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'The violent strain in Hindutva is very old'

A day after Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh commented on the issue of 'Sangh terror', Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday cited ideologies propounded by freedom fighters V Savarkar and B S Moonje to insist that there was nothing new in the 'violent strain' of Hindutva.

Yechury said there was an urgent need to change the mindset that terrorism is associated with the people of only one community, and promised to raise the issue of innocent persons targeted in terror-related investigations in the Parliament.

The CPI-M leader was speaking at a day-long conference organised by civil rights groups Anhad and others to highlight the plight of people who were targeted by security agencies in the aftermath of terror attacks.

'Attempts are being made to convert it into a Hindutva state'

Yechury said his party will raise the issue in the upcoming Parliament session and will demand investigations into the attacks and redressal of grievances of those unfairly targetted.

"The partition of India happened because the twin radical strains of Hindutva and Islam were adamant...But despite the fact that India became a secular republic, attempts are being made to convert it into a Hindutva state," Yechury said.

He said there was a history of militant ideology within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and it is wrong to assume that violent tendencies have developed only recently as a reaction to certain provocations.

"The violent strain in Hindutva is very old. The two-nation theory, as reminded to us by Digvijay Singh, was propounded by Savarkar, who also spoke about militarising Hindu dharma and Hinduising all politics," he said at the conference, which was also attended by the Congress leader.

'It is wrong to assume that Hindus cannot be terrorists'

"There is nothing new about these violent tendencies and it is not that such tendencies have developed out of provocation of recent situations...It is wrong to assume that Hindus cannot be terrorists," he said.

Yechury said in light of history, it is important to be careful and to make sure that a particular community is not stigmatised and that terrorism is not encouraged by targeting innocent youth after every terror incident.

Besides Savarkar, Yechury also cited the ideology of B S Moonje, who is considered a mentor to RSS founder K B Hedgewar. Yechury pointed out that Moonje had noted in his diary that he wanted to meet Italian dictator Mussolini, and that after meeting him, he established the Central Hindu Military Education Society in 1935.

"This was the place where people like Colonel Shrikant Purohit took training," Yechury said.