For the last five years, the BJP has consistently called for strong action against terrorism, accusing the Congress-led UPA government of being ?soft on terror? because it wants to keep its Muslim vote base intact.
Ironically, the saffron party is now facing the charge of being indulgent towards terror, or ?Hindu terror?, after the BJP and its top leadership defended Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Purohit, charged by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad of engineering the bomb blasts in Malegaon that killed five Muslims on September 29 this year.
The BJP?s prime ministerial candidate LK Advani?s charge last week that the ATS investigations are politically motivated and unprofessional, based merely on the claims in an affidavit submitted by the accused, has left little doubt that the emerging controversy over the different colours of terror will play a critical role in the forthcoming general elections scheduled for next year.
On Sunday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi told an election rally in the capital that ?Terrorists are terrorists. They have only one religion – to spread terror in society?. Ms Gandhi?s remarks appear to be a retort to Advani?s charges earlier in the week.
In more subtle remarks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a concluding meeting of DGPs and IGPs in the capital that ?…we need to guard against the new danger posed by the spread of fundamentalist and extremist ideas.
We have, of late, been witnessing the emergence of such pernicious tendencies and trends, and there are elements in our society who are actively pursuing such programmes?.
In a conversation with the Prime Minister last week, Advani had condemned the ?barbaric treatment? of a ?spiritual person,? and sought a judicial probe into the allegations made by Sadhvi Pragya Singh, besides assailing ?the manner in which unsubstantiated allegations have been made against serving Army personnel?.
In taking the Congress-led UPA head on over the issue, the BJP has indicated that, after being initially shaken by the charges against people allegedly associated with the parivar, the party will now try to change the rules of the game as it is being played.
The need to remain on the right side of the RSS, too, seems to have played a role in this season of assembly polls leading up to general elections next year. ?There is nothing like ?Hindu terrorism? or ?Muslim terrorism?, anyone killing innocents is a terrorist,? RSS chief K S Sudarshan told reporters on the sidelines of a RSS meeting in Lucknow on Sunday. Charging the government of playing politics with the sentiments of Hindus, Sudarshan said
?Instead of taking any steps to effectively combat terrorism in the country, the government is trying to divert the attention of people by coining terms like Hindu and Muslim terrorism.?
Last Sunday?s congregation of sadhus at Panipat, which was also attended by BJP chief Rajnath Singh, had decided to launch a mass movement against the ?vilification of Hindu monks and army personnel?.