RSS chief had articulated Mecca Masjid, other blasts

New Delhi: Accused in the Samjhauta Express, Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blasts, Swami Aseemanand has alleged that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had sanctioned these strikes.

"Mohanji told me that you can work on this. We will not be involved. But if you are doing this, you can consider us to be with you on this. If you do this we are ensured that nothing wrong will happen. This will be on the right course," Aseemanand told The Caravan magazine, which has now published the audio tapes and the transcripts of the interview.

Swami Aseemanand, incarcerated in Ambala Central Jail for abetting terrorist attacks on various targets between 2006 and 2008 -- Samjhauta Express (February 2007), Hyderabad Mecca Masjid (May 2007), Ajmer Dargah (October 2007) and two attacks in Malegaon (September 2006 and September 2008) -- which together took the lives of 119 people, has made a revelation to The Caravan which has been published in the latest issue of the magazine dated February 1.

Aseemanand told The Caravan that Bhagwat said of the violence, "It is very important that it be done. But you should not link it to the Sangh."

Extract from the 11,200-word Caravan article:

Over the course of our conversations, Aseemanand's description of the plot in which he was involved became increasingly detailed. In our third and fourth interviews, he told me that his terrorist acts were sanctioned by the highest levels of the RSS -- all the way up to Mohan Bhagwat, the current RSS chief, who was the organisation's general secretary at the time. Aseemanand told me that Bhagwat said of the violence, "It's very important that it be done. But you should not link it to the Sangh."

Aseemanand told me about a meeting that allegedly took place, in July 2005. After an RSS conclave in Surat, senior Sangh leaders including Bhagwat and Indresh Kumar, who is now on the organisation's powerful seven-member national executive council, travelled to a temple in the Dangs, Gujarat, where Aseemanand was living --a two-hour drive. In a tent pitched by a river several kilometres away from the temple, Bhagwat and Kumar met with Aseemanand and his accomplice Sunil Joshi. Joshi informed Bhagwat of a plan to bomb several Muslim targets around India.

According to Aseemanand, both the RSS leaders approved, and Bhagwat told him, "You can work on this with Sunil. We will not be involved, but if you are doing this, you can consider us to be with you."

Aseemanand continued, "Then they told me, 'Swamiji, if you do this we will be at ease with it. Nothing wrong will happen then. Criminalisation nahin hoga (It will not be criminalised). If you do it, then people won't say that we did a crime for the sake of committing a crime. It will be connected to the ideology. This is very important for Hindus. Please do this. You have our blessings.'"

Chargesheets filed by the investigative agencies allege that Kumar provided moral and material support to the conspirators, but they don't implicate anyone as senior as Bhagwat.

Although Kumar was interrogated once by the CBI, the case was later taken over by the NIA, which has not pursued the conspiracy past the level of Aseemanand and Pragya Singh. (Joshi, who was allegedly the connecting thread between several different parts of the conspiracy-including those who assembled and those who planted the bombs-was killed under mysterious circumstances in December 2007.)

Sixty-three-year-old Aseemanand dedicated almost his entire adult life to the tribal arm of the RSS, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA). At the time he planned the terrorist attacks, he had been the national head of the VKA's religious wing, the Shraddha Jagran Vibhag -- a position created especially for him -- for a decade.

In honour of Aseemanand's service to the Sangh, in December 2005, he was awarded a special Guruji Samman on the occasion of the birth centenary of MS Golwalkar.

The award came with a one-lakh-rupee cash prize and the veteran BJP leader and former party president Murli Manohar Joshi gave the ceremony's keynote address. Not only have the RSS and the BJP never disowned Aseemanand for his roles in the terrorist attacks, or taken back the awards, Aseemanand confessed to The Caravan that RSS-affiliated lawyers are providing his legal aid.

Knowing the national relevance of the sensitive information that Aseemanand revealed to The Caravan journalist, in an interview which was conducted with the full consent of Aseemanand, “we place these facts in front of the public, along with a tape recording and transcript of parts of the conversation that mention Mohan Bhagwat. The full story is at caravanmagazine.in/reportage/believer,” the magazine of Delhi Press said.

RSS rubbishes report as baseless and motivated

The report has sent shock waves across the Sangh Parivar and its political wing, the BJP. However, they have questioned the timing of the article. The RSS has labelled the report baseless and motivated. "This is a political conspiracy. Aseemanand has clarified he never said this. We have to see the timing. We condemn this attempt to bring back the false allegations. Such false allegations were made earlier to defame RSS leadership but they were proved to be wrong," said RSS leader Ram Madhav.

"Aseemananda, in the court and outside, denied making such statements. Questions arise on the authenticity of the interview. The timing of the interview poses a political conspiracy," he said.

It may be true: Shinde

What is surprising many is the stunning silence of the Congress party. After a week, External Affairs minister Salman Khurshid reacted on Thursday demanding that the claims should be investigated.

“This is a serious information. It can have serious implications on the country. These must be discussed and truth must come out,” Khurshid said.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that he would look into the matter. “Let’s see what he has said. If he has made a revelation, it may be true.”

But not much political noise has been heard over the case. According to insiders, the Congress does not want to make it a big issue. The party fears that it may help the BJP's PM nominee Narendra Modi polarise the Hindu votes in his favour. __ Agencies

Aseemanand ‘triggers row’

New Delhi (PTI): Claims by Swami Aseemanand, an accused in the Samjhauta Express and other blast cases, that the RSS leadership had "sanctioned" these terror acts have sparked off a controversy but the sangh parivar founthead has questioned the veracity of the interview.

Latching on to an "interview" of Aseemanand carried by a magazine, the Congress and other parties including BSP called it a "serious" issue and demanded that a proper probe should be ordered and action should be taken against the guilty. The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena, however, dismissed the media report about Aseemanand's allegation against RSS as "baseless" and blamed it on the "dirty tricks" department for diverting attention from the real issues before elections.

Union Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Shukla said itwas a "serious" matter and the Home Ministry should take cognisance and ascertain the truth. His colleague Salman Khurshid said the truth should come out and a debate take place on the issue. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said "let's go into what he had said. If he has made some expose, it may be true."

BSP leader Mayawati said the allegation of RSS leadership's role in the blasts was a serious case and should not be taken lightly by the Centre. "The case should be probed by CBI and if they are guilty strictest action should be taken," he said. Echoing similar sentiments, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said the case should be thoroughly investigated as in previous cases of blasts the name of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal had cropped up. Rejecting all the charges against the RSS leadership, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that they were "baseless" and his (Aseemanand) lawyer has denied this interview. "This is the work of dirty tricks department before elections," he said.

Prasad said the interview was reportedly held two years agao and now it has been released. "His lawyer has also denied his (Aseemanand) so-called confessional statement."

The BJP leader said elections will be fought on theissues of price rise, unemployment, lack of development and the threat from China and Pakistan. "Since Congress does not have any answer to these problems so it raised these kinds of issues.

"The RSS has always worked for the interest of the nation." To a question at the BJP briefing, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said it was a "concocted" and "baseless" story propagated by the Congress' "dirty tricks" department to divert the attention of the public from the AgustaWestland issue and Rahul Gandhi's leadership.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said security agencies under the Congress government have brought tremendous pressure on people to make allegations to rubbish the Hindutva organisations. SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, however, refused to get into the controversy saying he has was not aware of the reports. Taking on the BJP, Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma said they can do anything to create conflict between communities. What Assemanand had said has exposed Sangh's "real" face.