Tamil Nadu political leaders, including Thol Thirumavalavan and Seeman, have eulogized Kovai Basha, the notorious terrorist responsible for the 1998 Coimbatore bombings. Kovai Basha died of old age a couple of days back. Who was he? Was he someone who contributed to the society? Did he contribute to science? Education? What is his claim to fame?
He was a convicted terrorist who was jailed for killing innocent people in the name of religion. He was a bigot who misled a generation of his coreligionists to perpetrate terror on ideologies that he didn’t like. Let us quickly look at who he was and his road to notoriety. Basha was a firewood commission agent in Ukkadam, Coimbatore. He diversified into real estate broking and became a real estate businessman. The influence of Wahabi Islam increased in the late 1980s. Its initial epicentre was the old Madurai District (Madurai, Ramnad, Tirunelveli), which slowly diversified into Coimbatore. Basha soon became the ringleader in Coimbatore. One of his first acts of terror came in 1983 when he waylaid attacked the BJP leaders who were travelling in a car with a machete. Basha brutally attacked Jana Krishnamurthy, Thirukovilur Sundaram, T. R. Gopalan, and Narayan Rao.
In 1987, Basha brutally attacked Rama. Gopalan, the late leader of Hindu Munnani at Madurai Railway station. An attack so brutal that Gopalji was in a coma a month before his miraculous recovery process started. His skull was broken into pieces by this attack. It makes one wonder how such a heinous terrorist was let loose in the society. How could he escape the hands of justice and continue perpetrating terror?
Emboldened that the arms of law were keeping him at a distance, he threw open challenges. In 1989, he started issuing fatwas against opponents. He issued a fatwa against five Hindu activists, including Arjun Sampath and Veera Ganesh. Veera Ganesh was brutally murdered.
Basha’s terror activities were so blatant that he and his gang ransacked the office of the Coimbatore West, DMK MLA, C. T. Dhandapani. The reason – he met with Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Anyone he thought was not subscribing to his position was intimidated or silenced.
In 1993, there was a deadly RDX blast in the RSS office in Chennai. This resulted in eleven deaths and seven people gruesomely injured. The cause was Jihadi terror, and the terrorists were linked to Basha. The next was the gruesome murder of Kottai Ameer, a Muslim activist who was campaigning against Jihadi activities. And then came the murder of the young traffic constable Selvaraj in 1997. His fault was that he stopped a bike for triple riding and asked for their papers. Many of us might remember that the police department went on a strike protesting the killing of their colleague, which itself is very strange. Even after a police strike, the loss of 20 lives in the violence that followed, didn’t activate the long arm of justice to do something decisive against Basha.
Next came the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts. This act of terror was aimed at BJP leader L. K. Advani, who was visiting Coimbatore for some political meetings. Such was the evil mind of the Jihadi terrorists that they timed a bomb in the Government hospital targeting the victims and relatives of the blasts in other locations who would eventually be brought to the hospital. In six hours, there were twelve explosions across the city, killing 58 people and injuring more than 200.
After this gruesome Jihadi attack, Al Umma, the terror organisation that Basha headed, was banned. He and his associates were arrested and prosecuted. It wasn’t just Basha, but a few more from his family were arrested too. The Justice Gokulakrishnan Commission that was set up to probe the bomb blasts, indicted the government machinery for their lack of checks and surveillance and for not discharging their duties as expected. Many of us would remember that this is more or less the same thing that Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai said about the recent “gas cylinder” blasts in Coimbatore in 2023: intelligence failure and lack of surveillance.
So, this is the Basha who has been eulogised by leaders of a party recognised by the election commission, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK). The party supremo and an elected MP, Thol Thirumavalavan, went a step ahead and posted an eulogy, almost blaming the government for keeping Basha in jail. Another politician and the chief of the Naam Tamilar Katchi, Seeman, referred to Basha as his father and delivered his characteristic cinematic dialogues while paying tribute to this newfound father, a man who had been convicted of terrorist activities. The government of Tamil Nadu, on its part, even permitted a huge public procession to take the remains of Basha for burial.
The crowd seen during Basha’s final journey and in the meeting that happened before begs a critical question: What is the stance of the Muslim community on this? Do they see Basha as a role model for their children? The community that bravely came forward and issued a clarification during the recent 2023 Coimbatore bomb blasts against the Jihadi perpetrator Jameesha Mubin and subsequently denied him a burial in their graveyards needs to come out and clarify their stand about Basha and Al Umma. Otherwise, all their good work in 2023 would go waste and be seen as empty posturing.
The constituents of the Chidambaram parliamentary constituency need to ask their MP, Thol Thirumavalavan, about his stand on terrorism and terror activities. How can an MP who isn’t serious about terrorism that killed hundreds of innocent people protect the people of Chidambaram and ensure their welfare? The members and patrons of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi should also ask the party the same question.
Lastly, Seeman, whom Tamil Nadu sees as a comic relief for his antics about his relationship with ‘dead’ people, must be taken seriously. By calling a convicted terrorist “Appa”, he has not just shown his class but has also bared his fangs. Tamil Nadu needs to wake up to who he is and show him his place in the next elections.
Here is what the people of Tamil Nadu should know before continuing to support these regressive forces, such as Thol Thirumavalavan and Seeman, that support terror convicts. Your vote is a mighty weapon you yield.
இளைதாக முள்மரம் கொல்க களையுநர்
கைகொல்லும் காழ்த்த இடத்து (The Appraising of Enemies, 879)
“Fell down thorn-trees while yet they are young: for when they are over-grown they will themselves cut the hand that attempteth to fell them” – The Kural Or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar – V V S Aiyar
Raja Baradwaj is a marketing communications professional who works with a leading technology multinational company. He is an avid reader, history buff, cricket player, writer, and Sanskrit and Dharma Sastra student.
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