ISIS not getting many recruits from India

The BJP is making an all out effort to reach out to the Jat community in Western UP, where they are in good numbers, to maximise its tally in the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to be held in the region on 11 February in the first phase.

The party has also deployed its prominent Jat leaders of the region — Sanjeev Baliyan (Union Minister), Satyapal Sharma, Bhartendu Singh and Babulal — to counter the misinformation campaign launched by some Jat outfits.

These organisations, like the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, have announced a boycott of BJP this elections. They are alleging that the BJP government in Haryana denied them reservation and also cracked down on their agitation.

However, the BJP’s Jat leaders are explaining to the people how the Haryana government did its best to provide reservations to the community. The BJP leaders are also telling them that it was during Ram Prakash Gupta’s tenure in UP in 2000 that reservation was given to the Jats in state government jobs and so their party was the real well-wisher of the community. At that time, Gupta was heading a BJP-led coalition government. It’s only in Rajasthan that Jats have been given reservations in Central government jobs. They have been given reservations in state government jobs under the OBC quota in UP, Haryana and Punjab. According to a BJP source, the party has given tickets to 12 from the Jat community so far. In Baghpat, which was once the stronghold of Jat leader and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh, the BJP has given tickets to five Jat candidates. The party has so far released the names of 149 candidates.

“We will remind them who were with the Jats when Kairana and Muzaffarnagar happened. It was BJP, which always stood with the Jats during those days when unpleasant things happened. Jats have already deserted Ajit Singh and that was the reason why he and his son Jayant Chaudhry got defeated from Baghpat and Mathura Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014,” the BJP source told The Sunday Guardian.

He said that the BJP played the role of “sanrakshak” (patron) during those troubled phase. “In any case, they are unhappy with the SP as the Akhilesh Yadav government handled Kairana and Muzaffarnagar incidents very badly. Ajit Singh, who claims to be a champion of the Jats, never spoke about the Jats at the time. In this situation, they have no option but to support the BJP,” he said.

In Western UP, also called Harit Pradesh, Jats and Muslims together constitute around 58% of the population. As many as 45 Assembly constituencies are there in this region. The spread of ISIS in India, which at one time had reached alarming proportions, has come down drastically in the last one year due to the counter-terror operations and preventive arrests made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is the nodal agency for dealing with ISIS in India.

In the last one year, the NIA has arrested 52 people for their involvement with the ISIS and are on the lookout for 35 more who are absconding.

Alok Mittal, Inspector General, NIA, who is considered to be one of the top-most authorities dealing with ISIS in India and has also been awarded the President’s police medal for his work towards dismantling ISIS modules, told The Sunday Guardian that the spread of ISIS in India was decreasing.

“It is not possible to give a numerical figure to substantiate that the spread of ISIS in India has decreased, but it has definitely come down. The incidents of youths being radicalised by the ISIS’ ideology have decreased,” Mittal said.

According to NIA officials, the interrogation of the 52 people who have been arrested for their alleged links with the ISIS has unearthed a lot of information that helped in preventing any untoward actions by the ISIS inspired individuals and also understand the way the ISIS handlers recruit people for their group. The interrogation of these youths, who are mostly from Maharashtra, Telangana and Kerala, has revealed that that they were highly radicalised and were proficient in using the internet to reach out to their handlers and their group members to convey information and seek directions. Most of them were born and brought up in a middle income and higher income group home and had had formal schooling.

“They are highly efficient in using online messaging apps like Trillian, Wickr, Kik to stay in touch with their handler to seek information on how to use weapons and explosives. It took us a lot of effort to unlock their apps and to dig out information, which they had deleted to avoid detection,” an official said. Unlike the other anti-terror agencies and the state police, the NIA focuses more on gathering irrefutable evidence that can withstand judicial scrutiny. “In most of these cases we have taken a lot of time and put in a lot of painstaking effort to gather irrefutable evidence that in itself shows and links the accused with the ISIS. Every arrest and every conviction helps as a major deterrent effect from stopping gullible people from falling into the hands of such terror groups,” the official said.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s ( KCR’s) announcement of 12% reservation for Muslims in educational institutions and jobs in the state is considered to be a strategic move with an eye on the next elections to the Assembly in 2019. For implementing this quota, he has to secure the approval of the Centre and the Supreme Court.

As of now, Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country which offers 12% reservations to Muslims in educational seats and jobs, but it has been accorded Constitutional safeguard by including it in the 9th Schedule in 1994. However, since then, the Supreme Court has been firm on ensuring that the quota did not exceed 50% on the whole.

KCR has been talking of extending 12% quota to Muslims in educational seats and jobs for the past two years, but he took a step ahead and made an announcement on the penultimate day of the 18-day long winter session of the Assembly on 18 January. This has stunned the depleted opposition parties The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has acted swiftly on allowing the AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu government promulgate an ordinance on Jallikattu, after it received reports from the IB (Intelligence Bureau) that fringe elements might create a law and order problem on the Marina Beach in Chennai where the agitators were camping since Wednesday.

By Saturday evening, everyone heaved a sigh of relief as Tamil Nadu in-charge Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao has signed a Centre-cleared ordinance allowing Jallikattu with some safety measures. Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam,