant Karkare said just a few hour ago of embracing martyrdom that 90% of ATS had been involved in seeing through the Malegaon Bomb blasts. What about the other blasts? Why such Pin-pointing? If Abhinav Bharat is a shady organisatio, it should be banned-no questions asked. Similarly, if Jehadi terror is gripping the country, it should be dealt with severely. Just because you can’t deal with the Jehadi monster does not mean that you will create a new terror and pretend to fight it.
If we take a small detour and look at the Sohrabuddin case. He was a famed gangster who had more than 2 dozen police cases against him, had the honour to work by the side of great Dawood Ibrahim and was jailed due to anti-India activities. In a 1994 case investigated by the Ahmedabad crime branch, he was co-accused along with Dawood Ibrahim and convicted for five years, for waging war against the Government of India, planning an attack on the Jagannath rath yatra in Orissa, and other offences under the IPC, Arms Act, etc. During the investigation, 24 AK-56 rifles, 27 hand grenades, 5250 cartridges, 81 magazines and more were seized from his family home in Madhya Pradesh. In 2004, a fourth crime was registered against him by Chandgad police station of Kolhapur district in Maharashtra under sections 302, 120 (b), and 25 (1) (3) of the Arms Act, for the killing of Gopal Tukaram Badivadekar. As fear of him often silenced people from reporting his whereabouts, let alone deposing against him, the Rajasthan government had to announce a reward on his head after he killed Hamid Lata in broad daylight in the heart of Udaipur, on December 31, 2004. So much for Sohrabuddin’s innocence.(Indian Express). Despite the facts in hand, enlightened people stand against his encounter. I for one feel that such people should be killed and not given a chance to repeat their mistakes but lets see what supreme court of India thinks. jurisprudential principles of salus populi est suprema lex (the people’s welfare is the supreme law) and salus res publica est suprema lex (the safety of the nation is supreme law). Even the Supreme Court of India, in the case of D.K. Basu vs. State of West Bengal [1997 (1) SCC 416] accepted the validity of these two principles and characterised them as “not only important and relevant, but lying at the heart of the doctrine that welfare of an individual must yield to that of the community.”
Nonetheless, the question asked by Ajit Kumar of Indian express is, while the govt. pursues Sohrabuddin’s case so doggedly, has it seriously done anything to stop fake encounters in the country? They have been going on and will continue to go on if things remain the same.
Between 2000 and 2007 there have been 712 cases of police encounters in the country with UP topping the list at 324, and Gujarat figuring almost at the bottom with 17.
And many of them have not so much as of a police record to their name. Using CBI and other govt. agencies for vindicating one’s opponents is not only bad politics it is destructive politics as well. It has been conveyed to people that Sohrabuddin was targeted because he belonged to a particular community. It has misled the nation and confused it even more. More and more muslims feel alienated and Hindus feel guilty. It is very little known fact that many of Sohrabuddin’s victims were Muslims and his close aides were Hindus, namely, Tulsidas Prajapati, who was killed in a similar encounter. So why this projection that minorities are targeted?
If a name comes up we need to swiftly collect evidence and try the accused. Our judicial system should be strong enough so that nobody could escape unscathed. What is happening here is, if people/opposition or other groups are trying to pressurize the govt. to hang terrorists like ‘Afzal Guru’, govt. mechanism is creating another pseudo-monster to rationalize its claim of not prosecuting the former. This is Insane and will lead the nation to a further mess. If not today but in future i can see many young boys getting radicalized. 80% of India is Hindu and are peace loving by nature. Can we risk radicalizing this mass just to rationalize and in turn trying to neutralize genuine anguish?
How can the govt. cover it’s mistakes by committing another ghastly mistake? Let us not destroy national pride by maligning national symbols of reckoning like ‘Saffron’ and ‘Vande Matram’ or even Vishwanathan Anand. This is the least we can do.
