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‘The Muslim boy Kaleem pierced my conscience. I understood that love between two human beings is more powerful than the hatred between two communities’
(of course, the always simple truth...but sometimes lack of knowledge, spiced with hatred makes us ignorant of this simple fact........in India with its many shades, and communities its also VERY PRAGMATIC....for example trying to resurrect Hitler or the like in India will be extremely difficult given that India is sooo cosmopolitan viz Nazi Germany. If one loves all South Asia, then one must be all embracing of the various communities......1 billion Hindus.....450 million Muslims....50 million Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists...Its is the only way to national salvation, and self salvation)
Swami Asimananda did not just confess his terror conspiracy before a magistrate. He wrote to the President of India and the President of Pakistan, admitting his crimes and seeking penance.
ASHISH KHETAN of TEHELKA scoops the astonishing documents.
ON 16 DECEMBER, when Swami Asimananda first appeared before a Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate at Tis Hazari with a request to record his confession, the magistrate was a bit incredulous. He asked the Swami if the CBI was threatening or coercing him into giving a confession. The Swami smiled back and replied, “You really think these cops could force me into doing something I don’t want to do? When even Atal and Advani could never dare to put pressure on me, then what chance in the world do these poor fellows have.”
‘Who are Atal and Advani?’ asked the magistrate. For a moment, he was disoriented by the names uttered with such easy, almost scornful, familiarity by this elderly, shabbily dressed man produced before him as a terror suspect.
“The former prime minister and deputy prime minister,” the Swami replied in the same measured tone.
(Presumably from this tone one gages that "Atal" and "Advani" knew what was going on...as top political honcho's of the BJP.......they simply couldn't have missed it)
This conversation, which TEHELKA has learned from highly placed sources, provides a rare insight into the man who was once a formidable and doctrinaire ideologue of the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh and inspired both fear and awe even among senior BJP functionaries.
(It takes enormous courage, character, and serious self reflection with thinking to change a life-times worth of doctrinaire belief. I thus salute and praise the Swami.....for his enlightenment....."Sir" YOU ARE A REAL SWAMI.......not a swami by name only......thank you sir)
‘Before the criminal legal system hangs me, I want an opportunity to transform Hafiz Saeed, Mullah Omar and other jihadi terrorists,’ wrote Asimananda | |
In 2006, when the Swami organised the Shabri Kumbh Mela at his ashram in Dangs, Gujarat, the who’s who of the BJP and the RSS congregated to mark their presence. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and then RSS chief KS Sudarshan were part of the jamboree.
The Swami had devoted his life to the cause of ‘Hindutva.’ After setting up the Shabri Dham Ashram in 1997, he worked zealously at reconverting tribal Christians into Hinduism. He regularly mobilised violent mobs, attacked Christian missionaries and captured their churches. According to reports, Asimananda had forcibly occupied over two dozen churches in Dangs. At one point he had even refused to listen to the pleas of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had reportedly asked him to refrain from violence and coercion while carrying out the anti-conversion work.
(Shameful cowardly acts that never reflected the TRUE character of India or the essence of Hinduism which welcomed ALL faiths......since time immemorial)
But in a curious twist of fate — and in a development that no investigative agency could ever have anticipated or imagined — this intractable zealot was profoundly transformed by a chance encounter in prison with a courteous young Muslim man, wrongly arrested and tortured for the Mecca Masjid blast — a blast, which in truth, the Swami and his co-conspirators had committed. (See TEHELKA story In the Words of a Zealot, 15 January).
Intensely moved and gripped by a desire for penance, Swami Asimananda apparently requested a confession before a magistrate. “I know I may be served a death sentence for this, but I still want to confess,” he told the magistrate. Published by TEHELKA last week, this confession, which is the first legal evidence to show the involvement of RSS pracharaks in the Malegaon 2006 and Samjhauta Express blasts, has had wide ranging political and diplomatic impact. But this was not all.
IN AN astonishing gesture, apart from his confession before the magistrate, Swami Asimananda also wrote to the President of India and the President of Pakistan, admitting to his crimes and detailing the encounter with the Muslim boy that changed his heart. “Abdul Kaleem pierced my conscience,” he wrote. “After all, he had been made to suffer for my wrong work. I understood that love between two human beings is more powerful than the hatred between two communities.”
In a development no investigative agency could ever have anticipated, this intractable zealot was transformed by an encounter with a courteous Muslim man in prison | |
In these two letters, written in his own handwriting — copies of which are in exclusive possession of TEHELKA — the Swami then goes on to express a desire to meet Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed and Taliban leader Mullah Omar and other jihadi terrorists and urges the two presidents to help him get an “opportunity” to transform the jihadis as he himself has been transformed.
(A noble sentiment, but as with most noble sentiments not really practical.
1) First the swami's present situation will not allow it.
2) Also since he is known as a life long hardline RSS insider leader who did the supreme dirty deed, he will not be trusted by equally faulty men in Pakistan like his former closed self.......a former KKK man David Duke has problems selling himself as a enlightened American, even with his Ph.D, and after leaving the organization 40 years ago.
3) Whilst the Swami has displayed great wisdom and enlightenment....and shown true love for his country, the cadres and leadership of the LeT, and HuJi are PIGmies politically, socially and in all other respects. It is highly unlikely that they too will also go through a "road to Damascus" experience to borrow a phrase from another religion. The Swami might as well be talking to a brick wall, even if he were given an opportunity to talk to his "counter-parts"........the conversation would be sterile. To borrow a phrase from Indira Gandhi, "You can't shake hands with a clenched fist."
4) ALL Jehadi organisations in Pakistan are run financially, politically, and even militarily by the Pakistan military (ISI...JIB desk) a senior liaison officer "runs' each of these outfits with money, arms and political direction. There are 500,000 Jehadis in Pakistan. If in the very unlikely event a Jehadi leader from LeT, HuJi showed any signs of being like Swami Asimananda, talking about love, unity and peace, they would immediately be removed from office and power.
5) The ISI was established by the British in 1948.....as their main controlling mechanism in Pakistan. Its first head, a British officer ran the organization from 1948--1958. The ISI is now run by the Americans, who pay for it, and thus run it. The Americans since the 1970's, succeeding the British in India and Egypt much earlier LIKE, LOVE Islamic fundamentalists as an excellent tool, and fifth column to destabilize and eventually take over certain countries.......Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, Iran, Tunisia.......Egypt...Saudi Arabia and so on....empire building, and destroying existential threats to paranoid Israel. America has 800 military bases around the world, and is an expanding empire on the make......think Aurangazeb 1699, despite the massive American propaganda with apple pie, and plummy "oh shucks" accent with smiles.)
Swami Asimananda will be wasting his time trying to "convert' towards rationality PIGmies like Hafiz Saeed and Mullah Omer, behind whom stand the ISI since 1948, and behind whom stand the British and USA. It would be a futile wishy washy endeavor, and a total waste of time, assuming the government of India left its common sense behind and allowed him in the first place.
NO WHAT I SUGGEST THE SWAMI DOES FOR INDIA, AND SOUTH ASIA IS....:
1) Get some pen and paper...and write a book. Contact a leading publishing house in India...IN INDIA...and let him put his thoughts to paper. Let him write 2 books; one general dealing with all matters on mother earth..life, love, sex, marriage, work, spiritual thoughts, exercise,,,,,,education....and so on.
2) The second book about his politics and crimes.....how he became involved with the RSS, AND how his career flourished within the organization as he moved up the ladders of power, to the point Atal and Advani feared him. Thats quite a feat.
(i) The RSS contacts in the Indian MEDIA....WHICH media fronts in India are working directly with the RSS, and which individuals share RSS sympathies in Bollywood movies...YES I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW THAT ONE HAVING SEEN A FEW INDIAN MOVIES. Indian TV, print media etc.
(ii) Ditto RSS operatives in the 1.2 million police, especially senior officers. The Indian military. The Indian Intelligence........Indian bureaucracy.
(iii) What linkages do the RSS have with Israelis and Jewish individuals. Americans and British persons. Finally any possible RSS linkages with the ISI, and Pakistanis.
Such books will be far more useful to ordinary law abiding, decent, hard working Indians. And the Swami will be better remembered this way by fellow Indians who will finally have a chance to understand him, rather than read and hear about him through the perceptions and quotes of Third Parties hostile or otherwise.
The Swami says he had taken to terrorism in retaliation to Islamist terror attacks on temples, but having realised the futility of mindless violence, he would now like to persuade terrorists like Hafiz Saeed to renounce this path as well. He requests “the good office” of the President of India to help him go to Pakistan to do this.
(Most definitely should NOT having seen what happened in Pakistan recently.....especially as a Hindu hardliner who has confessed to killing Pakistanis)
After TEHELKA published Asimananda’s confession last week, several Hindutva apologists asserted the confession was coerced out of him. His counsel also belatedly asserted — 20 days after the event had taken place — that the confession was false and would be retracted. But the letters to the Presidents of India and Pakistan give the lie to all that. Swami Asimananda wrote them two days after he made the confession under Section 164 of CRPC. He had given these letters on a jail visit to his brother to post. TEHELKA procured them from him. The tone and tenor of these letters exactly match his confession. However, his lawyer did not mention them last week as part of the CBI’s alleged coercion.
These letters present a fresh challenge to those who would deny all that Swami Asimananda has confessed to. TEHELKA wrote to the office of the President of India seeking a confirmation that they had received the letter. At the time of going to press, the President’s office had yet not responded.
Terror, it seems, has finally fallen prey to something mightier than it: the power of human conscience.
(In India only, with one very very very important individual...what a great man....what a great nation who can produce such men !)
__________________________________
To
THE PRESIDENT,
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi - 110001,
Dec 20,2010
Madam President,
1. I am Swami Asimananda. I am the one who had organised and motivated persons to blast Samjhauta Express and other places because I was angry about jihadi attacks on Hindu temples.
2. After my arrest, when I was in jail, one Muslim boy Kaleem was very kind to me in Hyderabad. After some time, I asked him why he was inside here in jail, and he told me that he was earlier wrongly arrested and tortured by Hyderabad Police in connection with Mecca Masjid bomb blast. This pierced my conscience. It transformed me. The man who had every reason to hate me, showed me love. After all, he had been made to suffer for my wrong work. I understood that love between two human beings is more powerful than the hatred between two communities. I decided on prayaschith, and told this to CBI, when they took me in their custody. They told me that we cannot do anything about prayaschith, only court can, and so I told them to take me to the court in that case. After that, I told the judge the truth.
3. I have also addressed a letter to the Pakistan President telling him about myself and requested him to grant me an opportunity to transform or reform jihadi terrorist leaders and other jihadi footsoldiers in Pakistan (copy enclosed).
4. I request you to use your good office to help me to go there and meet these jihadi leaders and transform them or you can ask the Pakistan President to send them to me in jail.
Thank You.
Swami Asimananda
Yours truly
Chanchalaguda Central Jail
WSurprise reform
Hyderabad
Download this letter (PDF, 4.14MB)