Hindutva changes strategy: ‘Who Killed Karkare?’ by S M Mushrif

The author of this new work, S M Mushrif, is a former inspector-general of police with a distinguished record, including having exposed the infamous scam carried out by Abdul Karim Telgi, who in 2006 was found guilty of a wide-ranging 'stamp paper' counterfeiting scheme that had netted him hundreds of billions of rupees. Now, Mushrif has turned his attention to the Sangh Parivar, whom he refers to as "Brahminists". The Sangh's earlier modus operandi, Mushrif writes, consisted of instigating Hindu-Muslim riots, but it has in recent years "decided to switch gears … to raising the bogey of Muslim terrorism". In this, the Sangh's members have allegedly been aided by the fact that they have infiltrated much of the Indian media and the Intelligence Bureau.

These arguments are illustrated by detailed analysis of several incidents of extremist (though not necessarily Hindutva) violence, ending with the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks. These sections are meticulous and, on the whole, convincing. For example, the Nanded bomb blast of April 2006, at the house of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member Laxman Rajkondwar, which killed and injured members of both the RSS and Bajrang Dal, should have alerted the authorities to the bomb-making activities of these outfits. Moreover, maps of Muslim religious places, artificial beards, mobile phones fand other evidence seized from the suspects showed them to have perpetrated three attacks on mosques in Parbhani, Jalna and Purna, while planning another in Aurangabad.