SIMI & Secular politics

At a time when Mumbai police are on the lookout for the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) members for their suspected role in 7/11 serial blasts, it is panic to know that Congress and Left parties including Sonia Gandhi and Ambika Soni opposed NDA to ban on SIMI. Now the Mulayam Singh Yadav government is contemplating withdrawing the cases against banned SIMI members and setting them free. We wonder if they take any action at all even if India gets nuked.

SIMI & Secular politics

All the 16, including SIMI's Uttar Pradesh chief Mohammed Amir, were involved in Kanpur riots in 2001 in which a government official on riot-control duty was also killed. Amir has openly admitted that SIMI members draw inspiration from terror mastermind Osama bin Laden who, according to him, is not a terrorist. Arraigned as he is by a section of Muslims, one shouldn't be taken aback by the softening of Mulayam government's approach towards SIMI.

“Few thousands came from Pak to see cricket match. More than 20 are missing. No care for them. Are they terrorists or ‘cricket lover?” see article in organizer, April 03, 05. Former Home Minister of Maharasthra Munde accused Simi and ISI of plotting the blasts in trains. The Centre is busy operating bus services to Pakistan and Islamabad, on its part, is busy pushing terrorists into India.” said Bal Thackeray.

According to the SIMI, Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is an outstanding example of a true Mujahid, who has undertaken Jehad on behalf of the 'ummah'. The government seems to have got further evidence connecting the banned SIMI organization with Saudi fugitive Osama-bin-Laden following the arrest of 128 of its cadres holding a secret meeting in Surat, (Gujarat) on Dec. 30, 2001.


Senseless Arguement

As per SIMI, Israelis were responsible for the 9/11 attacks in New York. In the same tone Secular Railway Minister Laloo Yadav and his sponsored Bannerjee Commission Report said that Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya burnt themselves in the train compartment at Godhra Station. Playing the same dirty politics SSP leader Abu Asim Azmi and Rane former leader of Shiv Sena and now in Congress alleged that the Shiv Sena might have "conspired" in the desecration of statue of Thackeray’s wife Meenatai's bust to gain political mileage.


Sonia opposed ban on SIMI

March 26, 2002: Sonia Gandhi, during an extraordinary joint session convened for the introduction of the POTA bill, says that the anti-terrorism measure had been selectively used to ban an organization that had nothing to do with terrorism in J&K. Further she opposed the banning of Islamic terrorist organization SIMI in June 2002.


Ban on SIMI was ill timed: Ambika

Smt. Ambika Soni, Former General Secretary, AICC issued the following statement on 28th September, 2001 on the ban on SIMI: Apart from being lop-sided, the action on SIMI is ill-timed. Just when the international environment is exceptionally tense, it is not in the national interest to take any steps that would disturb the domestic scene. But the BJP is far more interested in reaping the electoral harvest in UP by seeking to divide the people on communal lines than in the enlightened self-interest of the nation.


Prakash Jaiswal supported SIMI

It is important to note that in the year 2000 Prakash Jaiswal who was President of the state unit of the Congress (At present State Home Minister in UPA Govt.) and Samajwadi Party opposed the ban on the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). They maintained the view that the Hindu fundamentalist outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal were more threat to the national security than SIMI. They viewed like that because forthcoming Assembly elections in the state in which the votes of the Muslims would play a significant role.


Congress & left wanted support of SIMI

Hindustan Times published an article of Tapan Das on April 23, 2004 which contained: Both the Congress and the Left Front have reportedly begun courting the outlawed Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in a bid to win over the Muslim vote bank. But a section of SIMI supporters aren’t apparently impressed, and have instead decided to back the recently floated Indian National League.


UPA extended ban on SIMI

Ban of 2002 by NDA Govt. on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has been further extended by UPA Govt. in 2006, even as Uttar Pradesh government of Mulayam Yadav voiced its opposition to the move. Uttar Pradesh home department spokesperson said since the organization was not involved in ''any activities'' and neither had it (UP) received any complaint against SIMI; the state would not support the ban. But Congress led state Governments of Maharashtra and M.P. support the ban on it due to its anti-national activities. But they had alleged that the government was indulging in double standards in banning SIMI alone while sparing the Hindu fundamentalist outfits.Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, India (CLMCI) strongly condemns the attitude of Govt. of India led by UPA towards the SIMI.


'Terror at Rush Hour'

'Terror at Rush Hour' by seven bomb blasts took place in Mumbai towards evening on July 11 - or 7/11 as it will surely be referred to from now on. New Delhi, the country's capital, went through a series of bomb blasts in October last year. Academics were shot at during a seminar last December in Bangalore, the face of India's booming software industry and now these blasts in Mumbai, India's financial capital. Who was responsible for the carnage on the Indian rail network?


Police sketched suspected terrorists

Police were looking for two men they suspect may have planted explosives on one of the trains, which exploded at Borivili, the Indian Express reported, quoting unnamed officials. It said the police were composing a sketch of a fair, wavy-haired young man who had boarded the train and got off in a hurry. The other suspect was wearing a police uniform.


Al Qaeda ISI Lashkar SIMI Combination

The U.S. government has designated both terrorist organizations LeT and SIMI and considers them affiliates of al-Qaeda.
"The blasts were too sophisticated for the Kashmiri groups to have carried out on their own. This is the work of groups which are targeting India as a whole and are not Kashmir specific and are pursuing the larger jihadi agenda," said Ajit Doval, who maintains strong contacts in the intelligence community. "They are targeting countries and societies, particularly democratic ones, which they consider to be the antithesis of their version of Islam."
So the blame is being pointed at Islamic fundamentalists including al-Qaida and ISI supported Dawood Ibrahim, LeT, SIMI combination.

STUDENTS ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF INDIA (SIMI) having deep roots in many districts of Maharashtra and links to Lashkar, was banned in India in 2001. In the past, Lashkar is known to have used SIMI activists to help carry out attacks. SIMI activists have been blamed for small train bombings in northern Uttar Pradesh in recent years. Both groups were blamed for a series of Mumbai bombings in 2003.

Police picked through the mangled train cars, placing evidence in blue plastic bags and reported that powerful RDX explosives were used, and that police found timers at one of the station’s hit. "They (LeT and its local support base SIMI) were definitely bombs," said A.P. Sinha, an official from the state of Maharashtra


Conclusion

Here it is relevant to quote Sir Winston Churchill who deprecated British surrender before Germany before the outbreak of Second World War thus, "Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival."

Will India fight its tormentors now to prevent grim tragedies like Grenade attacks in J & K as well as 7/11 serial blasts of Mumbai on July 11, 2006 in future?

By Premendra Agrawal