Selective focus

THE CENTRE'S ACTION of clamping a ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India, which has come under the adverse notice of law-enforcing agencies over the past few years for its perceived links with pan-Islamic extremist organisations and suspected involvement in certain specific subversive episodes, would not be called into serious question especially in the post-September 11 context of an all-out global `war' against terrorism. While the demand for such a ban has been there for quite some time now from States such as Congress-ruled Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, besides the BJP-led Government in Uttar Pradesh, the blatantly provocative pro-Osama bin Laden campaign mounted by the SIMI leadership has apparently impelled the Centre to outlaw the radical group, a decision that does make sense, given that India is a committed partner of the anti-terrorism alliance forged worldwide. But the provocative and clearly sectarian manner in which the Uttar Pradesh Government has handled the immediate backlash to the ban and the police action resulting in the death of at least three persons needs to be strongly condemned.

One cannot also but point to the biased approach of the Atal Behari Vajpayee regime to the aggressive hate campaign that the Sangh Parivar, mainly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, has been systematically running against the minorities and the physical attacks its outfits have been carrying out on their places of worship and institutions. In a sense, the arrogant display of majoritarian exclusivism, as manifested in the whole range of diabolical acts targeting the minorities and their symbols - the demolition of the Babri Masjid, attacks on Christian institutions in Dangs and the murder of Graham Staines and his two young sons, to name just a few - contributed substantially to the escalating aggression of the increasingly insecure minorities and, by extension, to the religion-centric militancy striking roots in the vulnerable segments of these communities. The official establishment at the Centre, presided over by the BJP, has invariably sought to exonerate the Sangh Parivar elements or downplayed their role in hate crimes. Contrast this with the zeal that it has shown in rushing to declare the minorities as culprits where the hand of any of their groups is suspected. Only five months ago, the Centre outlawed another Islamic outfit, Deendar Anjuman, a Hyderabad-based nondescript fringe organisation accused of engineering a series of bomb blasts in churches in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa during May-July 2000, for having links with Pakistan and indulging in anti-national activities.

The impression is unshakeable that the BJP-led coalition is highly selective - and calculatedly so - in applying the `unlawful activity' yardstick as between the Sangh Parivar outfits and those belonging to the minority communities. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal, apart from indulging in vicious propaganda and distributing hate literature against the minorities, have been conducting camps across the country where arms training is given to their cadres and members of Durga Vahini, an outfit of women, and there is nothing clandestine about it. It should not be difficult to visualise the destructive potential of this manifestly unlawful venture from the standpoint of public order and communal harmony. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Digvijay Singh, had, while seeking a ban on the SIMI, made out a strong case for similar action against the likes of the Bajrang Dal also. The Vajpayee Government cannot escape the charge of double standards as long as it refuses to move decisively against the Hindutva fundamentalist elements and, what more, the Prime Minister's statement that the anti-terrorist campaign is not Islam-specific will fail to carry conviction. Outfits like the Bajrang Dal, whose provocative character and socially destructive potential differ very little from those such as the SIMI must also be banned.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Next     : ''Auctioning'' of panchayats