Recently a piece of news surfaced over the INTERNET where our former and present prime minister Narendra Modi gave a statement on terrorism.
Hindu terror: Narendra Modi says no Hindu can ever be a terrorist.
As a media company, we do not agree with the statement.
Terrorism has no religion, no face. A terrorist is a terrorist and not a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Christian.
Let’s understand this with examples from past and present.
If we talk about the Hindu mythology or the base of Hinduism,
1. Ravan was a pure Brahman and one of the most educated people of the era. He made lord shiva give the boon, took away the wife of Ram, and had a fight with Ram, which was the main reason for the killing of several lives from both sides.
2. Kans, the maternal uncle of Lord Krishna, tried many times but eventually failed in killing Lord Krishna was also a Hindu.
3. Hiranyakashipu, father of Prahlada, killed several thousands and was a hindu.
Coming to the present, We have several people in the recent century who are infamous for killing several people like
Manya Surve – Manohar Arjun Surve was a prolific don in the Mumbai underworld.
Jatan Sirohi – a famous Gangster in Western Uttar Pradesh.
Chota Rajan – Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, popularly known by his moniker Chhota Rajan. He is an Indian criminal and mobster who served as the boss of a major crime syndicate based in Mumbai. He is currently serving a life sentence at Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai.
Apart from these individuals, there are many more certified groups of terrorist, dacoits like
Phulan Devi – Phoolan Devi, aka “Bandit Queen”, was an Indian bandit who later became a Member of Parliament. She was born into a poor family in rural Uttar Pradesh, Phoolan endured poverty, child marriage and had an abusive marriage before taking to a life of crime.
LTTE – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a Tamil militant and political organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. It aimed to create an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east due to the state policies of Sri Lankan governments towards Tamils.
Veerappan – Munisamy Veerappan Mallar, more commonly known as Veerappan. He was an Indian bandit or dacoit, who was active for nearly 30 years. He was infamous for kidnapping, murdering, and ivory and sandalwood smuggling. Along with these, he had done several other heinous crimes and killed many innocent people, though being a Hindu.
From the above-cited examples, we can easily infer that even in Hinduism, there have been several people who had been criminals and have been a symbol of terrorism.
Not just Hinduism, but every religion in the world can have terrorism and have seen terrorism and terrorist within their faith.
1. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a militant leader of the Sikh organization Damdami Taksal. He was involved in the 1978 Sikh-Nirankari clash which led to his prominence. He symbolized the revivalist, extremist, and terrorist movement in Punjab. He was killed in Operation Bluestar.
2. Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, better known as Pablo Escobar, was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist. His cartel supplied an estimated 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the United States at the height of his career, turning over US$21.9 billion a year in personal income. He was a Christian, a roman catholic, to be precise.
3. Hitler– Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. He came to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and later Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he invaded Poland which laid down the path to World War II in September 1939. He is believed to be a Jew.
As you can see, any religion in the world can have terrorism and terrorist within it, so saying that No Hindu can be a terrorist is not at all valid. Terrorism has nothing to do with any religion.
Many readers might also argue that, above all, the people mentioned here are not terrorists. They are just gangsters or goons, so for them, let us present the legal definition of terrorist and terrorism.
The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
To Further Elaborate this
In general, terrorism is classified as:
the use of violence or the threat of violence in the pursuit of political, religious, ideological or social objectives, acts committed by non-state actors (or by undercover personnel serving on behalf of their respective governments), acts reaching more than the immediate target victims and also directed at targets consisting of a broader spectrum of society both mala prohibita (i.e., a crime that is made illegal by legislation) and mala in se (i.e., a crime that is inherently immoral or wrong).
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