BHOPAL: A distance of five kilometres separates the official bungalows of two saffron-clad women politicians of the ruling BJP in Bhopal. But the celebrations at the residences of these two former Bhopal MPs, to mark the acquittal of one of them, Pragya Singh Thakur, in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, stood in sharp contrast.
While Thakur was in Mumbai for the NIA court’s judgment in the 17-year-old terror case, a handful of her supporters at the B-29 residence in the 74 Bungalows area danced to drumbeats and distributed sweets, awaiting her arrival in Bhopal two days later for the grand celebrations.
Five kilometres away, outside the 6 Shyamala Hills residence of former Madhya Pradesh CM and ex-Union minister Uma Bharti, it was the sound of bursting crackers that marked the acquittal of Thakur and others in the blast case.
Recounting her visit to Nashik Jail, where Thakur had been lodged, Bharti, who is considered one of the prominent BJP figures in the Ayodhya Ram Temple movement, turned emotional.
“I met Pragya at the Nashik Jail, when no one went there to meet her. A Maharashtra police officer had told me that she was tortured unimaginably. I was in tears while meeting her and still remember her having confirmed to me about having been tortured beyond imagination. I didn’t carry anything for her… it was she who had kept a garland for me,” Bharti said.
“She is Durga (goddess), who preferred tolerating extreme mental and physical torture in custody, rather than succumbing under intense pressure. No ordinary woman could have tolerated such extreme torture. At Nashik Jail, she told me, tell all people, that I’ll prefer dying and never allow Hindus and the colour saffron to get kalankit (tarnished),” Bharti added while recounting her meeting with Thakur in the jail.
Welcoming the NIA court’s judgment, Bharti said the verdict had not just absolved Thakur and others from allegedly false charges, but had also given her personal relief. “Even I stand acquitted in the court of my soul,” she said.
Bharti alleged that the 2008 blast incident had been deliberately chosen as part of a larger conspiracy to coin the term "saffron terrorism" as a counter-narrative against Islamic fundamentalism.
“Lies were added in the case, and those arrested were subjected to horrific torture just to force them to take certain names. Had they taken those names, then most office-bearers of nationalist organisations and most BJP leaders would have been put behind bars and subjected to similar torture,” she alleged.
“All those who coined the term saffron terrorism should now either apologise to the Hindus or jump into the river Ganga or Narmada. The people now need to decide what extraordinary punishment should be given to those politicians, including P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya Singh and those from left parties, for their deliberate attempts to create fear among Muslims for the consolidation of the minority community’s votes by creating the fake narrative of Hindu fundamentalism to counter Muslim fundamentalism,” she added.