Shamsul Islam
Posted June 12, 2000

  Home Minister LK Advani while addressing a conference of the Intelligence Bureau officials in New Delhi, recently, said that Pakistan wanted to disintegrate this country by, “fomenting communal discord in India and ill will for India.”  Again while addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Union Home Ministry in the second week of May, he went at length to explain to the MPs the nexus of ISI activities in India. According the HM, “ISI was taking recourse to terror, subversion, disruption, incitement of sectarian hatred and violence.”

  In fact HM while intervening in a debate in Lok Sabha on April 26, 2000 told the MPs that the primary aim of Pakistan was to disintegrate India.  He went on to declare that in such a scenario, the division between internal and external security stood erased. Interestingly, while assuring the largest minority of the country that the integrity of the Muslims of the country could not be doubted vis-à-vis the ISI activities he at the same time specifically called upon Indian Muslims to respond to this call of Jehad of Pakistan.

  The ISI the dreaded intelligence network of Pakistan is working overtime in its attempts to subverse the secular-democratic Indian State; there can be no two opinions on this count. However, the much-talked designs of the ISI for dismemberment of India need deeper probing. There are many serious questions that require proper and objective responses. Is it the complete truth that only the ISI is trying to foment communal trouble in this country? Are there communal elements well entrenched in our country, enjoying state support, which are out with full force to destroy the communal peace of the country. Are these not the same forces that are making the job of ISI easier?

  The Home Minister and the officials of his ministry if they are really serious about countering and defeating the evil designs of organizations like ISI must take immediate steps against those indigenous communal groups which are spreading poisonous canard against religious minorities in India. Organizations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) and Bajrang Dal (BD), and other affiliates of the RSS after using Gujarat as a laboratory for religious cleansing of minorities specially Christians and Muslims for more than three years are spreading their tentacle throughout India. The leaflets containing highly provocative statements like, “Muslims are filth of the gutter, don’t let them enter in your houses”, or “wherever Christian priests have gone in the world, they loot the people. lies and deceit are their religion. The Christian priests teach people to tell lies, to steal in the name of religion…They curse Hindus, and decry the Hindu religion. Awaken Hindus and struggle against these thieves who lie, who rob you of your rights, and bring these people to their senses and put their pride in place”, or “One addition in the population of Christians or Muslims is not only the addition of anti-Hindu but anti-national person.” Such leaflets issued on behalf of VHP, HJM and BD which used to be confined to Gujarat only are now circulating in different parts of the country. The fascist ideas contained in these leaflets are not the brainchild of some hotheaded cadre. In fact, the Bible of the RSS cadres, ‘the Bunch of Thoughts’, the compilation of the writings of MS Golwalkar, the ideologue of the RSS, has a long chapter titled as ‘Internal Threats’ in which Muslims and Christians are described as threat number one and two respectively. According to Golwalkar, “within the country there are so many Muslim pockets, i.e., so many ‘miniature Pakistans’…The conclusion is that, in practically every place, there are Muslims who are in constant touch with Pakistan over the transmitter…” While assigning to himself the task of judging the patriotism of Muslims in general, he says, “It would be suicidal to delude ourselves into believing that they have turned patriots overnight after the creation of Pakistan. On the contrary, the Muslim menace has increased a hundredfold by the creation of Pakistan…” While deliberating on the ‘Internal Threat’ number two, he says, “such is the role of Christian gentlemen residing in our land today, out to demolish not only the religious and social fabric of our life but also to establish political domination in various pockets and if possible all over the land” He described common Christians as ‘bloodsuckers.’ Led by this ideology, the sawyamsevaks connected with different outfits of the RSS have killed and maimed the Christians, destroyed churches and other properties of theirs throughout India.  And it is also true that the goons were always given clean chits by central and state ministers affiliated to RSS. The latest is the statement of Union Surface Minister, Rajnath Singh who while giving a clean chit to the activists of BD for the murderous attacks on Christians in Agra-Mathura described the attack as an action of the ‘nationalist forces’ done on the ‘spur of the moment’.

  What dangerous games RSS and its outfits are playing to divide the Indian society on communal lines thus greatly facilitating the ISI plan of ‘fomenting the communal discord in India’ to use LK Advani’s words, can be seen through the latest controversy instigated by the RSS over the religious identity of Sikhs. Sikhs, an influential minority community of India, till very recently never thought that their identity was in danger till due to highly sectarian proactivism of the RSS claiming that Sikhs were part of Hindu community. Article 25 of the Indian Constitution which read, “…the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Budhist religion…” was never questioned by the Sikh community till the RSS chief KS Sudarshan went all the way to Chandigarh at the end of April to proclaim that Sikhs were not a separate community but part of Hinduism. Sikhs reacted fiercely. A Panthic congregation organized at the Akal Takht declared, “The separate cultural and religious identity of the Sikhs has been threatened by certain anti-Sikh elements and this has to be effectively and unitedly countered by the ‘quam’.” The Akal Takht Jathedar who led this conclave also asked for a review of the Article 25 of the Constitution to ensure separate religious, social and cultural identity for Sikhs. Mind this that these are not Muslims and Christians only who are mobilizing big rallies against attacks by the Hindu Right thus reminding of the days of heightening of communal tension in the post Babri mosque demolition episode. This time Sikhs, the natural allies of the BJP in politics are out in open to defend their existence against the RSS.

  The RSS strategy of cleansing or co-opting the minorities is only worsening the communal scene of the country thus clearly playing into the hands of ISI. Unfortunately, the RSS is yet to learn a lesson from the tragedy of Pakistan. The pro-Pakistan Muslim lobby had boasted that an all-Muslim theocratic state would assure the integrity of the country, prosperity of common Muslims and democracy to the citizens. 53 years of Pakistan’s existence prove only one fact that Pakistan failed on all these three counts. The RSS wants to embark on this very path 53 years late!

 The RSS shout a lot about Pakistan and its intelligence agency, the ISI. They say that anti-nationals are conspiring to spread unrest in our country. They repeatedly point out how such forces are causing unrest in Gujarat, Kashmir, North East, Rajasthan and Punjab. And what is the VHP doing? By pitting the Hindus against the Muslims and Christians is it making the country strong? Are they not doing the very thing that ISI wants to do? The VHP is playing such a game in India that will divide every city, every village. The reality is that with the VHP and its assistants around, the ISI does not need any other agents for spreading unrest and disturbing peace. The VHP has taken this responsibility upon itself. As the soldiers of the VHP step forward the task of the ISI becomes easier. History will stand witness that the seed which the VHP is sowing, the result of that will only be useful for those who want to break the country.