:: Jayanthi Natrajan

BJP doublespeak on terror is lethal

By Jayanthi Natarajan

The doublespeak of the BJP has come full circle, and even by its own self serving standards, has plumbed a new low in the politics of somersaults, contradiction and shifting sands of dissonant statements. The party, whose principal plank was the revival of Pota, and the importance of a hard line against terrorism, has suddenly stopped talking about Pota. As an eloquent cartoon pointed out, Pota for the BJP has now become "Prevention of Trial Act" instead of Prevention of Terror Act. The prevention of Pragya Thakur’s interrogation and trial have assumed top priority on the agenda of no less a person than the leader of the Opposition, Mr L.K. Advani, who is so moved by the affidavit of a suspect in a terror investigation that he has asked for a judicial probe, not as one may imagine into the role of Pragya Thakur, but into the conduct of the ATS! His motive in making this extraordinary statement may flow more from the fact that the national president of his party, Rajnath Singh, and a chief minister of his party, Shivraj Chauhan, have been photographed with Pragya Thakur, and less from concern for any human rights violation that may have been committed against Pragya Thakur.

Terror has topped the BJP agenda over the last few years. This is the party that convened a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament to pass Pota, despite the fact that Pota, already in force in ordinance form, had failed to prevent the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament. In response to this BJP spokespersons argue that the importance of Pota lay in the fact that its draconian provisions ensured speedy trial and punishment of the perpetrators of terrorist acts.

Under Pota, for example, the presumption of innocence that criminal jurisprudence offers an accused does, would not apply, and the burden of proof would lie with the accused. That investigators would get untrammelled freedom to investigate and that the perpetrators would be brought to justice swiftly and surely. These arguments of the BJP and its spokespersons have been shouted from rooftops. But those voices are silent now. They are now asking for a presumption of innocence for Pragya Thakur. They no longer want the investigators to be given a free hand, but Mr Advani wants a judicial probe into the investigators. They want the investigating officers to be changed. The question, therefore, is whether terror investigations are sacrosanct and vital for the security of this country, or whether there is to be a caste system of terror investigations, where those suspects identified with the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, are to be handled with kid gloves, and considered above law, because they are "nationalist organisations" according to the BJP, and an entirely different yardstick be applied to those who are not with the BJP, namely Muslims, Christians, minorities. Clearly the menace of terror for the BJP is less about the safety and security of our country and our people, and more about consolidating their votebank based on a divisive communal agenda.

Nothing can be more hypocritical than the hollow and empty disclaimer made by BJP leaders when they preface the most outrageous statements by saying that they are against all forms of terror and that terror has no religion, and then go on to defend the main suspects in the Malegaon blasts. The statements of BJP leaders have run the entire gamut — from embarrassment to denial. When Rajnath Singh said that he was embarrassed to have been photographed with Pragya Thakur, and others said that law should take its course, Mr Singh then did an amazing about-turn and declared Pragya Thakur innocent even before the investigation was complete. Even more inexplicable, or perhaps all too revealing, is the vitriolic criticism BJP leaders unleashed on Mushirul Hasan for setting up a mechanism for legal aid to the accused in the Batla House case, and themselves loudly proclaiming that they would provide legal aid to Pragya Thakur.

The BJP stands not just confused and contradictory, but also guilty of a very dangerous attempt to subvert the terror probe, and communalise the investigation. The time has come for the BJP to rise above its narrow sectarian concerns and think about the integrity of our democracy. This calls for a degree of maturity and restraint which has not been forthcoming until the present moment. The attempt by the BJP to pretend outrage against the phrase "Hindu terror’ is synthetic and unconvincing because no political party or any citizen believes or has said that Hindus are terrorists. And the attempt by the BJP to allege that there is some kind of conspiracy against Hindus is pathetic and false. "Hindu terror" is a phrase that is being repeated by the BJP in order to divert attention from and cover up its close links with terror suspects like Pragya Thakur, Dayanand Panday and Srikant Purohit.

The communalisation of terror by the BJP is unmistakable. Mr Advani denounces the ATS, Mr Singh gives Pragya Thakur a clean chit before the investigation is over. Praveen Togadia warns of a Hindu backlash. Even a well-known journalist like Chandan Mitra, known to be a BJP sympathiser, tries to "understand and explain vigilante action" by "Indians who are shocked, angry and EVEN VENGEFUL (emphasis supplied) because of relentless terrorist depredations". A whole range of statements, from thinly veiled justification to outright support to a terror suspect. emanate from BJP leaders, establishing clearly that they are not just confused, but also stand compromised by association and conduct.

However, our democracy and our people are too sensitive and mature to be carried away by such cynical manipulation. The ordinary Indian wants to live in peace with his fellow citizens. In over six lakh villages in our country there are only a 100,000 police stations. In far flung corners of India, ordinary Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs and other minorities live in harmony with each other, as they have for centuries. And it is these unsung heroes who will ensure that our social, communal and democratic polity remains strong and united because they are impervious to the divisive agenda of those who try to divide and polarise the country for narrow electoral gain.

Jayanthi Natarajan is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and AICC spokesperson.The views expressed in this column are her own.