Modi makes a point

At last the UPA government has declared that the SIMI is a terrorist outfit, with links with other Islamic terror outfits and that it is waging a war against the Indian state. In this the centre has requested the Gujarat government to share the proof it has accumulated in connection with the terror attacks in Ahmedabad and Surat.

The centre in an elaborate mass of evidence provided before the Supreme Court to press the ban on the outfit which has been found to be increasingly involved in terrorist attacks and anti-India activities, told the apex court that SIMI was spreading the message of jehad and at the same time “extended full support to extremists and terrorists in J&K and Punjab and have been involved in various militant and disruptive activities in Maharashtra, Kerala, UP and Tamil Nadu”. The hard-hitting affidavit on SIMI this time is designed to overcome the loss of face it suffered when the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal on August 6, turned down the ban citing incoherent and insufficient evidence submitted by the Home Ministry.

Immediately after the Tribunal lifted the ban on the outfit the three allies of the UPA, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ramvilas Paswan had swiftly latched on to this to hand out certificates of innocence to SIMI. The centre in its affidavit cited the evidence in the Ahmedabad serial blasts which had claimed 55 lives. The investigation has revealed that the accused persons are members of SIMI.

With influential leaders and cabinet ministers singing paean of praise for SIMI and equating it with other nationalist organisations, the general impression was that the UPA was determined to curry favour with the enemies of the country. What perhaps stumped its design is the clinching evidence presented by the Gujarat police against SIMI pointing also to its involvements in terrorist attacks elsewhere in the country as well. The Gujarat investigations exposed the terrorist outfit links across the country from Azamgarh in UP to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. This helped the authorities reopen investigations into many cases closed for want of sufficient leads.

It is here that the Narendra Modi government performed a stupendous task. The terrorists were indulging in blasts after blasts in city after city in the last five years and getting away scot-free. Not a single case has been solved or the culprits arrested till the Modi government cracked on SIMI in August in a determined effort to nab the terror gang.

The centre played all tricks to sideline the effort. The Congress leaders even went to the absurd limit of suggesting that the Surat bombs were planted by the state government and one of its leaders demanded a CBI probe. They were supported by overground advocates of jehad and fazad masquerading as civil rights activists. The Congress crossed all limits when it compared the patriotic Shri Amarnath Shrine Board land agitations with the secessionist Pakistani agents in Kashmir as the two sides of the same coin. Its government was creating more hurdles by sitting on anti-terror laws on the lines of the Maharashtra MCOCA passed by Gujarat and Rajasthan. And the Home Minister justified it by saying that the centre will not allow the states to have separate laws to deal with terror.

Despite all this the BJP Chief Minister of Gujarat accomplished what no other state government could in all these years. He did not make tall claims. But the determination was evident when he announced substantial reward and safety for anybody willing to provide a clue. And he did not interfere with the investigating agencies. They complained of the Congress-ruled states not cooperating initially, because the gangsters were spread across the country. But there was no stopping a Messianic nationalist pursuit. And Modi led from the front. In the process he set an example before the nation that the terrorist shenanigans cannot hoodwink the commitment of a zealous patriot.