Home-grown terrorism in India

India’s boasts of being largest democracy will ring hollow if one of its main parties is found to have terrorist ties.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the subcontinent is that terrorism flows only one way, from Pakistan to India. Certainly, non-state actors from Pakistan have, in the past, carried out undesirable activities in India. India has reason to be aggrieved by this and, indeed, still hasn’t forgiven us for the Pakistani link in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but even then its recognition that right-wing political parties in the country may be training terrorists is long overdue. The acknowledgement came from Shushilkumar Shinde, India’s home minister and a member of the Congress party, who said that the BJP and the RSS were conducting terror camps. His comments have now also been backed by Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who has said these remarks are ‘based on facts’ found out by investigative agencies.

Both the parties have cried foul and accused Mr Shinde of playing politics. But their complaints ring hollow. The RSS and the BJP are sister parties that both promote an extreme right-wing version of Hinduism and have no time for minorities. Indeed, it was the RSS that was part of the co-conspirators in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi for his supposed bias towards Muslims and it hasn’t moderated its views since then. The BJP may be the second largest political party in the country but it is one that has ruled by dividing India along religious and sectarian lines. To find that these two parties may be involved in training terrorists comes as no surprise given their history.

Congress will now be under a lot of pressure to disavow Shinde and his accusations. It should stand firm and instead launch a full investigation into these claims. India’s boasts of being the largest democracy in the world will ring hollow if one of its main parties is found to have terrorist ties. As potentially destabilising as it may be, for the sake of justice India should go through with this investigation and provide proof to the world to counter the BJP and RSS claims that it is being victimised by its political opponents.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2013.