Herald, Editorial, 19 Oct 2009
Lightning doesn’t strike twice. But, in the case of the Sanatan
Sanstha, apparently it does. For, it says it has ‘nothing’ to do with
the bomb blast, just as it had ‘nothing’ to do with the blast last
year in Thane.
When activists of the Sanstha planted a bomb at the Gadkari Rangayatan
auditorium in Thane, Maharashtra, exploded injuring seven persons, six
activists of the Sanstha, who were also members of the Hindu
Janajagriti Samiti (HJS), were arrested by the Maharashtra
Anti-Terrorist Squad. The bomb was planted because a Marathi play,
‘Aamhi Paachpute’, was to be performed at the auditorium. The Sanatan
Sanstha had denounced the play, saying it ‘denigrated’ Hindu gods and
goddesses, and demanded that it be stopped. The play’s producers
refused to stop showing it.
The response? Not one bomb but two. The other bomb, planted at the
Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium at Vashi, Navi Mumbai, where the play was
also to be performed, was found before it exploded and defused. A
third bomb - planted outside a cinema theatre in Panvel that was
showing the Bollywood film ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’, which the Sanatan Sanstha
had also denounced as ‘denigrating’ Hindus, exploded but thankfully
did not hurt anyone.
In Goa, the Sanatan Sanstha has been campaigning against the Goan
tradition of building and burning Narkasurs at the time of Diwali for
years now. They say making such huge effigies of the demon king is
nothing but the glorification of evil. Goans are proud of their
traditions, and have mostly ignored the Sanstha’s protests. In this
lies the genesis of the bomb that exploded, killing as if in divine
retribution the two terrorist Narkasurs that wanted to massacre
innocent Goans, spread panic and trigger a communal riot in Margao.
Thankfully, alert youth discovered a similar bomb planted on a truck
that was headed for the Vasco Narkasur competition, threw it on the
road and alerted the police, who defused it.
The terrorists who were carrying the bomb were members of both the
Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti. So was the owner of
the scooter in which the bomb was being carried. Yet, yesterday’s
‘Sanatan Prabhat’, the newspaper that represents the views of the
Sanatan Sanstha, says that its activist Malgonda Patil (28) died in an
bomb explosion engineered by ‘unknown elements’.
That is exactly what the Sanstha said after the Thane blasts. That is
why we ask: Does lightning strike twice?
Similar bombs. Similar circumstances. Similar tactics. Similar
situation. Is it a matter of sheer coincidence that while those blasts
occurred in the areas around the Sanstha’s Panvel Ashram, and the
perpetrators of the blasts were living in the ashram, these blasts
occurred in Goa, and one of the perpetrators was living in the
Sanstha’s Ramnathi Ashram?
This time, the evidence is not merely circumstantial. The police have
recovered some circuits and timing devices from the ashram that are
similar to those found in a bag on the scooter that contained dynamite
sticks, detonators, circuit boxes, batteries, remote control, stones
and chemicals, which were defused by the bomb disposal squad before
the police took them away. Hopefully, with the formation of a Special
Investigation Team (SIT), the Sanstha’s disingenuous defence will be
put to the test.
Even more amusing is the angry statement of the Hindu Janajagriti
Samiti (HJS) that it is in no way involved in these blasts. The fact
is that the Sanatan Sanstha is the main constituent unit of the HJS.
Both the terrorists who died in the blast have actively participated
in the HJS’s programmes. It is best that the HJS reviews its ties with
the Sanatan Sanstha if it wants to be free of this taint.
The Goa Police have been under intense pressure this last week, with
10 bodies being discovered, of which eight were murders. But it has
acquitted itself admirably, solving most of the cases within days. We
wish it keeps up the good work.
--
Whatever it is, I'm against it -- Groucho Marx
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