India should have zero tolerance to Hindutva terror too: CPI(M)

Demanding a thorough investigation into terror-related cases, CPI(M) has said that the country should display "zero tolerance" to all forms of terrorism, including "Hindutva terrorism".

The net of terror spread by "Hindutva terrorist" groups continues to widen, posing a "very serious threat" to the unity and integrity of the nation, it said.

"The country should display zero tolerance. Terrorism of all varieties only feed and strengthen each other, seeking to destroy the very unity and integrity of our country," it said.

"To safeguard and strengthen modern India's secular democratic foundations, it is imperative that such pernicious ideological methods of using terror for realising a political objective needs to be decisively defeated," CPI(M) said in an editorial in party mouthpiece People's Democracy.

It said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will probe the terrorist attacks on the Samjhauta Express and examine the entire conspiracy behind the attack, including the links of the accused in terrorist attacks at Malegaon, Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and at the Dargah in Ajmer.

A few weeks after the Malegaon bomb blast, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested 11 people, the CP(M) said adding this was the first instance in recent times of arrests of people belonging to Hindutva right-wing outfits on charges of terrorist activities.

Rattled by such exposures in the ongoing investigations, it said, the RSS has reacted in its "typical fashion", saying that all those arrested were no longer members of RSS or any of its affiliates.

The CPI(M) also alleged that RSS is indulging in double-speak on the issue of terrorism.

"The RSS chief questions the term Hindu terrorism asking, "How can you club an entire community with the concept of terrorism?" He says It is a political conspiracy to defeat and defame Hindutva forces.

"What we are speaking about is Hindutva terror, not Hindu terror. Clearly, no religious community, as a whole, can be held responsible for the terrorist activities of individuals embracing that religion," the party said.

"Same yardstick, however, should apply to other religions as well. However, not according to the RSS. In the meeting of its karyakarani mandali baithak in October 2008, just before the Malegaon blast arrests, the RSS adopted a resolution titled, 'Curb Islamic Terrorism with an Iron Hand'. This is not merely an expression of double standards," it said.

The party said this reflected the ideological roots of converting the modern secular democratic republic of India into the RSS version of a "Hindu Rashtra" based on "rabid" religious intolerance.