OPED | Thursday, November 20, 2008 | Email | Print | 
A Hindu Dreyfus Affair?
Ashok Malik
Has a rogue operation by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad ended up undermining a Military Intelligence network and thus severely discomfited the Army? The implications of the 'Hindu terror' fiasco could be far-reaching
Depending on political positions, the so-called 'Hindu terrorism' issue has divided the political class and analysts into two. One section believes this is a concocted case, and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad is simply arresting people on the basis of the fact that they socially knew or called the mobile number of the previous suspect. The other argues that this is final and incontrovertible proof that a secret army of 'Hindu fascists' is bent upon destroying India.
Indeed, as one writer put it in a formerly mainstream newspaper this past week, the episode is evidence of the BJP's "specious sophistry" and inability to face up to the radicals in the Hindu Right. He gushingly contrasted this with the response of others, such as "the Deobandis -- who had earlier issued a fatwa against terror -- the Muslim clergy congregated in Hyderabad for a conference to deprive terror of religious sanction".
Truth may not be quite as neat. There is a third possibility that the whole business was an intelligence operation that went horribly wrong -- or, for some people, just perfectly right. As is now coming to be believed, did a section of the intelligence agencies, working on behalf of the Congress, seek to infiltrate the broader Hindu socio-religious leadership, exploit the anger against the Government's inability to counter jihadi terror and then comfortably frame them?
There are many gaps in the story that need to be filled. For instance, it is clear that Lt Col SP Purohit -- whom the Maharashtra ATS has accused of being the 'Hindu terror' mastermind -- was politically supportive of Right-wing political philosophy. Perhaps he knew similarly aligned and active people. There is nothing startling about this. Maharashtra's political tradition since Tilak and Ranade -- if not earlier -- has been alive to such ideas.
However, to see Lt Col Purohit's political views as disagreeable is one thing, to label him a terrorist is another. As a Military Intelligence officer, he was professionally bound to be in touch with a range of people, reputable, dubious or otherwise. Among his 'registered sources' -- sources he was in contact with, and whose identities were reported by him to his superiors in the Army -- were at least two people who have now been called 'Hindu terrorists' by the Maharashtra ATS.
When Lt Col Purohit was transferred from Deolali (a town in Nashik district), he passed on his 'registered contacts' to his successor. As such, two so-called 'Hindu terrorists' were paid informants working on behalf of the Indian Army, introduced by one officer -- who may have shared their electoral preferences -- to another -- who may not have been a political sympathiser.
Intelligence sources don't emerge from thin air. A source and an intelligence gatherer have to share social and other affinities. That is how they learn to trust each other. That is why Muslim police officers and intelligence operatives hold the key to winning the war against jihad .
As such, it was only to be expected that Lt Col Purohit would be asked to use his personal capacities to keep abreast with Hindu social currents. It is understood that he was also in contact with senior officers of the (then) Royal Nepal Army, officers who were Generals and seriously outranked him. Here again, he was using personal contacts for a professional, national purpose.
If his interaction with the Nepal Army was, however, unauthorised, it would be a serious indiscretion. That is for the Indian Army to clarify.
Here one begins treading on dangerous ground. At some point, from being the channel to Hindu activists, Lt Col Purohit became the target of a rogue intelligence operation, with the Maharashtra ATS and the Army working at cross-purposes, probably unknown to each other.
As long as the Maharashtra Police was targeting unknown civilians and little-known religious figures, and alleging they were behind small, localised bombings, the issue was serious in its ramifications but also limited in its context.
Having named Lt Col Purohit as the possible initiator of the Samjhauta Express terrorist attack in early-2007, the Maharashtra police -- despite its subsequent, ham-handed backtracking -- has taken things a trifle too far. What was a standard dirty tricks operation by a politicised police unit has now threatened to become something far, far bigger.
What the ATS has so far implied is this: Lt Col Purohit travelled across the country planning terrorist bombings, from Malegaon to Nanded, Samjhauta Express to Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid. He allegedly stole 60 kg of RDX from the Army and handed it over to a Hindu militia. While he was doing all this, his superiors noticed nothing. They did not find his behaviour out of character; most important, the Army did not miss 60 kg of RDX -- enough to blow up Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhawan, South and North Blocks and still have ammunition to spare.
If this is true, and if the Indian Army is so casual and delinquent, then far from being a stable state, India is the mother of all banana republics. If this is true, India cannot be trusted with nuclear bombs, with sophisticated weapons, perhaps even with a standing Army. It is a rogue state masquerading as a democracy. That is the upshot of the accusation being made by the Maharashtra ATS.
The next time there is a terrorist attack in India, and the Home Ministry points fingers at Pakistani or Bangladeshi involvement, Islamabad and Dhaka could retort that New Delhi had better question the Indian Army first. They could cite the expansive Press briefings of the Maharashtra ATS as corroborative material.
In the 1890s, a Jewish officer serving in the French Army was convicted of spying for Germany and sent to prison. Years later, it was revealed that he had actually been framed, that the documents used to implicate him were fabricated. The real culprit was another officer. In 1906, Alfred Dreyfus, the officer who was a victim of anti-Semitism, was exonerated and went on to serve his country in World War I.
Has modern-day India created a 'Hindu' Dreyfus?
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