SHORT TAKES

Follow the Tenkasi Lead

DR MOHAMMAD MANZOOR ALAM on the extensive Sangh network of terror and the state's responsibility to bust it

With the arrest of three Sangh Parivar activists at the end of January for the bombing of the RSS office in Tenkasi town of Tamil Nadu new hope has emerged about solving the mystery of bomb attacks on places like Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad, Jama Masjid in Delhi and several other places.

As the next parliamentary elections draw close the Sangh has been trying to create bad blood between Hindus and Muslims all over the country. From experience it knows that an environment of communal ill will always helps it. However, it has failed to create a division between the two communities.

The three activists of Hindu Munnani (a front of the RSS in the South) identified as S. Ravi Pandian, S. Kumar and V. Narayana Sharma were found to have stage-managed the blasts. Sharma had assembled 14 pipe bombs over the last few months. The lead provided by these people led to the arrest of four more persons earlier this month.

Preliminary reports said the explosive devices used in this case were identical to those used in the Makkah Masjid case. Cases of Ghatkopar, Nanded and Parbhani were not different either. However, instead of investigating the cases properly police and intelligent outfits consistently ignore the Sangh connection and start floating theories about "Islamic terrorism".

There was concrete evidence of involvement of these elements in Maharashtra also, but then a lot of other theories were floated to confuse things. Time and again we have drawn the attention of the Union government, but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The Tenkasi arrests indicate the extent of the Sangh network of terror. Will it be too much to expect a thorough investigation in all cases from a government at the Centre which does not have a great record for confronting these people? g