Congress seeks to justify IM terror activities
Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed's ridiculous remark that the Indian Mujahideen was formed in response to the Gujarat violence of 2002, is fit to be dismissed without the honour of even a rebuttal. Yet it must not be allowed to go uncontested because of the devious motive that lies behind the statement. The motive is to justify the creation and the activities of the terror outfit that has caused havoc in the country. Mr Ahmed and the Congress perhaps believe that they can reap political harvest through distorted minority appeasement. That is doubtful, because the minority community has seen through these games and repeatedly rejected the party in recent years. But the Congress appears not to have learnt any lesson and its leaders are perfectly willing to float any theory — even if it harms the country's interest — in a bid to run down the Bharatiya Janata Party, and especially its leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. But senior Congressmen like Mr Ahmed must realise that certain off-limits must be observed. By justifying the creation of the IM and its terror acts, he has only played into the hands of anti-Indian elements within the country and across the border. It's an open secret that the IM is funded and operated by a clutch of people based in Pakistan. These people are supported by Pakistani elements from within the establishment and outside. They operate freely and call the shots with barely any resistance from law enforcement authorities in that country. The IM is said to have been behind some recent attacks, including the ones in Bodh Gaya and Hyderabad. Mr Ahmed appears to forget that the IM does not target any particular section of the population — which it should have, had it been indeed formed in response to the Gujarat violence — but aims to generate bloodshed across the board and weaken the Indian state. The justification that Mr Ahmed has given is precisely the kind that terrorists have been dishing out for ages. They said the same about the Mumbai riots too: That the violence was a reaction to the Babri mosque demolition. They said similar things to explain away the November 2008 mayhem in Mumbai.
The likes of Mr Ahmed must not forget that terrorism came into India much before 2002. The late eighties saw the first real burst of terrorism in Kashmir after the VP Singh Government capitulated to the terrorists' demand in order to secure the release of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's daughter from the militants' clutches. Since then, many terror outfits trained and funded from across the western borders have constantly targeted India. let's remember the sympathy that many leaders of the Congress and the so-called secular parties had displayed for the now banned outfit, Students Islamic Movement of India (like they had for the terrorists who were involved in the Batla House encounter case). These leaders had then lauded SIMI for its ‘role' in working for the legitimate cause of the Muslim youth in the country! Instead of expending energy on targeting its political opponents, the Congress must go after the terrorists who are out to dismember the nation. The party cannot get away by merely saying that Mr Ahmed’s remark is “not the Congress’s line as of now”.