If Advani had Barack Obama’s marketing machinery at his disposal, he should have used it to tell the country, specially in the light of the recent blasts, how his judgment was superior to everyone else’s. Obama key election plank has been ‘judgement’ that he demonstrated by giving a speech against Iraq war when even most Democrats were for the war – John Kerry and Hillary Clinton included – how he has been proven right.
Mulayam Singh in July,2006, “There have been two major terrorist strikes in Uttar Pradesh ever since we formed the government; and be it Ayodhya or the Varanasi blasts, SIMI was not remotely involved”. His brother went further in defending SIMI saying that even he had been accused of being a SIMI agent! Governor of UP, TV Rajeswar Rao, took a serious note of this statement. Had he been from BJP he would have been branded communal but he happens to be a UPA appointed Governor, who was senior intelligence official who ought to know more about security threats to the country than Mulayam.
Defending a terrorist organization is a criminal offence in many countries in the world. It is so in many states in India. What would you say about a person who has gone on defending a terrorist organization just to garner votes? While Mulayam Singh tried to backtrack, but that would have been possible only if this was his one-off defense of SIMI. But he has been a pro-SIMI activist for a long a time. Milli Gazzette dated Oct. 15, 2001 writes, ‘Other organizations including Jamiatul Ulama, Milli Council and Majlis-e-Mushawarat have also criticized the move. Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party has come forward and criticized the ban on SIMI.’ It further adds, ‘Samajwadi Party’s general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Azam Khan told MG that the move smacks of political vendetta against the Muslims of the country.’
Secular UPA’s, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal had this to say in the Lok Sabha in April 2008, “The banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has links with terrorist groups, including Lashker-e-Toiba”. ’ He further added that links have been revealed in investigations into a number of cases.
When SIMI was banned by the NDA government in 2001, Advani and the BJP drew flak from all and sundry. Today with arrest of top SIMI leadership, it nefarious designs have been exposed. Primary investigations into recent blats show that Indian Mujahideen which has claimed responsibility for the Ahmadabad blasts on July 26th, could be SIMI v2.0. It is too much to expect the UPA and its supporting leaders to acknowledge that Advani was right and they were wrong; but at least they would not be so shameless to side with a blatantly anti-national terrorist organization. That they are still in politics is unfortunate and can happen only in India where we forgave those who supported China in the Indo-China war of 1962!
Post Script: If I have desired politics being purged of anti-national, pro-terrorist leaders like Mulayam Singh; let me also make another wish. The biggest achievement of the trust vote on April 22nd was that UPA brilliantly leveraged leaders like Omar Abdullah to demonstrate that what is pro-India cannot be anti-Indian Muslim, and that problems that afflict Muslims of India are the problem that afflict all Indians. This ensured that in spite of earlier attempts the Nuclear Agreement never became a communal issue. The welcome that Omar received even in the Kashmir valley proves that it is an insult to the Muslim voters that being pro-SIMI, exonerating Afzal Guru, siding with Iran come what may, would get their votes. I wish people like Omar (who I think hid behind rhetoric on the land transfer issue, but that was a minor point of his speech) and others like him would do the same in delinking a ruthless anti-terrorist operation from an anti-Muslim operation. It will strengthen those who want to deal with it strongly and weaken those who are playing on those fears. For once even BJP would be grateful to Omar.
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