An Open letter to the National Integration Committee

Subject: The continuing Muslim and minority persecution in India                                               

                                                       By Amaresh Misra

          I, along with my fellow citizens of India, am addressing this letter to the meeting of the National Integration Council (NIC) on 13^th October. This Government of India body has the premier task of fighting communal forces and facilitating Indian national Integration  

Dear senior members of the NIC,        

You all know me as a historian and the author of `War of Civilizations: India 1857 AD’, the two volume authoritative work on 1857, India’s first war of Independence. I have been instrumental in making the world aware that India fought a great anti-colonial battle in the 19^th century and that 10 million Indians were killed by rampaging British troops during the 1857 wars.

          1857 offers a shining example of national integration. There is no place from Gilgit to Tamil Nadu and Manipur to Maharashtra which was not affected by the great war of the Indian people. Hindus and Muslims fought as brothers. Kattar Hindu Sepoys or peasant soldiers went to Delhi to install, Bahadur Shah Zafar as India’s Emperor. When Rani Lakshmi Bai died she had only 250 Pathan-Muslim soldiers with her—all of whom perished in the fatal battle with the British. In Ayodhya, right near the spot where the Babari Masjid was demolished, Maulavis and Pundits were hanged together side by side. There was no distinction—Hindus and Muslims were one.

          Who can deny this history? I am a firm believer in policies and programs of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. But some elements in our society, represented by the RSS are hell bent upon in negating the Nehruvian legacy, secular-Sanatani Hindu ethos and the Muslim contribution to Indian history. Sadly, present-day secular forces seemed to have surrendered before them—how else you all, esteemed members of the NIC, can define the Batla House encounter? During this encounter, the Home Minister of a secular government was sitting in the control room of the Delhi Police supervising the suspect encounter of two Muslim boys in the Jamia Nagar area. Is this democracy? Even if we accept the police version that the boys were masterminds or something of the blasts that rocked Delhi on 12^th September who has the right to kill them in full public view? Isn’t this unconstitutional?

   During my travels to the US I unearthed a widespread plot to destabilize India. This plot is being hatched by American and Indian Right Wing elements—but is being resisted by American Democrats. Shivraj Patil and Narendra Modi are part of this plot; what do you make of Tata shifting his Nano car to Gujarat? It means that even the corporate lobby has thrown in its lot with fascists.

What is the long-term design of the American-Israeli plot? It is to butcher Indian Muslims, sound a death knell to Indian nationalism, and erode India’s sovereignty. Let this letter serve as a warning to people like Shivraj Patil and Narendra Modi, who are not even a speck of dust as compared to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. A thousand Shivraj Patil, Narendra Modi and toady figures like Ratan Tata, will die a thousand deaths before their American masters can destroy India—a country built by the sacrifice of millions of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.

 The bomb blasts that have rocked India since July 2008 have all been planned by the Home Ministry to effect Muslim persecution and communal polarization and destroy Indian nationalism. The reason: for Shivraj Patil, Narendra Modi and Ratan Tata, and the Indian corporate lobby, the current world economic crisis presents a dilemma. These forces want to rule the world through neo-liberal economic policies, which are failing even in America. In India, the current, neo-liberal economic policies have caused untold damage: while the corporate lobby stands strengthened, the peasantry and the Adivasis, the OBCs and the Dalits are all seeing a decline in their income. Unemployment and inflation is rampant. In the name of privatization, India’s Independent Industrial base has been eroded.

It is clear that that impoverished masses of India, the vast majority of minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs are restless. India wants a more pro-people, anti-corporate house economic policy. People want more empowerment, progress and prosperity. They are dissatisfied not only with the Modi-Tata economic policies, which have  made even the rich amongst OBCs, Dalits and minorities poor, but also with the entire ideology of fake Brahminism, which has been used since the British era to suppress minorities and Dalits.

RSS type Hindutva forces, created primarily by the British, are afraid of Sanatan Dharma, the true religion of Hindus. The reason is that Sanatan Dharma and Islam have worked in an historical alliance to create the great Indian composite culture which made India a superpower during the Mughal era.

Shivraj Patil and Narendra Modi hate the Indian composite culture. They also hate Hindus and Sanatan Dharma—like the British, Shivraj Patil and Narendra Modi know that as long as Sanatan Dharma and Islam exist in India, no harm can come to India’s sovereignty.

The American establishment—not the American people—are uncomfortable with Indian sovereignty; because Indian sovereignty implies anti-Imperialism and national dignity. America wants to turn India into a client-state, with limited sovereignty. What is best way to do this? From the American right wing perspective, a fascist Indian government which can curb nationalist and democratic elements is the best government.

It is clear that this fascist government can never come to power through votes. So the American game-plan is to organize bomb blasts, destabilize India, divert the attention of people from their real issues and then have a communal-fascist government assume power through largely undemocratic means in the name of `national security’. This fascist government will dismantle Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar’s constitution, thus disenfranchising the Dalits and minorities and all patriotic, peace loving and democratic people of India.    

What national security can Modi or Shivraj Patil provide India—they are already sold out to American interests. Who is India’s Home Secretary—he is the same anti-national figure who was the District Magistrate of Faizabad when the Babari Masjid was demolished.

Just pause and think for a moment—the Home Ministry since the time of LK Advani had enrolled unemployed Hindus and Muslims—these boys were exploited and used to plant bomb blasts. Then some organization like SIMI or the Indian Mujahideen (IM) was created and Muslims persecuted!

This has been the game-plan and Modi and Shivraj Patil think Indians are not aware of this? 

                 The recent Bomb Blast phenomenon stinks, from top to bottom. In March 2008 the Madhya Pradesh Police arrests Safdar Nagori, an alleged SIMI activist—then the Police of various states make a data bank of SIMI based on his confession. In India give any one, even Shivraj Patil, the home Minister to the police and in 24 hours the police will have even his confession as a the most dreaded terrorist of the country!

          What kind of a mockery is the Indian Mujahideen (IM)? We, the common people of India, know that the IM is a creation of the Home Ministry—Muslim boys being picked up from Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, UP and several other areas are all innocent victims of a foreign plot to destabilize India. The current Home Secretary is the same person who was the DM of Faizabad during the demolition of the Babari Masjid. How could the UPA government allow this to happen? How could a secular government allow a communal bureaucrat to become the Home Secretary in the first place?

          There is something clearly something very wrong here—Muslim boys are being picked up, while Ken Haywood, the American citizen form whose computer in Navi Mumbai the email sent by IM was traced is let off! There is not even a police investigation! And no one makes it an issue!

          Suddenly beginning from July 2008 we see pattern in which bomb blasts rock India with regularity, the media starts demonizing Muslims with impunity, and then the RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal, the entire saffron brigade goes on a rampage in Orissa, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra killing Christians and Muslims? In Orissa women are raped—a similar thing happens in Dhulia where a pregnant women were raped—all this shows that Gujarat 2002 is repeating itself. Only this time, the communal elements have the protection of the Indian state.

          In Assam, the VHP is spreading false stories that Muslims are attacking Hindus. It is being openly said by the VHP in Assam that   

          The worst fears of secular forces have come out to be true—communal elements have taken over parts of the Indian State—this much is clear. The RSS is openly challenging the Indian State—everyone knows that the BJP is politically isolated and does not stand a chance in the 2009 elections. The entire Sangh Parivar has put in all its might now to unleash a reign of terror and sabotage the very fundamentals of Indian democracy and constitution.

          I ask the Dalit leaders attending the NIC meet—in front of your very eyes, the constitution of Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar is being trampled upon—what are you doing about it? Everyone knows that the RSS has always hated the Indian constitution and the very idea of India as a secular state—why then is there no talk of banning the RSS?   The RSS has openly challenged the Indian State. RSS chief Sudarshan has openly exhorted his cadres to attack minorities—I am attaching this statement: “Dear Hindus, In the rule of Congress Hindus, Hindu Saints and Hindu leaders are attacked. Hindus sentiments are hurt on the issues like Amarnath Pilgrim, Ram Setu etc. For these we should start praying and chanting for 10 minutes not only for the defeat of Congress in the coming election but also to destroy anti-Hindu and anti-nation Congress, Communist, anti-Hindus and pseudo Hindus”.

          What kind of poison is this—what is the Government of India doing about this? This is the same language Hitler used against Jews and Communists in the 1930s—is it part of the anti-national plan of Modi, Patil and the RSS to turn India into another Germany of the 1930s?

          Members of the NIC, please act before it is too late. Ban the Bajrang Dal, VHP and the RSS. Constitute a judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter. Request the UPA Government to put a stop to acts of Muslim persecution and arrests. Publish a white paper on terrorism, which shows the real face of the culprits. Enact a new law which prevents atrocities against minorities and Adivasis.

Please do not be scared of a Hindu backlash or some such nonsense—I assure you, these people have killed Sharma, their own man during the Batla House encounter. Hindus have no sympathy for them. Talk to ordinary Hindus—they are nationalists and they want a revival of composite culture. They know that Indian Muslims have a long history of nationalism—if Muslims had really wanted to take revenge, they would have attacked Modi or Advani. They would not have attacked ordinary, innocent Hindus and Muslims in cowardly bomb blasts.

          It is known the world over that blasts which kill ordinary people are the handiwork of International, anti-national, evil and fascist forces. These forces can never become popular. So they execute blasts in order to create terror and ensure that people do not protest, or come out to vote against them.

Any Indian supporting RSS is anti-national—and he or she will be given an appropriate response.