'No Hindu Can Ever Be a Terrorist': Amit Shah, a Day Before Malegaon Verdict
New Delhi: Ahead of today's verdict in the Malegaon blasts case in which members of extremist Hindutva outfit Abhinav Bharat were acquitted of all charges, Union home minister Amit Shah had claimed in the Rajya Sabha at the Congress for “manufacturing” the theory of “saffron terror”, and said, “I am proud to say, no Hindu can ever be a terrorist.”
Shah alleged that the “saffron terror” thesis was amplified by the Congress as part of its “politics of appeasement”.
“They tried to give terrorism a religious colour for the sake of votes – but people of India rejected the falsehood,” Shah said, nearly pre-empting the Thursday verdict on Malegaon blasts.
Amit Shah’s remarks came just hours before the crucial NIA court verdict on Malegaon, where the judge A.K. Lahoti said, "Terror has no religion because no religion can advocate violence."
It may be recalled that the special prosecutor in the case Rohini Salian in 2015 had alleged that a high level NIA police official Suhas Warke had asked her to “go soft” on the accused after Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Some of the high profile accused, and now acquitted, persons in the case are current BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, among others, including retired army officers. Salian had said that when she refused to comply, she was shunted out of the case without being offered an explanation. After her revelation, Warke was moved out of the NIA but reinducted in the Anti-Terrosim Squad (ATS), and continued to oversee the case from the ATS end.
Earlier, the same accused persons belonging to Hindutva outfits were acquitted in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts case by a NIA court in April, 2018.
On July 29, Shah said that the “saffron terror” theory was fanned by Congress leaders like Digvijaya Singh, who allegedly tried to pin the blame of even 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks on Hindutva outfits. “All this was done for political gain. Innocent people were jailed, tortured, and defamed – not in pursuit of justice but to build a story that served electoral purposes,” Shah said.
“The only reason terrorism spread in this country was because of your (Congress) vote bank calculations,” Shah said, alleging the Congress of enabling terrorism and weakening national security through decades of “appeasement politics”. He said that the death sentence of Afzal Guru was also delayed because P. Chidambaram was the home minister then.
Shah added that in contrast the BJP regime has controlled the spread of terrorism, and recruitment of youth by Islamist outfits have stopped entirely.
Speaking about Operation Sindoor, Shah said, “There will be no dialogue until terrorism ends. We stopped only after they (Pakistan) pleaded for a ceasefire when they were on their knees.”
On Tuesday, even prime minister Narendra Modi, while speaking on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha, lashed out at the Congress for fanning the “Hindu terror” thesis while “Pakistan-based terror organisations like the LeT were carrying out bomb attacks” in different parts of India.
This article went live on July thirty-first, two thousand twenty five, at nineteen minutes past one in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
