The editorial in the latest issue of Organiser titled “Fables from ATS” says: “Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) has all the powers. Maharashtra is the only state armed with such ‘draconian’ right to excesses on citizens under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). It is safe because it is under the UPA. It is doing [what] that the UPA wants it to do. It is above the law of the land, it need not take the normal legal procedures, it can even violate the fundamental rights, human dignity, religious rights and sensibilities because it is fighting terror, about which the entire nation is concerned, and no nationalist in the country wants any leniency”

It adds: “The nationalists have always cried for a bullet for bullet in the fight against terrorism. We have been pleading for more stringent laws to fight terror, after the repeal of POTA, because ordinary legal process is time consuming and often the culprits go scot-free. Ordinary laws have proved unequal to the task terror outfits with world-wide network pose. That is why the Gujarat government which was in the forefront and most successful in fighting terror wanted to enact the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) 2003. It is in the lines of MCOCA. But after keeping it pending for five years, the Centre refused permission terming it draconian and as dangerous as POTA... The UPA double-standard is so scandalously explicit, brazen and partisan. See how the ATS is feeding stories, everyday, on Malegaon blast probe as if that was the only terror attack that happened in the country or that is the only one under investigation. Crazy? Funny? Or deeply sinister and vicious?”

The editorial concludes: “The UPA has done everything in its power to undermine the essence and sovereignty of India. It is equally uneasy and scornful of religious and cultural bodies and leaders spreading the message of India’s Hindu heritage, unity and strength. It is perhaps wreaking its revenge on nationalist forces asking for a stringent law and action against jehadis and terrorists out to destroy India. .”

Indian pluralism

An article titled “Pluralism in Indian religious tradition” by Arif Mohammed Khan says: “What is religion (dharma)? The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad responds to this question by a thunderclap: ‘da da da’. It means dama, daan and dayaa: self-control, charity and compassion. Indian tradition holds these values as three basic ingredients of religion. Swami Vivekanand has defined religion as manifestation of divinity that already exists in man. He says that “each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divine within, by controlling nature external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy, by one or more or all of these and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas or rituals or books or temples or forms are but secondary details.”

It adds: “It is important to remember that the pluralism of the names that are given to the Divine or the ways that are pursued to reach the Divine have been likened to the streams having sources in different places finally mingling their waters into one great sea. The concept of One God and many paths, and One God permeating all souls has been known as Ekeshwarwad or Adwaita (monism or non-duality). Traditions like Bhakti movement which strive to merge the finite with the inexhaustible infinite are the logical shootouts of belief in non-duality.”

compiled by Suman K. Jha