Aseemananda's Confession

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the confession made by Swami Aseemananda relating to the planning and execution of the bomb blasts in Malegaon (2006 and 2008), on the Samjhauta Express (2006), and in Mecca Masjid (2007) and Ajmer Sharif (2007). What is even more significant is that Aseemananda’s confession was made voluntarily before a magistrate, after he was kept away from the police, in judicial custody for two days, to ensure that it was not being made under duress. Aseemananda is no ordinary person. He is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, head of the RSS-affiliated Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat and he runs a religious centre in the Dangs district of Gujarat. He is powerful enough to have Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi visit him and share the dais with him on frequent occasions.

In his confession, Aseemananda has laid bare the entire conspiracy, and he has named the people involved. His sudden decision to confess voluntarily is melodramatic, and somewhat suspicious. This swami apparently met, in a Hyderabad jail, one among the young boys who were arrested by the police after the Mecca Masjid blast and tortured. This young boy, Abdul Kaleem, impressed Aseemananda so much with his behaviour and kindness, that when he came to know that Kaleem spent a year and a half in jail and suffered police “interrogation”, he wanted to repent and thus came his confession. Whatever be the reason, Aseemananda has detailed in a sworn testimony to a magistrate the entire working of RSS-inspired Hindutva terrorism in India. Such a confession before a magistrate has weight in the court of law, but more importantly it gives the investigating authorities the full picture of the entire conspiracy, its execution and the people involved. It, therefore, makes it that much easier for them to find the substantiating evidence to charge sheet all those involved and obtain convictions. In sum, Aseemananda’s confession has shown that a large number of terror strikes in India have been the handiwork of Hindutva terrorists who have close organisational and ideological links with the RSS and its front, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The jigsaw puzzle, which was being slowly pieced together by the police of different states, after the stellar investigative work of Hemant Karkare and his team in Maharashtra, has suddenly all fallen into place thanks to this five-hour confession. However, it is hardly a certainty that this confession will lead to convictions and punishment of the guilty. Far less probable is that there will be any serious action against the RSS and its “parivar”, which have now, once again, been shown to be dangerously violent and a threat to the republic. In their actions following each of these cases of terror, most of the police and the other investigative agencies have shown themselves to be thoroughly incompetent, politically compromised and infiltrated by the personnel and ideologies of this very Hindutva brigade.