SATURDAY’S terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Ahmedabad demand unequivocal condemnation of the strongest sort. This was an act of sheer evil and those responsible are nothing less than devils incarnate. What else could be said of people who set off bombs in hospitals of all places? Four of the 17 bombs that went off were placed in city hospitals. The toll — 49 dead so far — could have been far worse; several more unexploded devices have been found. This was a cold, calculated act of mass murder by a group (and it must have been a group given the scale and coordination of the crime) that wants chaos in Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is situated, and possibly India and has nothing but contempt for the God-given gift of life.
We say “possibly India” because it is not yet clear if those responsible for the Ahmedabad blasts were also behind Bangalore’s Friday bomb blasts that left two dead. It is possible that the timing of both was coincidental but the similarity of the attacks, with multiple bomb blasts in both places, suggests otherwise. However, a little known group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen, which claimed responsibility for the Jaipur bombings in May (again multiple blasts), now claims it carried out the Ahmedabad blasts. But it did not claim responsibility for those in Bangalore. That may mean that they are not linked. Equally it is just as likely that this “Indian Mujahedeen”, if it exists at all, is making bogus claims in the hope of establishing itself. There is, however, one link between all three. The blasts have all occurred in the capitals of states run by the Hindu-nationalist BJP. A group fanatically opposed to the BJP could be to blame.
This is fanaticism — fanaticism bordering on the insane — and the way of the fanatic is not the way of Islam or Hinduism. Given the communal (Hindu-Muslim) polarization in Gujarat, whoever is responsible has as much declared war on the Muslim community of the state as on India as a whole. Muslims throughout the state are now in fear of the worst. They remember all too well the horrific 2002 revenge killings, orchestrated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, following the equally horrific murder of 60 Hindu pilgrims on a train in Godhra.
Anyone who has any information about this vile attack, wherever they are, has a moral duty to inform the Indian authorities. Those who know something about it but keep quiet are just as evil and as guilty as those who carried it out.
India has suffered too much and too long at the hands of bigots, fanatics and terrorists of whatever religion — although religion has nothing to do with it; communal violence has always been about politics and power.
So far, there is no talk of retaliation in Ahmedabad and it is encouraging that there was none after the Jaipur killings in which many more people died. Maybe India is moving on although the calm in Japiur could be because there has always been much less communal tension in Rajasthan than in places such as Gujarat. It is also encouraging that the central government has moved quickly to defuse tension and reassure people in Ahmedabad, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and Interior Minister Shivraj Patil visiting the wounded and meeting with Chief Minister Modi. Lessons have clearly been learned in Delhi about the need not to let situations get out of hand. Nonetheless, tension is in the air in Gujarat and there is no saying what Modi — who should be indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal — will do to further his career.
