The shocking daylight murder of RSS worker Rudresh R in the heart of Bengaluru has seen some prompt action for a change by police in the Congress ruled State, probably due to strong protests by opposition BJP led by ex-CM BS Yedyurappa who also met with the Governor of Karnataka to put pressure.

As per this report in New Indian Express –

“The Bengaluru City Police on Thursday arrested four persons in connection with the murder of RSS worker Rudresh R on October 16.

The accused have been identified as Mohammed Sadiq [35], resident of JC Nagar, Mohammed Mujibulla [44], resident of R T Nagar, Waseem Ahmed [30], resident of Austin town, and Irfan Pasha (30), resident of Govindapura.

Rudresh [38] was murdered in the heart of Bengaluru after participating in an RSS route march at RBANMS grounds. Police commissioner N S Megharikh said Rudresh he was attacked with a machete by Waseem as he was speaking to three friends. After the murder, Waseem fled from the spot along with Mohammed Sadiq. Two others were waiting a few metres away guarding Waseem and Sadiq.

Investigations are on to ascertain whether the accused had links to radical groups, the commissioner said. Police had formed five teams including a technical team of Central Crime Bureau to nab the accused.”

Southern Karnataka is a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, and along with North Kerala and Eastern Tamil Nadu, this region can be called the ‘Jihad Central’ of peninsular Bharat.

Just 2 months back, Abid Pasha, a 34 year old carpenter associated with the Islamic fundamentalist group Popular Front of India (PFI), was arrested in Mysuru for the murder of BJP worker K Raju and 7 other murders over a span of 6 years, besides involvement in other deadly attacks on BJP/Sangh parivar activists.

But the news about the arrest of Pasha sunk without a trace, and news of these arrests in Bengaluru for Rudresh R’s murder is likely to meet the same fate.

In the normal scheme of things, such arrests should generate widespread debate about possible motivation of the accused, their source of radicalization, current state of law & order etc. But the following factors are dished out by our media and intellectual talking heads to censor such news –

• Any discussion of Islamic fundamentalists targeting Hindu activists will provoke an ‘angry Hindu reaction’.
• The murders are unfortunate, but they are ‘political in nature’ (hinting that the Hindu victims resort to similar tactics)
• Let us not jump to conclusions – these could be ‘innocents’ picked up by police under pressure to make arrests.

All such justifications to black out this kind of news are plain hogwash. The reality is –

• Hindus do not resort to violent protests when the police is doing its work
• Reports of communal tension in one part of the country will not incite Hindus to resort to violence in other parts. For eg., the reaction to the gruesome Sabarmati train burning in 2002 was limited to parts of Gujarat, no violence was reported from other parts of the country. On the contrary, the demolition of the dilapidated Babri mosque in Ayodhya triggered Muslim rioting across the nation. We even saw rioting by fanatical Muslims in Mumbai over alleged persecution of Muslims in Myanmar.
• The so-called political murders are occurring only in states of Kerala, UP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. In Kerala, it is the CPI(M) Marxist culture of brutally silencing any opposing voice that is to blame, while in other states Islamic fundamentalism is the motivation. States like Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Maharashtra also witness bitter political & ideological rivalry between BJP/RSS  and Congress/left-secular forces, but things never deteriorate to such an extent.
• Media’s job is to report events as and when they occur, to show a mirror to society. By suppressing some news and hyperventilating over others, they are creating false perceptions which are dangerous in the long run. Common Muslims have been led by their community leaders and our media (English, Urdu, Hindi) to believe that they are the victims of state oppression & Hindutva forces, while the reality is quite different.

Mohammad Akhlaq’s name is still reverberating across the length and breadth of our nation and even reached international shores. Rudresh R will soon be forgotten, like K Raju before him. Therein lies a tale of contemporary Bharat, and of its secularism.

Visited family of late Sh. Rudresh, RSS Swayamsevak offered support & condolences…. pic.twitter.com/tfFnGTAaTZ

— B.S. Yeddyurappa (@BSYBJP) October 20, 2016

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