India's Hindutva-led MHA and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), popularly known as the Hindutva Investigation Agency (HIA), banned the Popular Front of India (PFI and all of its affiliated organizations for the next five years after arresting more than 270 of its leaders and workers from different parts of the country.
Within hours of being banned, the PFI state general secretary A Abdul Sattar dissolved the organization and explained:
"As law-abiding citizens of the country, we accept the decision of the Home Ministry." "The PFI has been working with a clear vision for the socio-economic and cultural empowerment of the underprivileged, oppressed, and marginalized sections of the society for the past three decades. But as law-abiding citizens of our great country, the organization accepts the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It also informs all its former members and the general public that the Popular Front of India has been disbanded. All members of the Popular Front of India are requested to cease their activities since the publication of the notification,"
Nothing was shocking. The decision to ban the PFI was a foregone conclusion as the RSS-led government could not allow a cadre-based organized Muslim group to rival it.
The PFI had to surrender to protect over 400,00 of its members as it was helpless in defending itself and finding any support, even among Muslims. Officials at the MHA and Intelligence agencies met with some Muslim groups a few days before the ban to inform them of the impending decision.
The PFI leaders believe that the only way to challenge the MHA decision was to wait for legal proceedings on the issue. Hence it decided to accept the decision and wait for the legal outcome of the ban.
The MHA and intelligence agencies described the PFI as a terrorist outfit aiming to turn India into an Islamic state. The MHA calls this goal against the constitution. But, ironically, if it is true, it is no different than the BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal, and VHP demand to make India a Hindu Rashtra. So it is no surprise that several national and secular political parties have asked for a ban on the RSS, the militant Hindu organization.
The BJP and RSS have loyalists in all government branches, including law enforcement agencies. Through these officials, they can plant, concoct and manufacture information. During their rule in states and the country,
they have used these tactics several times only to be proved wrong in courts that still maintain their independence. In some cases, the court freed the accused after 20 years. The purpose is to intimidate the accused and their communities. Religious minorities, especially Muslims, Dalits, Christians, and Sikhs, have been the main target of Hindutva nationalists and intelligence agencies.
The modus operandi of intelligence and other law enforcement agencies is straightforward. First, the Hindutva nationalists' think tank looks at various challenges to its ideological and electoral interests and draws a strategy to counter them. Then, it alerts its IT cell, journalists, writers, and activists to implement the design in their work sphere. Simultaneously, it signals its supporters in various branches of the government to strengthen the party stand.
The RSS and BJP used these agencies to silence and harass their opponents. Sometimes, they used ED, or CBI, activated their media cells, and finally used their accomplices in intelligence agencies to concoct facts.
They played this game with Tablighi Jamatt in a professional manner. Their agents infiltrated the Tablighi Jamat in significant numbers, collected data about their supporters and sympathizers, and promoted anti-national ideas to frame members. They also recorded such statements and presented the conversation as evidence.
The RSS and Hindu nationalists repeated the strategy with the PFI also. The organization was on their radar for a long. However, they developed the technique to counter PFI in 2010 when they aimed to capture the central government by 2014.
They recruited some members of the then-defunct Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) as their moles in the PFI. They also infiltrated the organization and worked to project them as sincere and honest voices. Through these hired agents, they promoted ideas that appeared anti-national. They even circulated several position papers on how to weaken India. One such document was India 2047, and the other was Ghazwa e Hind. Unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of the PFI members know little about these documents.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA and the MHA are now using these documents as concrete evidence to prove that the banned organization was determined to break India.
Ghazwa e Hind is said to be a fantasy of Jihad attributed to Prophet Muhammad foretelling battles in the Indian subcontinent between Muslims and non-Muslims, resulting in the victory of Muslims.
Some statements are in the book called Sunanan Nasai
"There are two groups of my Ummah whom Allah will free from the Fire: The group that invades India and the group that will be with Isa ibn Maryam."
"The Messenger of Allah promised that we would invade India. If I live to see that, I will sacrifice myself and my wealth. If I die, I will be one of the best of the martyrs; if I come back, I will be Abu Hurairah Al-Muharrar (freed from the Fire)."
"In this Ummah, the troops would be headed towards Sindh and Hind."
The following statements are in Kitab al Fitan:
"A group of you will conquer India, Allah will open for them (India) until they come with its kings chained – Allah would forgive those warriors – when they return (from India), they will find Isa ibn Maryam in Syria."
"A king of Jerusalem (Baitul Maqdis) would make warriors move forward towards Hindustan. The warriors would destroy the lands of Hind; would seize their treasures; the king would use those treasures for the decor of Jerusalem. That troops would bring the Indian kings in front of the king of Jerusalem. His warriors by king's order would conquer all the areas between East and West: and would stay in Hindustan till the appearance of Dajjal."
Muslim scholars have no consensus on the authenticity and accuracy of these statements.
Some attribute it to the writers during the reign of the second Umayyad Caliph, who tried to find a religious reason for marching Muslim armies to India. Others say that the conquest of India has yet to take place. Still, many believe that the statements attributed to the Prophet had a political motivation and had nothing to do with his mission as a mercy to humanity. They argue that Islam did not come to invade countries or impose its belief system. Instead, it was a call for an egalitarian and just society with freedom for people to choose their relationship with the Creator. They reject Ghazwa e Hindi-related narrations as concocted and suggest that they violated the fundamentals of the faith and the character of the Prophet.
References to Ghazwa e Hind are more common among Hindutva nationalists than Muslims, especially the younger generation.
The so-called vision of 2047 appears fake, as even an illiterate person can refute its authenticity. According to NIA, the document states: "We dream 2047, where the political power has returned to the Muslim community from whom it was unjustly taken away by the British Raj. India is a secular democracy. Muslims make up only 14 percent of India's population. Even in 2,000 years, if Hindus and Muslims maintain their current population growth, Muslims cannot form a majority.
The document is a fake one allegedly prepared at the instance of the RSS and the BJP to implicate Muslims in a conspiracy to dismember India against all logic. Let us not forget that the opponents of Jews attributed the Protocols of Zionist Elders to Jewish thinkers to implicate Jews in a conspiracy to control the world.
The NIA claims to be a counter-terrorist task force of India. Its purpose was to deal with terror-related crimes across states. It came into existence six years before the BJP came into power. However, many early recruits had loyalties to the RSS and the concept of Hindu Rashtra.
The Agency has its headquarters in New Delhi with branches in Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata, Raipur, Jammu, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Chennai, and Imphal.
Over the years, the NIA hired staff reflecting the RSS and Hindu Rashtra ideology. As a result, an overwhelming majority comes from Hindu upper castes, and the so-called scheduled castes and tribes have representation only at lower levels. The loyalty test lies in an employee's caste and allegiance to the RSS. Until a few years, not many of them had the national flag displayed on their desks of offices as the RSS had refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of India's tri-color.
India has several intelligence agencies> Some of them are
National Technical Research Organization
Research and Analysis Wing
Aviation Research Center.
Radio Research Centre
Electronics and Technical Services
Intelligence Bureau
Joint Cipher Bureau
All India Radio Monitoring Service
Narcotics Control Bureau
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
Serious Fraud Investigation Office
Central Bureau of Investigation
Defence Intelligence Agency
Signals Intelligence Directorate
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
NIA (Amendment) Bill 2019
All these agencies have upper caste RSS sympathizers or supporters in their top decision-making echelons.
Law and order is a state subject under the Indian constitution. The NIA has usurped state rights under the guise of fighting terror. In 2020 Chhatishgarh state filed a case against the act in the supreme court.
The presence of RSS supporters in the NIA has made the situation confusing and complicated.
During the raids on PFI workers and offices, such confusion was evident. How India's judiciary system will deal with the concocted evidence and view the alliance between a political ideology and the intelligence gathering apparatus is yet to be seen. However, what is clear is that the Hindutva nationalists want to use every instrument of power to promote their design to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra while marginalizing Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Buddhism.