RSS Headquarters : Terrorists’ strike foiled,Indian Politics, News Analysis, India News Online

Timely inputs by intelligence agencies helped the police to foil a terrorist attempt to storm the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on Thursday, June 1. Three terrorists reportedly belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba were gunned down by the security forces. Significantly, the latest in the escalating terrorist strikes across the country came while India and Pakistan were holding talks in Islamabad to discuss continued cross-border terrorism.

Police said the terrorists attempted to drive a white Ambas¬sador car, fitted with a red command-light, towards the building shortly before dawn. When guards at the perimeter of the three-level security cordon flagged down the car, its driver attempted to crash through the barriers. RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan and other top functionaries were not present in the building at the time of the attack.

Intelligence sources in New Delhi said all three intruders were thought to be Pakistani nationals. “We had reason to believe that an operation of this kind was being planned and asked the Nagpur police to be prepared,” a senior official said.

Investigators believe that either the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammad was most likely to have carried out the attack. Both organisations have demonstrated the capability to execute suicide attacks in the recent past. In July last, Jaish opera¬tives attempted to storm the makeshift temple at the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya using tactics similar to those adopted in Nagpur. An Ambassador car rigged to resemble an official vehicle was also used in the 2001 Jaish attack on Parliament House.

Of the two outfits, the Lashkar appears to have developed deeper networks in Maharashtra - a fact demonstrated by the massive recoveries of explosives last month from a terror cell it set up in the Aurangabad area. In June 2004, the Pune-based Lashkar operative Javed Sheikh and his girlfriend Ishrat Jehan Raza launched an operation seeking to assassinate the former Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, and bomb the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Maharashtra-based Lashkar cells have from the outset sought to eliminate politicians of the Hindu right wing, as early as from November 2000.

Nagpur police had tip off

The Nagpur police were able to effectively counter the terrorists as they appeared to have been tipped off by various agencies. Intelligence Bureau agents had detected the three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists involved in the incident at least three weeks earlier and were monitoring the squad’s movements as well as their likely targets. IB Director E.S.L. Narasimhan had flown to Nagpur in mid-May to ensure increased security for the RSS leadership.

The Maharashtra Police on the basis of the documents recov¬ered by the Intelligence Bureau has identified the three terror¬ists killed as Afzal Ahmad Butt, and Abdul Kalam Azad, both residents of Lahore, and Mohammad Usman Habib from the town of Gujaranwala. Authorities believe the three went to Nagpur through Patna but little information on the networks that ar¬ranged for their transport and stay in both cities is available.

Lashkar fidayeen volunteers are taught that Islam in India is under state-supported assault. In one typical propaganda article, Lashkar ideologue Hafiz Abdul Salam bin-Mohammad assert¬ed that “in India, the Muslims are being slaughtered just because they profess Islam. Their property is plundered, their women are disgraced and molested and their mosques have been razed to the ground.”

The Maharashtra police say that they had credible informa¬tion for almost a year that there would be an attack on the RSS headquarters. For the last one month, the police had deployed a special squad to watch the building. The explosives recovered from the terrorists’ vehicle were enough to blow up big build¬ings. These included an improvised explosive device, 13 hand grenades, three AKM rifles and nine fully loaded magazines. The explosives were of foreign make and of the type used in the Parliament attack case.

SIMI main suspect

The Centre says that it has reasons to suspect that Stud¬ents” Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is providing its network to Pakistan-based terrorist groups in Maharashtra. The central government has alerted six other states having considerable presence of the banned outfit’s activists to maintain a strict watch and conduct searches on the lines of those conducted by Maharashtra’s anti-terrorism squad. The police suspect that the three terrorists involved in the Nagpur attack used the SIMI network in arranging arms and ammunition.

The Centre has also asked the state governments to beef up security of sensitive organizations including the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena. Patrolling is to be intensified around important religious places. The Centre is also making additional security arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

Soft policies encouraging militancy : BJP

While the President, the Prime Minister and Congress lead¬ers condemned the Nagpur terrorist bid, the BJP alleged that the soft policies of the UPA Government towards terrorism were en¬couraging such incidents. Dr. Manmohan Singh, condemning the attack, appealed to the nation to remain united in its fight against terrorism. Congress president Sonia Gandhi described the terrorist bid as an act of cowardice aimed at destroying the country’s peace and unity.

BJP President Rajnath Singh described the government policy as weak and compromising, saying that it must change to deal firmly with forces inimical to the country’s interests. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha in the L.K. Advani said that repealing POTA, scaling down troops in Doda, had sent out a message of a soft policy on terrorism. “Terrorists should not feel that the government is soft towards them”, Advani said.

BJP national executive meeting : Differences on quota for OBCs

Different perceptions on the reservation issue came up during the BJP’s two-day national executive meeting held from Monday, May 29. BJP president Rajnath Singh’s first presidential address at the national executive put the official stamp on the subtle BJP shift on the reservation issue. Rajnath Singh in his speech made three demands on the Government - ensure the space for merit is not reduced, nor excellence of institutions compro¬mised; that benefits of reservation reach the most deprived social groups; and that there is a quota for the upper caste poor too.

Echoing the view of leader of opposition L.K. Advani, the BJP chief advocated the appointment of a committee of special¬ists to study the impact of reservations so far. Reiterating BJP’s support to the Constitution amendment providing for reser¬vations in higher educational institutions, Rajnath Singh re¬called the party’s Bhopal national executive resolution in 1985 favouring affirmative action for the uplift of the weaker sec¬tions. But the manner in which the issue had been handled by the UPA regime, Singh said, “leaves no one in doubt that its object is not social justice, but to create social tensions.”

Later responding to a volley of questions, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said the BJP supports reservations, but not the manner in which the Government has gone about them. HRD Minister Arjun Singh, according to him, indulged in one-up-manship and made an announcement without any discussions.

On the margins, the BJP’s shift from a position of consensus to one involving conditions, has strained relations between Advani and Singh. The BJP president is learnt to be peeved at being upstaged by Advani in articulating the shift in the party stance. Senior leaders had decided on Saturday, May 3 that the party chief alone will spell out the new BJP position. Sources disclosed that Rajnath Singh has lodged his protest against what he called “this breach of faith” with all participants in the Saturday meeting, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

PM an object of pity

In a multi-pronged attack on UPA for its “failure on all fronts” the BJP on Tuesday, May 30, dubbed Prime Minister as “an object of pity who could be easily pushed around”.

The main Opposition said ideological contradictions between the Congress and the Left had paralysed economic decision making in the country, leading to all round chaos.

“The Prime Minister’s office is the nucleus of India’s power. The UPA, however, has evolved a modus of functioning by which the Prime Minister can be stripped of authority. He is not free to choose his cabinet. He is not free to dictate the Govern¬ment policies, the political resolution adopted by the BJP na¬tional executive said.

The resolution, moved by party General Secretary Arun Jai¬tley, alleged that the mushrooming of numerous power-centres outside the Government had compounded the dilution of Prime Ministerial authority.

The BJP is of the view that the Prime Minister’s incapacity had emboldened the Left to extract a heavy price. “Alliance partners have also realised that the Prime Minister can easily be pushed around,” the party document said.

Vajpayee warns of enemy within

In his valedictory address at the national executive meeting on Tuesday, May 30, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the party “faces a threat from within, not from outside.” He cautioned against intolerance of the voice of dissent and indifference to desertion by disgruntled members.

According to some delegates, Vajpayee’s plain-speaking on the importance of a more democratic attitude left no doubt about what he was referring to. Vajpayee was apparently upset by the “autocratic” manner in which leaders such as Gujarat Chief Min¬ister Narendra Modi were dealing with dissenting MLAs. Vajpayee did seem to have in mind the exit of leaders like Uma Bharti and, more recently, that of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi. “If people are not allowed to express their feelings at their work environment, then it indicates that there was someth¬ing lacking” with the organisation. “Some people are leaving the party. Though there have not been too many desertions, this needs to be looked into. An individual’s departure is also a matter of loss for the party.”

The veteran was also aghast at “manipulative methods” of leaders such as BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar who were setting up local leaders against his rival, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediurappa.

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Rahul Mahajan episode rocks BJP

The BJP got a shock last week when murdered party leader Pramod Mahajan’s son, Rahul Mahajan, was hospitalised in New Delhi on Friday, June 2, reportedly after taking an overdose of prohibited drugs. Pramod Mahajan’s personal secretary, Bibek Moitra, who also reportedly took cocaine at a midnight party at Pramod Mahajan’s 7 Safdarjung Road house, died.

Rahul Mahajan who was in a critical condition for nearly 24 hours, has now recovered and is reported to be out of danger.

A massive cover up operation appears to be underway not to let the reasons for Rahul Mahajan’s hospitalisation come into the open. While the All India Institute of Medical Sciences found cocaine and traces of thallium in Bibek Moitra’s body, the Apollo Hospital where Rahul Mahajan is admitted, said that he had conc¬lusively tested negative for drugs. But the hospital was not prepared to say what led to Rahul Mahajan’s critical condition.

Apollo Hospital said a battery of toxicology tests for 13 drugs and one poison showed that they did not cause Rahul Maha¬jan’s near fatal collapse on Friday, June 2 morning. They could not determine what had actually caused the symptoms which were similar to those of drug overdose. Police had taken into custo¬dy four persons who were at the midnight party at Mahajan’s residence. The police are also questioning a woman who was reportedly at the party on Thursday night.

Reports say that the BJP is in a dilemma on the line to be adopted on the Rahul Mahajan episode.

Speaking to the Press on Saturday after a meeting at the residence of senior leader L.K. Advani, general secretary Sushma Swaraj described it as a family tragedy unconnected to the party. “Why do you want to link everything to the party,” she asked. It was a sad moment for the family of the party’s late general secretary. The party also dissociated itself from Moitra, who was personal secretary to senior Maharashtra BJP leader Gopinath Munde in Mumbai before moving to Delhi to join Pramod Mahajan’s team. Mahajan’s sister is married to Munde.

However, within hours of Sushma Swaraj dismissing the matter, fresh controversy erupted with Munde going on record to allege that Rahul had been poisoned. Quoting the toxicology report released by Apollo Hospital, Munde held that contrary to media reports, no cocaine or heroin was found in Rahul’s urine sample. He said his nephew was the victim of a larger conspiracy aimed at defaming the Mahajan family.

But by evening, apparently after weighing pros and cons of the Rahul Mahajan episode, the BJP had adopted a softer line. Party spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said: “We cannot say that we have nothing to do with it. Rahul Mahajan’s father was a BJP leader, while Bibek Moitra was a member of the BJP who was active in its youth wing. What happened is sad and shocking.”

Munde’s insinuation and the BJP’s willingness to explore “the conspiracy angle” come at a time of deep speculation within the party on the circumstances leading to Moitra’s death and the younger Mahajan’s hospitalisation.

Barely was the twin-tragedy flashed on television than it was unofficially hinted that Pramod Mahajan’s son had paid the price for a daring lifestyle that brought his father to ruin. Highly placed sources informally let it be known that Moitra was a known substance user who frequented celebrity parties. Further, they added, Rahul had a predilection for being “unstable”.

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