Exoneration of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose arrest sent shockwaves to power corridors, raises question; it did not see the historic incident from the biased prism of ‘Hindu vs Muslim’ perpetrator
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was exonerated by the Special NIA Court in Mumbai on Thursday. PIC/PTI
The arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur along with other ‘Hindu’ co-accused as the key conspirators in the 2008 Malegaon bombing, for the first time, had triggered an unusual, a never-heard-before debate in social, political and media circles. It shifted the focus of law enforcement and their investigations from the ‘usual suspects’ to the ‘unusual suspects’. Even the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi at the hands of right-winger Nathu Ram Godse had not triggered a debate of such an astounding magnitude. It did not see the historic incident from the biased prism of ‘Hindu vs Muslim’ perpetrator.
Sadhvi’s arrest, in a way, had sent shockwaves to the power corridors and shaken the ‘tectonic plates’ of those at their helm to their core. The reason is crystal clear: The development had huge political ramifications and had been fraught with electoral costs. No political party was willing to take an electoral risk. As a result, the political outfits kept themselves at a safe distance and watched the developments from afar to avoid these hidden electoral costs.
As the news broke, people switched on their television sets, only to add to their confusion. They watched the prime-time news in total disbelief, with their eyes wide open. No one was mentally prepared to see what they were actually watching and to hear what they were hearing. With Sadhvi’s arrest, ‘unacceptable’ and ‘disgusting’ terms and above all, concoctions like ‘Hindu Terror’, ‘Right Wing Terror’, started occupying spaces in newspapers and in slots on TV channels during prime times. Countrymen heard for the first time about certain ‘Abhinav Bharat’. They also heard for the very first time, as had been alleged back then, Abhinav Bharat’s hidden agenda of overthrowing the Government of India and establishing a government-in-exile Aryavrat with its headquarters in Israel.
However, many media outlets latched on to these ‘newly-discovered suspects’ to gain some Television Ratings Points (TRPs) as the audience wants new and more, while many of them played the ‘playing up of this new discovery’ down with full aplomb for reasons best known to them. The then accused and now the exonerated Sadhvi Pragya has time and again equated her “unfortunate” arrest and “false implication” with a ploy of a particular party to safeguard its vote bank.
Before the so-called ‘Hindu Terror’, not-so-quietly though, seeped into our daily lives, terms like ‘Islamic Terror’ and ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’ had been hot topics of the dining tables and a talk of the town. Every Tom, Dick and Harry emerged as an expert on Islamic jurisprudence and dropped their comments on ‘Islamic Terror’ and ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’ without even knowing and accepting that no religion propagates hatred and terror. And Islam is no exception.
Sadhvi’s arrest gave birth to concoctions like ‘Hindu Terror’ and the ‘Right Wing Terror’. Before that, the so-called ‘Islamic Terror’ was the usual suspect. Its role had been ‘found’ behind every terror activity in the country. When Sadhvi was arrested, everybody did not wait to say, “Oh, come on! How can a Hindu be involved in a bomb blast?” Back then, people also started contemplating on the universally-held view that “terrorism has no religion” but “every terrorist arrested is found to be a follower of a particular religion.” Though Thursday’s verdict by the Special NIA Court in Mumbai has exonerated Sadhvi Pragya Singh and others of all the charges, will it help the nation erase the so-called concoction of ‘Hindu Terror’ from the memories of the countrymen? Only time will tell.
The writer is a journalist turned-advocate who practices at the District Court, Malegaon
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