Terror by every other name

The year 2008 may well be remembered for numerous acts of terror that reached a horrifying climax with the November 26 siege of Mumbai. Blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi were followed by continuing acts of mob terror against tribal Christians in Orissa (where 22,000 people still lived in relief camps until January 31, 2009 before the Patnaik government, à la Gujarat, ordered their forcible closure).

Serial mob attacks on Christians and churches in Karnataka led to demands for a nation- wide ban on the Bajrang Dal, an organisation closely associated with the attacks. September 29, 2008 saw two incidents of bomb blasts, in Malegaon, Maharashtra and Modasa, Gujarat. Other blasts also occurred in Thane, Panvel and Kanpur last year. The ATS Maharashtra has held groups of the RSS family, such as the Abhinav Bharat, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and the Sanatan Sanstha, responsible for some of these attacks. Terror has no religion and terror comes in different forms.

Even as we grapple with the fallout of such acts of terror, we also see more and more manifestations of the mob in action. Maharashtra enjoys the dubious distinction of allowing vicious mob violence spearheaded by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). People are brutally beaten and taxis, shops and other establishments are repeatedly destroyed yet the man who leads this violent movement is free to carry on. On January 26, 2009 MNS workers actually stormed a school in Nashik and beat up teachers and employees for playing Bhojpuri songs. Days later, three MNS workers were signed up by film producers making Bhojpuri films. Rough justice or a crude quid pro quo? In the MNS case, while the Mumbai police have made attempts to enforce the law, it is the ruling Congress-NCP combine that is refusing to sanction prosecution of Raj Thackeray. Déjà vu? Like uncle, like son.

And Karnataka is not far behind. On January 24, activists of the Sri Rama Sena (another breakaway of the RSS-Bajrang Dal group) attacked young women at a pub in Mangalore. Yet Pramod Mutalik, the mastermind behind this act of mob terror, was promptly granted bail despite the fact that there are over three dozen criminal cases pending against him.

It is this culture of impunity from prosecution that the politically powerful enjoy in India, which allows them to embrace violence without fear of the law. The executive, the law and order machinery and the judiciary have all been equally responsible for allowing this transparent lawlessness to continue. Small wonder then that though we may boast of being an electoral democracy, constitutional non-negotiables like the fair enforcement of the rule of law, regardless of caste, class, gender or community, are still a pipe dream.

The creation of the National Investigating Agency through a special legislation arose out of the need to treat all acts of terror, regardless of where they stemmed from, as a federal crime. The inclusion of specific provisions to ensure judicial scrutiny even at preliminary stages of the investigation (a break from the routine criminal procedure which allows judicial scrutiny only after a charge sheet has been filed) was the result of a nationwide campaign spearheaded by CC following its special cover story, ‘Blast after Blast’, in July-August 2008.

As we go to press, there is news that the centre plans to pass a bill to legislate the creation of a National Textbook Council, a statutory body to monitor the content of school textbooks that emanate from private schools run by socioreligious organisations. This monitoring body was also the result of an effort in which our educational programme, Khoj, participated. As member of a committee appointed by the Central Advisory Board of Education to propose measures to regulate and monitor these trends, we had recommended the establishment of such a mechanism.

Elections 2009 are around the corner and the political class has started to flex its muscles. For us however the real concern is whether issues of non-discriminatory governance, accountability and transparency will figure at the hustings.