Saffron terror: Why then has Shinde not banned the BJP?

Sushil Kumar Shinde’s clarification on Hindu terror, replacing it with “saffron,” indicates that the nation’s home minister is even more poorly educated on the country’s traditions than we thought.  He has earned the dubious distinction of being the only Indian home minister to be publicly thanked by Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. And why not? Shinde has now provided Saeed the perfect opportunity to wriggle out of the terror tag that has currently stuck to the latter. [caption id=“attachment_597575” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] But the big point is this: assuming Shinde is right in saying that the BJP and the RSS are promoting terror camps, clearly he is unfit to be home minister since it is his job to tackle terror. He is duty-bound to put those who support terror behind bars if he has proof of the same. There are, however, other significant dimensions to Shinde’s “saffron terror” charge. Saffron has a much wider connotation in the Indian context beyond its linkage with the RSS and the BJP. Saffron is part of the national flag, which was derived from the Congress party’s own flag, with the small addition of the Ashok Chakra and deletion of the spinning wheel by the constituent assembly on 22 July 1947. The flag presented by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had a horizontal tricolour comprising saffron, white and dark green in equal proportions. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who became the country’s first Vice-President and then President, described its significance without attaching any religious connotation to it: “The Bhagwa, or the saffron colour, denotes renunciation or disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work. The white in the centre is light, the path of truth, to guide our conduct. The green shows our relation to (the) soil, our relation to the plant life here, on which all other life depends. The Ashoka Chakra in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma.” There have been other interpretations: that saffron denotes Hindu, green Muslim and white other religions. Radhakrishnan and Nehru, however, gave secular interpretations to the colours and negated any religious associations. By naming the Samjhauta, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts as Hindu terrorism, later corrected to saffron terrorism, and further connecting these incidents to the BJP and RSS, Shinde has sparked off the intended outrage. The home minister claimed that his assertions were not ideological but based on solid investigations. The irony is that Shinde, in his other high profile position of Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha, has to deal and negotiate with the BJP, the main opposition party, almost on a daily basis when parliament is in session. The question is should the home minister and Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha be doing official business with leaders of an organisation which is allegedly training terrorists? In his dual role, Shinde often seeks cooperation from leaders of this political party on a variety of issues, including several issues of national interest and security, even holding breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings with a fair degree of bonhomie. “On the one hand, we are trying to bring peace in this country. We are also taking steps against injustice to minorities as also against infiltration. But, in the midst of all this, we have got an investigation report that, be it the RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this,” Shinde said at the AICC conclave. By implication the home minister meant that the BJP and RSS were anti-national organisations. If that is the case, is keeping a strict vigil on them enough? Why is Shinde so lenient with them? Why is his government not initiating a move to ban the two organisations? Shinde’s statement also implies that several big states ruled by the BJP are either running training camps for terrorists, or providing them protection. The same party was in power at the centre nine years ago, and won a resounding victory in Gujarat last month. The Congress and the BJP will be pitted head-to-head in the forthcoming regional assembly elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. The same would be the case in the next parliamentary elections. From what he said, the home minister would need to direct many more investigations against the BJP to get it banned, or at least debarred from fighting elections or forming governments where it has won. If he does not do so, Shinde would be either guilty of dereliction of duty or of misleading the country. Shinde’s predecessor in the home ministry, P Chidambaram, had also talked of saffron or Hindu terror but did not talk about the BJP in this connection. He merely said that the BJP had started targeting him after he went strongly against such terror groups associated with the Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta blasts. The term “Hindu” or “saffron” terrorism was replaced by right-wing terrorism to contrast with left-wing terrorism. The BJP is furious at Shinde’s claims. It is likely to maintain the heat by organising a nationwide protest on 24 January. However, the net result is that this diversion will suit both parties: for the BJP, it provides a break from the infighting, and for the Congress, it provides a break from the focus on economic failure and lack of governance.