Mumbai witnessed yet another terrorist attack, this time on a larger scale, holding the entire nation to ransom. This incident took place even before the enquiry into the Malegaon blast could be completed. Suddenly the entire focus shifted from Hindu Terrorism to the jihadis. Whether it be the Hindutva terrorists, who did not give a damn about parliamentary democracy, built after a long drawn struggle, or the Jihadis, who thought it was their ‘moral’ duty to teach the US and the world a lesson, the entire discourse on terrorism saw something positive. Something, which has largely gone unnoticed. Here I am speaking specifically about the Indian situation and not the global one. During the Mumbai terror attacks the discourse of equating Islam with terrorism by the Hindutva fundamentalist forces was not witnessed. In fact one saw them criticising the union government under Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Maharashtra state government under Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh. While this in a way is a positive development, whereby the state’s inability to handle such incidents is being questioned and a particular community, in this case Muslims, is not blamed. This sudden and only criticism of the state by the Hindu fundamentalist forces is due the exposure of Hindu terrorists involved in the Malegaon blasts, which also involved army personnel. One must thank late Hemant Karkare, the chief of Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) Maharashtra, and his team for handling this case in a fair manner and exposing the Hindu terrorism, amidst pressure from the Hindu fundamentalist forces. The exposure of Hindutva terrorists has been a significant development in the discourse on terrorism and communalism in India.
Post 9/11, Muslims all over the world were looked at suspiciously. In India, which has a substantially large Muslim population, their vulnerability was accentuated by the rising Hindu fundamentalist forces. Every terrorist attack and blast in the country was blamed on the Muslim community and Islam was equated with terrorism. The Hindu fundamentalist forces were successful in creating a popular feeling amongst the non-Muslim masses that your next-door Muslim could be a terrorist. This, in my view, seems to have received a major blow with the exposure of Malegaon blasts enquiry. Imagine a situation where the ATS team would not have found the real culprits involved in the Malegaon blasts that is the Hindu terrorists. The post Mumbai terror attack situation would have been very different. It would have, once again, given the Hindu fundamentalist forces a reason to blame the Muslims, making them even more vulnerable in all spheres of public life. And we would have probably witnessed another anti-Muslims riot in the country. However, the Malegaon blasts enquiry put the Hindu fundamentalists on the defensive. They, therefore, had no other choice but to blame the Congress led government at the centre for its inability to handle the terror attacks. While things might not have changed drastically, but at least now forces such as the Sangh Parivar cannot easily blame the Muslim community for any terror attack in India. This is not to suggest that these forces will only blame the state and leave the politics of hate. Their politics survives on making a particular community vulnerable. Hence, these forces will devise new ways to resurrect their politics. In such a context, the role of the state becomes very important. It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that any terror attack in the country is dealt in a fair manner and no space is left open for the fundamentalists groups.
