Hindutva’s Fake And Real Conspiracies

The arrests of Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha, human rights activists and lawyers on August 28, 2018, by the Pune police reiterates the fact that ‘Divide and rule’ is the mantra of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to coming back to power in 2019. The Pune police which was unsuccessful in getting to the assassins of rationalist, Narendra Dabholkar in Pune for five years, are not interested in Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and confessed to have shot Dabholkar on August 20, 2013. However, the Pune police based on an FIR filed by Tushar Damgude, a close associate of Sambhaji Bhide, plunged into the mission of arresting the activists, quickly labelling them “Urban Naxals.”

The human rights activists were arrested alleging that they made provocative speeches in Elgar Parishad, an event held in the eve of Bhima Koregaon which in turn instigated the violence on January 1, 2018. Anita Savale had filed an FIR accusing Bhide, the chief of Shiv Pratishthan, and Milind Ekbote, the chief of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), alleging that she saw pre-planned violent attacks by weapon-wielding mobs against those travelling to Bhima Koregaon. The FIR was filed for offences under Sections 307, 143, 147, 148, 149, 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, Sections 435 and 436 of the Arms Act; Section 4(25) the Bombay Police Act; Sections 3(2)(V) and 3(1)(10) of the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled tribes Act.

Also Read: Sanatan Sanstha Remains Untouched

Ekbote has been arrested while Bhide roams free across the state spreading his communal discourses. The newsrooms are no longer interested in the arrests made by the ATS- Vaibhav Raut and Sharad Kalaskar of Sanatan Sanstha (SS), Sudhanva Gondhalekar and Avinash Pawar of Sri Shiv Pratishthan, and a former Shiv Sena corporator, Shrikant Pangarkar, who were arrested by the ATS for procurement of explosives and arms. The chilling revelations about the SS’s terrorist activists by the Karnataka Special Investigation Team (SIT) is also no longer to be seen discussed.

The BJP government, which functions on the tunes of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is desperate to come back to power in 2019 and is bent upon realising the goal of Hindu Rashtra. The SS, a Hindutva terrorist organisation, was established by Jayant Balaji Athavale in 1995 with an aim to establish a Hindu Rashtra. Sanatan Prabhat, a publication of SS, in its June 9 third edition, published a time table for the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra. According to this time table, the years between 1999 and 2012 were meant to prepare people’s mind for the elimination of durjan (anti-hindutva voices) and during 2013-15, a physical, psychological and spiritual battle was to be waged against these evil people. The Third World War, as the SS visualises it, will take place between 2016 and 2018 followed by training for the functioning of a “divine kingdom” from 2019-2022. Finally in 2023, according to this time table, the Hindu Rashtra will be established.

Also Read: Hindutva Terrorists Roam Free and Human Rights Activists Jailed: Story of Modi’s Bharat

RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, HJS, SS, and other hundreds of hindutva organisations affiliated to these organisations pledged to establish Hindu Rashtra. They claim to be not related, but investigations time and again have shown that all of these Hindutva organisations are connected and function symbiotically. For example, Gondhalekar, who was arrested by the ATS for hoarding arms, is a member of the Shiv Pratishthan and was also seen attending SS events. Determined to shield all the Hindutva organisations in the country, the BJP is creating a narrative of a conspiracy against them.

The actual conspiracy

If the ATS has brought a conspiracy of SS, along with other Hindutva organisation to kill people to establish Hindu Rashtra, to light; the arrests of the activists by the police with no evidence has brought a conspiracy of the BJP into light.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the murder of Dr. Dabholkar, e-mails traced to the computer at the residence of one of the arrested, Virendra Tawde, speak of building an army of 15,000 members. Tawde is a member of the HJS and SS. The SS also claims that a section of police officers, 5 per cent, are members of the SS. This means, the SS has a defence mechanism in place. The Pune police, which has so far shown no interest in investigating SS in the case of assassination of Dr. Dabholkar and has remained far from Sambhaji Bhide, is facilitating the witch hunt of the activists and intellectuals in the country by the ruling BJP government to divert attention from the Hindutva conspiracy of SS and other Hindutva organisations, and its failures.

The ATS has recovered unprecedented amount of explosives and arms hoarded in residences of the five affiliates of the Hindutva organisations arrested from Mumbai. So far they have seized 12 crude bombs, two gelatin sticks, four electronic detonators, 22 non-electronic detonators, safety fuse wires, 150 grams of a white powder wrapped in newspaper, two one-litre bottles labelled 'Poison', 10 batteries, a six volt battery, a cutter, a hacksaw, soldering equipment, three switches, two complete PCB circuits, a partially completed PCB circuit, six battery connectors, two battery containers, four relay switches, eight resistors, six transistors, lengths of wires, a multimeter, hand gloves, adhesive solution and a hand drawn, partially complete circuit diagram.

Apart from all of these, there also were plans and diagrams for planting bombs in public places including cinema halls, music festivals, etc. There are reports even now that these outfits were trying to instigate communal riots by planting bombs in colonies/areas where one community resided to provoke a violent reaction. Several members of the Sanathan Sanstha and its affiliates have been accused in the past of bombings and other criminal activities. Recent reports, in fact, have indicated that the RSS and BJP members were also involved in meetings and conferences of these Hindutva groups. This has brought out a highly organised plan.

Also Read: Hindutva Terrorists Roam Free and Human Rights Activists Jailed: Story of Modi’s Bharat

On the other hand, the police has not been able to present a single evidence proving its allegations on the arrested activists. In a press conference that the Maharashtra police conducted, the police had claimed they have evidence that clearly establish links between Maoist organisations and the arrested rights activists. The police in the conference had also displayed letters allegedly exchanged by some of the arrested activists, and declared that there was a larger conspiracy by Maoist organisations to overthrow the Indian government using weapons procured from Russia and China.

Apart from these statements and theories made by the police, there has been no evidence found in the case of the activists arrested unlike in the case of the SS, Bhide, and HJS. The fact that the Maharashtra police, as the Bombay High Court also pointed yesterday, called for a press conference to discuss a sub-judice matter raises several questions. When the hearing is due in the Supreme Court on September 6, 2018, certain media houses and the Maharashtra police are seen being restless. This just shows the plan of the BJP, through their pet media, to instill fear in the public and create a false enemy to divert the attention from the actual issue.