POLITICS-INDIA: Ban on ‘Jehadist’ Group Biased, Says Opposition

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 1 2001 (IPS) - Indian opposition parties have joined hands with Muslim leaders in condemning as discriminatory a federal ban on the radical Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a group that officials claim is linked to the Al Qaeda group of the Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden.

Proclaimed on Thursday, the ban sparked unrest across this country, which is home to 150 million Muslims. This was especially the case in Lucknow, capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, where police opened fire on protestors and killed four persons.

“SIMI has links with Al-Qaeda and militant organisations in the Gulf, Pakistan, Bangaldesh and Nepal,” Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande told reporters.

Although the ban has been enforced by most states — including those ruled by opposition parties — many groups have also demanded a similar ban on militant Hindu organisations particularly the Bajrang Dal, which is closely connected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“We welcome the ban on SIMI but the central government should also have banned the Bajrang Dal,” said Digvijay Singh, Congress party leader and chief minister of central Madhya Pradesh state.

Police in Madhya Pradesh cracked down hard on known SIMI offices, arresting several leaders and recovering more than a hundred guns with Czech, South African and U.S. markings on them.

Eastern Bihar state, ruled by the regional Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Laloo Prasad Yadave, refused to enforce the ban unless it was matched by a similar ban on the Bajrang Dal.

In the state of Delhi which houses the national capital, police arrested Shahid Badr, president of SIMI, on charges of causing communal disaffection while top leaders of the organisation in Madhya Pradesh, western Maharashtra, and Kerala states have also been rounded up.

While all four states are ruled by the Congress party, which claims to be secular and opposed to the blatantly pro-Hindu BJP which leads Vajpayee’s federal-ruling coalition, they unhesitatingly enforced the ban on the SIMI.

However, Congress party spokesperson Jaipal Reddy said the ban was timed to fan communal discord especially in Uttar Pradesh, which is expected to elect a new assembly early next year.

Reddy commented that the Bajrang Dal, strongly suspected to have been behind the grueseome murder of a Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in 1999, has gotten away unscathed.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) said the “selective ban” on the SIMI smacked of communal overtones.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, leader of the regional Samajwadi Party, which is favoured to win the Uttar Pradesh polls, said the timing of the ban was suspect because it came while international attention was riveted on the Al Qaeda, accused of having carried out the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

However, India’s Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani had given notice of a possible ban on the SIMI well before the Sep 11 attacks on the basis of “foolproof” evidence.

In fact, SIMI had even reacted to Advani through a press statement in August warning of “dangerous consequences” if a ban was indeed imposed.

The statement even charged the government with crafting a “well-planned strategy to malign a respected and popular students organisation”.

But the home ministry now has plans to follow up the ban on the SIMI and the arrest of its leaders with a crackdown on illegal madrasah (Islamic seminaries), which its officials say are breeding grounds for jehadism.

“These madrasah are being used as weapons caches and as shelters for agents of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI),” an official said, referring to Pakistan’s intelligence body.

Indian officials say the ISI was behind the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane with 150 passengers on board from Kathmandu to Kandahar in Afghanistan in December 1999, and later releasing the aircraft in exchange for four jailed Kashmiri militants.

But many believe that the ban on SIMI was ordered with a view to enhancing electoral prospects for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh through further polarisation of votes between majority Hindus and Muslims.

The BJP came to power by whipping up communal tensions over the disputed Babri Masjid in the Ayodhya town of Uttar Pradesh , which it claims was built by Muslim invaders after demolishing a temple which existed on the site.

In December 1992, the three-domed mosque was brought down by activists of the Bajrang Dal and other Hindu fundemantalist organisations while top BJP leaders including Advani and Vajpayee watched on.

The demolition of the mosque led to nationwide violence between the Muslim and Hindu communities, in which thousands were killed and rendered homeless.