The dastardly terror strike in Mumbai has shaken the entire nation. It is not just the scale of fatalities with 195 killed in cold blood and nearly 300 injured that hurt the people. The reputation of the nation has been damaged globally with the English cricket team refusing to play any more matches and predictions about a drop in future investments in Indian economy. What is curious is that after a brief consensus against terror among mainstream political parties, the blame game has again resurfaced. While the parties like BJP has found the Karachi connection useful in blaming the Muslims for all the mayhem caused across the financial capital, those opposed to it criticise it for politicising terror for electoral gains. The fact is that there is some truth in both the claims. BJP, which rightly faults Congress on not hanging Afzal Guru despite his conviction on terror charge for appeasing Muslims cannot explain why its foreign minister Jaswant Singh escorted the three notorious terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to Kandhar to secure the release of Indian hostages. Nor does it condone why PM Manmohan Singh, while claiming that the neighbouring country will have to take the cost for allowing terror strike from its territory, fails to extract any cost from his own cabinet and allows the Home minister to continue in office. To spread disaffection against the govt., Narendra Modi offers a crore of rupees against the official Rs. 5 lacs, to late ATS chief Karkare’s family by way of compensation. He conveniently forgets that his party was demanding a Narco test on the same IPS officer over the Malegaon terror case, which allegedly involved people aligned to his party. Karkare’s family rejected the offer the same way as Sharma’s family had done when SP leader Amar Singh had sent them a cheque of Rs. 10 lacs following the death of Inspector Sharma of Delhi police after voicing doubts about Batla House encounter. Politicians do not learn and are bent upon dividing the people.
What is more disappointing is that terror strikes have been taking place recurrently and evoking similar responses. A tough statement and compensation for victims followed by inaction till a fresh strike takes place. While the investigating agencies usually unearth all the information and reconstruct the sequence of events, yet they can neither act effectively on intelligence inputs nor pre-empt or prevent future attacks. The columns and blogs are full of comparisons with US, which has not allowed a single terror attack on its soil post 9/11. There are suggestions that the present strike was meant primarily to target US interests on the Thanksgiving Day along with British and Israelis. The choice of the financial capital of India proved handy logistically. The global intelligence inputs pointing out a spectacular strike before Obama is sworn in have been proved right and we have paid dearly since we were complacent enough to believe that the strike will be in US. Nor did our agencies take into account the possibility that with airports and railways better guarded, the terrorists may take the sea route. One wishes the choppers of Indian coastguards had mounted surveillance sooner and averted the loss of innocent lives in the most barbaric strikes.
A question that is being hotly discussed over the net relates to India tackling terror. How can we do it? What needs to be done? It is clear that all of us need to change. First of all we need to treat the issue of security seriously. When Delhi’s LG wanted all citizens to carry some kind of ID proof, politicians pounced upon him and accused him of harassing migrants from places like Bihar. Does it make any sense? When you cannot tell a Bangladeshi from a Bihari or a Bangali, how do you screen potential terrorists? It is a pity none of the local leaders supported the order, which was legitimate and reasonable. Nor did any one support Delhi’s CM, at least publically, when she talked about increasing migration to Delhi exerting pressure on its infrastructure. She was made to withdraw the statement and tender an apology. Do our leaders even understand that such unchecked migration has a security angle too?
There is lack of professionalism among the police as well. One wonders how the terror suspects manage to evade its eye while the street vendors and petty criminals cannot avoid being on its pay-roll. And how does one accept Sharma not wearing a bullet proof jacket at Batla House or Karkare and his men taking them off before the terrorists had been neutralised? It is not just a matter of losing lives but valiant and trained officers. Does one need to explain the advantages of wearing a helmet over an ordinary P-cap to the cops and commandos? The terrorist are far better equipped than those expected to take them head on and the disastrous results are before us. 19 killed and 275 injured by ten terrorists plus the carnage they left behind.
After every terror strike, there is tough talk, a high alert and more frisking till we sink into complacency again and become a sitting duck for terrorists. Let us hope that things will be different this time and the nation will be better prepared to face them in future-from wherever they come.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
On Hindu terror
L.K. Advani, Prime minister-designate of BJP protested during the course of Hindustan Times Leadership Summit today at the use of the term “Hindu terror”. Speaking like the pseudo-secularists his party ridicules everyday; he declared that terrorists have no religion. This must sound like music to many and some may regret that he had to issue such a clarification at all. Rajnath Singh, the President of BJP had similarly protested at the use of the term stating that a Hindu can never be a terrorist. One is reminded of a claim that PM Manmohan Singh made a couple of years ago that no Indian Muslim was involved in acts of terror worldwide. As if to prove him wrong, many indigenous name and organizations sprang up forcing him to eat his words. The latest being the tech-savvy Indian Mujahidin (IM), which not only took responsibility for several serial blasts across Indian cities but also revealed shockingly that those driving the engine of Muslim hate were not products of some non-descript madrassa but a highly educated and well-paid executive of an MNC. One can only hope that Advani and his likes do not have to face the same fate as more and more skeletons toss out of cupboards of Hindu terror every day. The Hindu hate machine has even penetrated the army, which prided itself on its secular values and sense of discipline. Remember the photographs of Abdul Hamid, who martyred himself in the service of India, splashed across newspapers in the wake of Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 and won the highest bravery award, Param Vir Chakra?
Most Hindus also thought that violence was inimical to Hindu ethos. When you had saints who walked barefoot for fear of hurting insects and renounced materialism in all its forms in order to attain nirvana, how could they even think violence, leave alone preaching it? And it was not just Hindus who thought of our faith in such glorious terms. I still recollect interviewing for our college magazine, Stavak, the noted cartoonist of Indian Express, Abu Abraham, at his residence in early seventies. During the course of the interview recorded on a bulky spool tape recorder lying in ruins with me, Abu, a conservative Christian revealed that he had not baptised his two daughters. They were given Muslim and Hindu names, Aysha and Janaki, and the parents read over different scriptures to them. The idea was not to burden them with the faith of their parents but to give them a choice of choosing a faith that gave them maximum solace. Abu went on to say that he had not come across a more liberal faith than Hinduism. After I had clicked a few photographs of Abu with my Russian Zorky camera, I and my friend from AIR, O.P. Dutta left his place in a bit of daze wondering whether we in our twenties could even conceive of such values. I just checked on the net and learnt with dismay that Abu passed away in his native Kerala in the winter of 2002. R.I.P. May his ideals continue to inspire our nation!
The overwhelming question is how is it that the liberalism of the same faith that evoked the envy of several non-Hindus created men who could torch people alive, rape women and destroy mosques and churches? There is a school of thought that violence by Hindus is retaliatory and caused by relentless appeasement of minorities for electoral gains. This is not an invalid assumption. Critics of post-Godhra riots rarely if ever referred to the torching Hindu karsevaks in the coaches of a train. Political parties like the SP rake up the Batla House encounter case with an eye on Muslim votes. Not to be undone, Congress indulges in the same kind of double-speak it accuses others, especially the BJP of, when it also demands a probe into it. Did the BJP ever sought justice for hundreds of innocent men and women hounded out of buses, segregated and shot at point blank range in the fields of Punjab? Isn’t it also guilty of appeasing Sikhs and Akalis? Is pseudo-secularism of Congress and the Left being matched by BJP’s pseudo-communalism? And what about attacking Christians, burning their homes and destroying churches? Haven’t the self-appointed guardians of Hinduism negated the provisions of our Constitution, which guarantees freedom of faith? If the argument is that missionaries are inducing tribals in order to convert them, which may be true, the rites of purification and home-coming being performed by Hindu groups as a pre-condition for allowing the victims to return to their hearth and homes are also involuntary. In any case, most Indian Muslims, Christians and Buddhists are converts from Hinduism. How many can one possibly re-convert back and with what benefit? The only gain can be electoral since such a drive is meant to consolidate Hindu votes. It is clear that using brute force against minorities is a political and not a religious agenda. Has Advani ever taken up the cause of Muslims accused of being terrorists and tortured to extract confessions?
Several Hindu groups of various hues and colours no longer feel shy of embracing violence in thought and action. What is unfortunate is that it is being done in the name of a religion, which has been universally acknowledged as the most liberal faith. One may call it by any name but the repercussions for the country’s unity and diversity will be tragic. Therefore it is important that we, as a nation, learn to respect the rule of law. India must come first and remain foremost.
***
Most Hindus also thought that violence was inimical to Hindu ethos. When you had saints who walked barefoot for fear of hurting insects and renounced materialism in all its forms in order to attain nirvana, how could they even think violence, leave alone preaching it? And it was not just Hindus who thought of our faith in such glorious terms. I still recollect interviewing for our college magazine, Stavak, the noted cartoonist of Indian Express, Abu Abraham, at his residence in early seventies. During the course of the interview recorded on a bulky spool tape recorder lying in ruins with me, Abu, a conservative Christian revealed that he had not baptised his two daughters. They were given Muslim and Hindu names, Aysha and Janaki, and the parents read over different scriptures to them. The idea was not to burden them with the faith of their parents but to give them a choice of choosing a faith that gave them maximum solace. Abu went on to say that he had not come across a more liberal faith than Hinduism. After I had clicked a few photographs of Abu with my Russian Zorky camera, I and my friend from AIR, O.P. Dutta left his place in a bit of daze wondering whether we in our twenties could even conceive of such values. I just checked on the net and learnt with dismay that Abu passed away in his native Kerala in the winter of 2002. R.I.P. May his ideals continue to inspire our nation!
The overwhelming question is how is it that the liberalism of the same faith that evoked the envy of several non-Hindus created men who could torch people alive, rape women and destroy mosques and churches? There is a school of thought that violence by Hindus is retaliatory and caused by relentless appeasement of minorities for electoral gains. This is not an invalid assumption. Critics of post-Godhra riots rarely if ever referred to the torching Hindu karsevaks in the coaches of a train. Political parties like the SP rake up the Batla House encounter case with an eye on Muslim votes. Not to be undone, Congress indulges in the same kind of double-speak it accuses others, especially the BJP of, when it also demands a probe into it. Did the BJP ever sought justice for hundreds of innocent men and women hounded out of buses, segregated and shot at point blank range in the fields of Punjab? Isn’t it also guilty of appeasing Sikhs and Akalis? Is pseudo-secularism of Congress and the Left being matched by BJP’s pseudo-communalism? And what about attacking Christians, burning their homes and destroying churches? Haven’t the self-appointed guardians of Hinduism negated the provisions of our Constitution, which guarantees freedom of faith? If the argument is that missionaries are inducing tribals in order to convert them, which may be true, the rites of purification and home-coming being performed by Hindu groups as a pre-condition for allowing the victims to return to their hearth and homes are also involuntary. In any case, most Indian Muslims, Christians and Buddhists are converts from Hinduism. How many can one possibly re-convert back and with what benefit? The only gain can be electoral since such a drive is meant to consolidate Hindu votes. It is clear that using brute force against minorities is a political and not a religious agenda. Has Advani ever taken up the cause of Muslims accused of being terrorists and tortured to extract confessions?
Several Hindu groups of various hues and colours no longer feel shy of embracing violence in thought and action. What is unfortunate is that it is being done in the name of a religion, which has been universally acknowledged as the most liberal faith. One may call it by any name but the repercussions for the country’s unity and diversity will be tragic. Therefore it is important that we, as a nation, learn to respect the rule of law. India must come first and remain foremost.
***
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Defending Terror Accused
When the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia University offered financial assistance to some of its students accused of masterminding bomb blasts in Delhi, there was a hue and cry. Jamia is a central university, which receives funding from the central government through the UGC. In other words, the tax payers’ money was proposed to be used to defend terror suspects. The matter assumed political overtones when the Minister of HRD after a meeting with Jamia’s VC supported his stand. The VC claimed that law assumed everyone to be innocent till proven guilty. Therefore Jamia was not wrong in arranging the legal defence of its students.
This raises interesting questions. If the arrested students did not belong to the minority community, would Jamia and the politicians who swarmed the campus in their support after the encounter of Batla House have still adopted the same stand? Is the real motive to help the so-called innocents or to appease the sentiments of minority community with an eye on their votes? When an employee of a university is arrested even on a petty criminal charge and held in detention for more than 48 hours, the service rules prescribe his suspension. When Jamia’s students have been arrested on a serious charge of promoting terror and are in custody, they are being glorified and offered legal aid by those who are responsible for maintaining discipline in the university.
In a reprehensible bid to encash Muslim votes, the politicians have not only questioned the police action in which a senior police officer was himself shot dead, but also demanded a probe even before the investigation is complete. There was a ludicrous suggestion that the police officer may have been shot dead by his own colleagues to justify a fake encounter. Such absurdities call for a willing suspension of disbelief. The underlying assumption is that Muslims are under attack and whenever a terror attack takes place, only Muslim names crop us. What do the critics expect? A combination of Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian names to prove our multi- religious society with perhaps a Parsi name to garnish the recipe? Which names came up when Punjab was on the boil in the eighties? Muslim or Sikh? Similar stories of repression of Sikhs were floated by the vested interests while hundreds of poor Hindus who were dragged out of buses in Punjab and shot dead in cold blood.
The approach belies a lack of seriousness in tackling terror. Almost as a re-run, an ex-Major of Indian Army accused of training those involved in Malegaon blasts in which Muslims were on the receiving end, is being offered legal help by VHP. This is equally condemnable. In a civil society, which respects the rule of law, it is tantamount to indirectly funding terrorism. If the only concern is that the accused may not go undefended, let those keen to act as “Good Samaritans” like the Minister of HRD, the VC of Jamia and the VHP know that the courts are required to appoint amicus curie or friends of court to defend those who lack the means to do so. The powers that be are expected to let law take its own course. If we want India to survive as a democratic, secular and unified nation, we will have to learn to respect the law.
This raises interesting questions. If the arrested students did not belong to the minority community, would Jamia and the politicians who swarmed the campus in their support after the encounter of Batla House have still adopted the same stand? Is the real motive to help the so-called innocents or to appease the sentiments of minority community with an eye on their votes? When an employee of a university is arrested even on a petty criminal charge and held in detention for more than 48 hours, the service rules prescribe his suspension. When Jamia’s students have been arrested on a serious charge of promoting terror and are in custody, they are being glorified and offered legal aid by those who are responsible for maintaining discipline in the university.
In a reprehensible bid to encash Muslim votes, the politicians have not only questioned the police action in which a senior police officer was himself shot dead, but also demanded a probe even before the investigation is complete. There was a ludicrous suggestion that the police officer may have been shot dead by his own colleagues to justify a fake encounter. Such absurdities call for a willing suspension of disbelief. The underlying assumption is that Muslims are under attack and whenever a terror attack takes place, only Muslim names crop us. What do the critics expect? A combination of Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian names to prove our multi- religious society with perhaps a Parsi name to garnish the recipe? Which names came up when Punjab was on the boil in the eighties? Muslim or Sikh? Similar stories of repression of Sikhs were floated by the vested interests while hundreds of poor Hindus who were dragged out of buses in Punjab and shot dead in cold blood.
The approach belies a lack of seriousness in tackling terror. Almost as a re-run, an ex-Major of Indian Army accused of training those involved in Malegaon blasts in which Muslims were on the receiving end, is being offered legal help by VHP. This is equally condemnable. In a civil society, which respects the rule of law, it is tantamount to indirectly funding terrorism. If the only concern is that the accused may not go undefended, let those keen to act as “Good Samaritans” like the Minister of HRD, the VC of Jamia and the VHP know that the courts are required to appoint amicus curie or friends of court to defend those who lack the means to do so. The powers that be are expected to let law take its own course. If we want India to survive as a democratic, secular and unified nation, we will have to learn to respect the law.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Aiyer-from a Leftist to a Marxist
Every one knows that Mani Shanker Aiyer is a brilliant and articulate man. But that's not a qualification for getting an important portfolio. When he was moved from Petroleum to Panchayti Raj, he felt demoted and marginalised. It was reported that he complained to Sonia Gandhi that he knew nothing about Panchayati Raj. She is believed to have retorted that he knew nothing about petroleum too when he was given that portfolio. The point is you are given a job and you have to excel at it or quit. He claims in his address that he was always a Leftist. So are most people in their teens when they dream of an equal world. But on growing up, they realize that equality does not even exist in the Communist parties’ politburos. He further claims that the economic reforms made him a Marxist. He should honestly admit that it is his dislike for PM, who didn't let him continue and moved him to Panchayati Raj that makes him question why credit for economic reforms should be given to Manmohan Singh. Either way, it amounts to a confession that Economic reforms are not to be discredited. Marxism only created utopian states, which either collapsed (U.S.S.R., for instance) or embraced capitalism like China. Statistics apart, the fact remains that China has recorded phenomenal growth and exceeded India in every part of the economic game. Aiyer for all his frustration should remember that you need to produce more goods and services for every one to have them and social justice does not mean taking away from some to give to others. Can one deny a communication revolution in the country with ordinary masons, plumbers, carpenters and vendors not just flashing mobile phones but using them to get custom? The answer to inequalities lies in finding ways and means to end them and delivering sermons at the CII is surely not the ideal way.
Monday, October 27, 2008
On the Wagah Border
On the Wagah Border
We sped fast to cover the 30 kms distance from Amritsar to the Wagah border. The cab driver told us that we need to take our place by 4 P.M. to be able to see the Retreat ceremony. Though we made it in time, yet the vantage positions were already occupied. This we realised after the details of the area sinked in. There was a huge gate on the Indian side with a camera crew on top to shoot the ceremony. The sides of the road looked like a stadium with all the steps filled up with people who had thronged to catch a glimpse. I decided to stand in the middle of the road, along the barricade of a thick rope but he BSF sentry would shove me repeatedly asking me to move. Patriotic songs blared at full volume from huge speakers installed on the top of BSF unit’s quarters and an athletic jawan goaded the crowd to cheer and raise the slogans loud enough to reach the other side. For the Pakistani gate, with a photograph of Jinnah visible from a distance of 500-odd meters that separated us, also had hundreds of people seated in a similar fashion trying to drown the Indians by using their lung-power. Hindustan Zindabad met with a piercing sound of Pakistan Paindabad. Some small children on our side tried to outsmart the other side by shouting murdabad as soon as Pakistan was heard over their amplifiers but the BSF jawans dissuaded them from shouting any slogans other than those in praise of India. As seconds turned into minutes and minutes into quarters, the restless crowd was fed with new slogans like “Vande Matram”. There was hostility in the air as BSF jawans and Pakistani Rangers at a distance tried to stamp life out of roads beneath by raising their knees almost to their chests and stamping the earth harshly. Then the unexpected happened. All of us were pushed to one side. When we looked back, we saw the Lahore-Delhi-Lahore bus moving slowly towards the borders as the two gates on Indian and Pakistani sides were opened to enable it cross over. The passengers peeped out and waved and captured the excitement outside on cameras. The crowd of curious onlookers waved back trying unsuccessfully to figure out their nationality. Not an easy job since Indians and Pakistanis look so much alike. Once the bus was gone, the crowds were back to their old game.
As the Sun dipped over the Pakistani horizon, it took a lot of heat away from the proceedings. The BSF jawan explained the contours of the ceremony and asked the crowd to stand up silently. The command into the microphone was the longest one ever heard over the years. The soldiers marched into each other’s territory briefly and began lowering the flags of the two nations by pulling the strings diagonally. There was aloud cheer as the two flags overlapped half way through and the vendors tried to encash the sentiment by offering CDs of the film Border vigorously. The soldiers embraced before the gates were closed in the twilight. The new day would bring new faces to the borders on both the sides and the love-hate relationship between the two neighbours would be demonstrated again. As I turned back, passing by the custom and immigration offices, I could not suppress a thought. If thousands of people throng the border on both the sides just to see a ceremony, how many must be keen to cross over and meet the people of the other side-only if the politicians and police would let them go over!
India-Pakistan relations are held hostage by them. There was a terse reminder of the same as people looked at a double fencing on both sides of the border. What is this passage for? I enquired from an armed guard. What you just saw was only a gate. This is actually the border. The double fence with flood lights is to prevent infiltration from the Pakistani side. The embraces disappeared from my mind and cross-border filled the vacuous space.
***
We sped fast to cover the 30 kms distance from Amritsar to the Wagah border. The cab driver told us that we need to take our place by 4 P.M. to be able to see the Retreat ceremony. Though we made it in time, yet the vantage positions were already occupied. This we realised after the details of the area sinked in. There was a huge gate on the Indian side with a camera crew on top to shoot the ceremony. The sides of the road looked like a stadium with all the steps filled up with people who had thronged to catch a glimpse. I decided to stand in the middle of the road, along the barricade of a thick rope but he BSF sentry would shove me repeatedly asking me to move. Patriotic songs blared at full volume from huge speakers installed on the top of BSF unit’s quarters and an athletic jawan goaded the crowd to cheer and raise the slogans loud enough to reach the other side. For the Pakistani gate, with a photograph of Jinnah visible from a distance of 500-odd meters that separated us, also had hundreds of people seated in a similar fashion trying to drown the Indians by using their lung-power. Hindustan Zindabad met with a piercing sound of Pakistan Paindabad. Some small children on our side tried to outsmart the other side by shouting murdabad as soon as Pakistan was heard over their amplifiers but the BSF jawans dissuaded them from shouting any slogans other than those in praise of India. As seconds turned into minutes and minutes into quarters, the restless crowd was fed with new slogans like “Vande Matram”. There was hostility in the air as BSF jawans and Pakistani Rangers at a distance tried to stamp life out of roads beneath by raising their knees almost to their chests and stamping the earth harshly. Then the unexpected happened. All of us were pushed to one side. When we looked back, we saw the Lahore-Delhi-Lahore bus moving slowly towards the borders as the two gates on Indian and Pakistani sides were opened to enable it cross over. The passengers peeped out and waved and captured the excitement outside on cameras. The crowd of curious onlookers waved back trying unsuccessfully to figure out their nationality. Not an easy job since Indians and Pakistanis look so much alike. Once the bus was gone, the crowds were back to their old game.
As the Sun dipped over the Pakistani horizon, it took a lot of heat away from the proceedings. The BSF jawan explained the contours of the ceremony and asked the crowd to stand up silently. The command into the microphone was the longest one ever heard over the years. The soldiers marched into each other’s territory briefly and began lowering the flags of the two nations by pulling the strings diagonally. There was aloud cheer as the two flags overlapped half way through and the vendors tried to encash the sentiment by offering CDs of the film Border vigorously. The soldiers embraced before the gates were closed in the twilight. The new day would bring new faces to the borders on both the sides and the love-hate relationship between the two neighbours would be demonstrated again. As I turned back, passing by the custom and immigration offices, I could not suppress a thought. If thousands of people throng the border on both the sides just to see a ceremony, how many must be keen to cross over and meet the people of the other side-only if the politicians and police would let them go over!
India-Pakistan relations are held hostage by them. There was a terse reminder of the same as people looked at a double fencing on both sides of the border. What is this passage for? I enquired from an armed guard. What you just saw was only a gate. This is actually the border. The double fence with flood lights is to prevent infiltration from the Pakistani side. The embraces disappeared from my mind and cross-border filled the vacuous space.
***
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