Daily Times

After seven serial bomb blasts in Patna in which six people were killed and 100 injured, a number of Muslims and their leaders have appeared in media and the internet, and complained: “As usual such blasts carried out by communal Hindus (BJP/ RSS/VHP, etc, by their acts of commission) and remaining political parties of Hindus (by their acts of omission) tolerate it in order to malign Muslims. The employers of terrorist organisations like the Indian Mujahideen, etc, are no other than these communal outfits of Hindus, and their silent accomplice, the Hindu political parties.”

One may not agree with the theory of S M Mushrif, the former IG Maharashtra Police, when he wrote in his book Who killed Karkare? regarding the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai: “The terrorists who attacked Taj Hotel, Nariman House, etc, were a different team, which came from Pakistan, but the team of six terrorists who attacked CST, Cama Hospital, and killed Hemant Karkare and other police officers at Rangbhavan lane were Hindu terrorists who wanted to kill Karkare because of his investigation about the Malegaon bomb blast in which Karkare had found Hindu communal terrorists the main accused.” Mushrif’s theory is: “These Hindu communalists (who want India to be ‘Hindu Rashtra’ with age-old casteist oppressive religion) have a stranglehold grip on the Intelligence Bureau of Union of India and on the entire Indian media, and hence have control over the entire political class, bureaucracy (Union and States) and police force of all the States of India. Therefore, Hindus have been able to malign Muslims (as a community responsible for terrorism across India).”

Ultimately what matters in democratic politics is the organisation that brings voters to the polling booths on election day. Whereas for all other political parties of India it is only their political parties that do this job, on the contrary for the BJP, its members bring only a small part of its supporters to the polling booths, and the major part of its supporters are brought by the remaining Sangh Parivar (RSS/VHP/Bajrangdal, etc). This makes all the difference between other political parties of India and the BJP, which is obviously under the huge influence of the Sangh Parivar.

The Patna serial bomb blasts have certainly raised reasonable doubts that need to be cleared not only in the interests of the said conspiracy (if any) against Muslims by Hindus, but also in the interest of avoiding such huge number of casualties of innocent citizens who might have been killed at the Patna Gandhi Maidan, including in the stampede, had even one, out of 10 planted bombs, blasted at the venue itself.

But even for argument’s sake if it is admitted that in the Hindu-majority India, Muslims are harassed and persecuted by Hindus (by some crudely and openly, and by some subtly and clandestinely), it is not such Hindus alone but the Muslims themselves who are to be blamed for this gross injustice to them. Although Islam is the only religion whose followers are not supposed to fear the temporal authorities (which comprise mainly the state), but out of un-Islamic fear of the temporal authorities, the Indian Muslims (despite publicly and repeatedly being asked to do so) are not moving the Supreme Court (SC) for redresss, and instead have been tolerating the gross injustice being done to them. Due to the inability of Muslims to file four writ petitions in the SC regarding the following matters, the Indian Muslims have been facing most of their problems:

1. Restoration of status quo ante of Babri Masjid. 2. Repeal of unconstitutional reservation laws. 3. Invoking Sections 130 and 131 CrPC in relation to the 2002 riots in Gujarat and 2013 riots at Muzaffarnagar. 4. Government of Hindu majority India instead of solving the Kashmir issue, targeting guns at Indian citizens (the Muslim civilians of Kashmir valley).

At least now it is hoped after the bomb blasts at Patna (which is prima facie a deep rooted conspiracy against Indian Muslims by not only all the political parties — BJP, Congress, SP, JD-U — and their governments, by their acts of commission and omission, but also by Hindu majority India), that a writ petition shall be filed in the SC by the Indian Muslims. It will be to get an order on the CBI to investigate the matter in view of the following reasonable doubts:

1. What is the basis of the May 21, 2013 report in the Times of India (ToI) that “Low-intensity blasts may target Narendra Modi’s rallies: Gujarat intelligence bureau”. This intelligence report about the rallies during the Gujarat election can easily and logically be extended to the Patna rally too. As per this May 21 ToI report, police sources said, “The IB input specifically mentioned that the blasts would be carried out by a saffron outfit and that too in the gathering during Modi’s speeches. The intelligence officials have also intimated the security agencies that retired army officials are engaged in the allegedly disruptive activity. The IB has also conveyed to the concerned authorities about the objective behind the possible strike. They claimed that this is to send a message to Modi, who recently said during a public speech that he was not a leader of only Hindus. Angered with this statement, as well as by his Sadbhavna Mission, the fundamentalists aim to teach him a lesson and to remind him of the agenda to make India a Hindu nation.”

2. Why even the news of the series of blasts at Patna did not make the organisers think of urgently calling off the rally, and not risk the lives of thousands of people who could have been killed in further blasts and the ensuing stampede? Why did the organisers of the rally not try to shorten the whole affair? (They could have easily said that Modi had not come, and the people would have dispersed peacefully and without any disturbance.) Why speaker after speaker continued to speak without any signs of tension? Did they not realise that if the casualties become big, that would engulf the whole country in communal violence?

3. Why did the BJP not fear that a big spectrum of their national leaders could be killed in the blasts and stampede? Was it because the BJP and Sangh Parivar (being the alleged perpetrators) knew that the blast would happen only at the periphery of the ground, and no further blast would take place in the middle of the ground? (Hence bombs planted right in the Maidan did not explode when the rally was on, despite the fact that the rally lasted for several hours.) Therefore, the BJP did not call off or drastically shorten the rally, as the BJP/RSS did not want to waste the opportunity of Modi addressing the rally in order to garner sympathy.

4. Worse, perhaps the Sangh Parivar wanted thousands of people to be killed in further blasts and in the stampede, so that the casualties could become big, which would engulf the whole country in communal riots (or in other words the massacre of millions of Muslims).

5. Why did Nitish Kumar, the Bihar government and police, and also the Government of India and its Home Ministry, which claimed to have informed the Bihar government about the threat of bomb blasts, not restrain the organisers of the rally to call off or drastically shorten it and instead allowed it to continue beyond 2:00 pm?

6. Even if the Bihar police did not check before the rally, why did the BJP office bearers of Bihar (the organisers who took permission from the city administration for the rally at Patna) and police officers from Gujarat (who came to Patna days earlier and were at the ground to take care of their CM Modi’s security) not ensure that the ground was clear before the rally? Why did they not ensure that other checking instruments and apparatus were placed at the ground by the Bihar police?

7. Most of the media has been reporting on the basis of input from government sources that the Patna serial blasts were revenge by Muslims for the Muzaffarnagar riots. But why was no action taken by the Governments of India, of UP and Gujarat when the Union Cabinet Minister Beni Prasad Verma openly said that 200 persons were brought from Gujarat to carry out riots in Muzaffarnagar?

It is hoped that this time the Indian Muslims will shed their fear and file a writ petition in the SC about the Patna serial blasts to get an order for the CBI to investigate in view of the above-mentioned reasonable doubts.

The writer is the author of Betrayal of Americanism