Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday claimed that terrorism should never be associated with any religion. His statement came after a special NIA court acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Among those acquitted were BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit. The court concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
“No religion, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Christian, supports terrorism,” Singh said in an interview with at the Parliament complex. He claimed that he never alleged that RSS was behind the Mumbai blasts. He said, “I would like to repeat that RSS had no role in the Mumbai terror attack. The allegations made against me are false.”
Singh further said, “Hatred gives birth to terrorism. It’s not right to link religion with terrorism.”
Singh, who used to used the terms “saffron terror” and “Hindu terror” regularly in the past, denied having ever used the terms. He said, “It’s incorrect to claim that Congress coined the term ‘Hindu terror’,” adding that violence stems from individuals who twist religious teachings, not from the religions themselves.
While Digvijaya Singh is now claiming that he never accused RSS of the Mumbai terror attack, he was famously present at the inauguration of the book titled 26/11 RSS Ki Saazish? (26/11, An RSS Conspiracy?) in 2010. In the book, author Aziz Burney pushed Congress party’s allegations against the RSS, and pinned the blame on RSS for the Mumbai Terror attacks that were carried by Pakistan-based Islamic terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In the book, Burney had given a clean chit to terror-state of Pakistan by claiming that it was not the ISI or LeT that was behind the attack, but the RSS with covert support from Mossad and the CIA. Burney had also claimed that the ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who lost his life in the Mumbai terror attack, was killed by the Indian Army.
To give credence to the book, Digvijaya Singh had himself inaugurated the book, not once but twice, once in Delhi and then in Mumbai.
During the book release, Singh had alleged that Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare had called him two hours before the 26/11 attack in Mumbai to say that his life was blighted by constant threats from those opposed to the ATS probe into the 2008 Malegaon blast in which ‘Hindu extremists’ were accused. Thus, Singh had exonerated Pakistan and had decided to push the blame of 26/11 attack on RSS and Hindu extremists.
His remarks drew widespread backlash, with Karkare’s widow, Kavita, accusing him of politicising her husband’s death in a statement to The Indian Express.
Later, Singh attempted to soften his earlier remarks, clarifying that he had, in fact, called Hemant Karkare, not the other way around,and that he never questioned that Karkare was killed by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists. He even offered to present his call records but claimed that BSNL could not provide them as it did not retain data older than a year.
Speaking at the Islam Gymkhana in Mumbai during the local release of Burney’s book, Singh once again warned about the threat posed by radical Hindu groups. “Regarding the 26/11 attacks, I clearly stated that there should be no doubt they were carried out by Pakistani terrorists,” Singh said. “However, what is also certain is that Hemant Karkare was under immense pressure,” he had added.
