Comment

Maoist violence is still less ominous and menacing than the violence of RSS and its offshoots.

There is a lot of concern expressed all over India about Maoist violence. The media has done its bit to reflect that widespread concern and anger. That is quite natural and understandable.

From what we see in the newspapers and on TV we gather that the Maoist threat is the most menacing of all challenges to our internal security. That, incidentally, is also the view of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The consensus in the elite is that it must be crushed with overwhelming force. In fact, that is what is already happening. The state is busy doing that.

The state is serious about Maoist violence even though the action has hit far more hungry, famished and innocent tribals than actual Maoists. The Maoists have been struggling (mostly in extralegal, violent ways) to empower the tribals enough to ensure sufficient food, water and other necessities for this impoverished mass of humanity.

Over the last few decades Maoists have become part of the landscape of the “Red Corridor” spreading from West Bengal through Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The relatively small number of insurgents has, in fact, become an excuse for attacking lakhs of tribals already dying of hunger. This is a matter requiring greater concern than Maoist violence.

Another point to remember: it is not just violence or its huge scale that is the focus of the current media discourse or public outrage. The point is, “Who is doing the violence?” The general understanding seems to be like, “How come such hungry, humiliated and crushed tribals have got the temerity to oppose the state that is backed by the prosperous classes?”

On the other hand, we have the case of RSS and its numerous offshoots like VHP, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Munani and others that openly espouse a violent ideology and are responsible for thousands of murders of innocent Muslims and Christians in state-managed riots over the last six decades. The society seems not to be particularly perturbed over their violence. The state and the media, too, are not really bothered. Thus, the outrage against Maoists is grossly one-sided and selective.

The recent controversy raised by the political wing of RSS (the BJP) over the perfectly true remarks of a delegation of German MPs is an indicator of the devious ways of this fascist conglomeration. The MPs had reportedly said during their visit to Gujarat that chief minister Narendra Modi was a dictator and equated him with Hitler, who happens to be a hero of the Sangh.

The founder of RSS, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, was an admirer of fascist ideology and Nazi Germany as was another Hindutva stalwart, Dr. B.S. Munje. The latter was a fan of Italy’s fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Munje went to the extent of personally meeting his hero, Mussolini. Between them they covered the entire ideological ground shared by Hitler and Mussolini. The most high-profile victim of this imported ideology was Mahatma Gandhi himself.

Some of the most deadly terrorists, the Abhinav Bharat gang of people like Pragya Singh and Col. Purohit, are from the Munje school. The man on whom Hedgewar’s mantle fell was called “Guruji” Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who was such an admirer of Hitler that he approvingly wrote of Hitler’s decimation of Jews. He said Hitler’s treatment of Jews should be a model for the treatment of Indian Muslims.

Every important BJP leader of today is a follower of Hedgewar and Golwalkar. Interestingly, Hedgewar was called “Masterji” by his followers as his successor was called Guruji. Whether it is Atal Behari Vajpayee or LK Advani, Narendra Modi or Arun Jetly, everybody is a follower of Masterji-Guruji, who were unabashed fans of Hitler-Mussolini.

The German MPs are right, the insincere protests of BJPwallahs notwithstanding. This group is far more deadly than the Maoists, and there is more blood on their hands than any other terrorist group’s. They have to be reined in before Maoists as they have a more vicious track record. Unfortunately, everyone is silent on this menace.

The paramilitary action we are witnessing today in the Red Corridor is at best selective justice. And selective justice is no justice at all. The perpetrators of greater violence are still enjoying the dignified status of politicians. This destroys the credibility of the state as much as killing innocent, starving tribals in the name of Maoism does.  


(Mohammed Ataur Rahman)