South Asia Citizens Web

ASEEMANAND is Sanskritised Hindi for boundless joy. Hindutva acolyte Swami Aseemanand exuded that feeling nicely in a series of tape-recorded interviews he gave to The Caravan magazine. According to the tapes made public this week he happily confessed to masterminding a string of terror plots, which he said dovetailed with the strategy of his mentors in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to turn India into a theocratic Hindu rashtra.

A hallmark of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is how swiftly they disown their brethren when they are caught red-handed in acts of terror – whether it’d be the cold-blooded killing of Gandhiji or the Samjhauta Express bombings. LK Advani while disowning Nathuram Godse had stated that Godse had “severed links with RSS in 1933… had begun to bitterly criticise the RSS”. Advani’s assertion was flatly contradicted by none other than Nathuram Godse’s brother Gopal, who was also an accused at the trial for conspiracy to murder. Speaking in New Delhi in 1933. | See photo of Narendra Modi With Swami Aseemanand.

On the Pakistan government’s talks with the Taliban

The composition of the negotiating teams by the government and the TTP and the TTP’s declared agenda require reflection. First, the composition: there is no woman member. As the exclusion in the TTP team is predictable, why does the government team not include even a symbolic representative of 48 per cent of the country’s population (as per the 1998 census)? The presence of a woman would have actually been more than symbolic. Women have suffered even more than men due to the atrocities perpetrated by terrorists who use the sacred name of Islam as a cloak for their barbarity and their nefarious real aims?

Tragically, after 42 years as an independent nation state, our democratic aspirations still remain frustrated