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Let's Fight Terrorism
Sach Kanwal Singh
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* So few
turned out at the Indian Parliament to mark the day when it was
attacked that the Indian media shed many a tear, berating the
politicians who cared so little about the war against terror.
There were hardly a dozen odd MPs to pay homag to those hwo had
died during the attack on Indian Parliament. Most of the
relatives of those who were killed during the December 13, 2001
attack also chose to stay away, gathering instead at the India
Gate war memorial to mark the anniversary. The attack killed 14
people, including the five attackers.
* Indian MPs
were also absent during crucial discussions on price rise, an
issue that has been probably killing more people than any other
problem. On one day, so many were absent in Lok Sabha during the
Question Hour that the Speaker had no other option but to
adjourn the House.
* Last
month, social activist and Naramada Bachao Andolan's face Medha
Patkar was shouting anti-government slogans during a forest
worker protest near Parliament where hundreds of activists,
farmers, tribals and forest workers demanded that Congress-led
UPA government not pass the proposed Land Acquisition bill.
* In Delhi,
crowds had come gathering to ask for food entitlement right.
* In Punjab,
Sikhs were fighting to stem the tide of dera culture and keep
elements like Ashutosh out of Punjab. |
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 Each
of the above are diverse examples in which various people fight
terrorism. Terrorism of the state that keeps indulging in
machinations to harass a minority. Terrorism of state powers.
Terrorism of poverty.
It is for each
one of us to chose our fight against terrorism. From the Manorama
Mothers who are fighting against the terrorism of the Indian state
by asking for scrapping of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to
Irom Sharmila who hasn't had a bite in over ten years to Darshan
Singh Lohara who preferred to take a bullet than sit at home and
suffer insults to his Guru, each one of us is fighting terrorism.
But the Indian
Nation State is peddling a singular, linear definition of terrorism.
TV channels like Times Now, India TV and myriad other programs on
other TV channels ahve become self-appointed spokespersons of the
official Indian line and are forever rasing ruckus against
Pakistan.
The Indian
establishment is moving the chess pieces in such a way that the
middle class, large sections of mainstream media, particularly
electronic media are going hammer and tongs after Pakistan.
That is why we
presented above the other ways in which people are fighting
terrorism. It is time for the saner elements to step back and have a
hard good look at all aspects of the problem.
No doubt India
has suffered terror strikes. Even if you take it granted for a
moment that it is indeed Pakistan behind the many problems that
India is facing, what does one mean by Pakistan? The Government of
Pakistan? The ISI? The Army? The militants? The Al Qaida? So many
terror attacks around the world emanate from fringe groups. Many of
these could be in Pakistan.
Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, who masterminded the 9/11 operation of 2001, was captured
in Pakistan; Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri are probably
hiding and leading al-Qaeda from the Pakistan-Afghan non-existent
border, jihadi terrorist groups work from inside Pakistan. Dawood
Ibrahim continues to be sheltered by Pakistani.
Will attacking
Pakistan be equivalent to attacking these people?
Will India not
be attacking the people of Pakistan? The very people who are India's
only hope as they are the ones suffering, they are the ones who have
rejected the mullahs, they are the ones who are again and again
choosing democracy over dictators despite adverse conditions.
This is the time
when India should understand that one form of attack is to befriend
a people, join them in their struggle against terrorists, and thus
rid oneself of terror.
This is the time
when Pakistan needs help, when India must reach out to Pakistan's
people and tell them that it understands their problems, that it too
is facing similar problems, and that it is possible to fight.
But before that
India will have to contend with its own brahmanical agenda and apply
the correctives. New Delhi is shy of appealing directly to the
Muslim world because its own record in dealing with the Muslim
population, in addressing its arrested development, in empowering
the Muslim minority, is extremely poor.
It cannot make
this an issue because the Christian world will ask New Delhi about
its credentials on security of Christians, and India's response to
reprisal terrorism unleashed by Hindutva forces.
India could have
become a partner in a global approach to tackle the problem head-on.
All it needs to do is to first set its own house in order quickly,
and for that its entire approach to the way New Delhi
deals with its minorities must change.
India has so far
not said it clearly that it will rather help in stability of
Pakistan. New Delhi is seen in Pakistan as the hegemonic force that
has not made its peace with its neighbour’s existence. This has to
change. Instead, Indian hawkish sections talking of striking at and
inside Pakistan should be shut up. They are part of the problem.
No one can beat
the menace of Islamist extremism that provides ideological energy
for jihadi terror by making
Pakistan
an unstable and economically desperate country.
By attacking
Pakistan, or even by indulging in such irresponsible talk,
New Delhi
and the saffron lobby actually help the terrorists in
Pakistan.
Because that gives ammunition to the grist mills. The problem is
that Indian brahamanical forces also stand to gain from such hawking
statements as it polarizes opinion, society, and votes.
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If you want to fight terrorism, go and tell P Chidambaram that
his Operation Greenhunt is terrorism against the poorest of the
poor. Thank Medha Patekar because by fighting against Land
Acquisition Bill, she is preventing more people from turning
towards terrorism.
Choose your new and progressive way of fighting terrorism.
Choose to add your voice to the concerns of minorities and the
repressed classes. That way you will ensure that terrorism does
not get new recruits. |
You can do the
same thing and achieve the same results by either demolishing
mosques, attacking Golden Temple or Hazratbal or by talking of
dropping bombs on
Lahore.
For decades, the BJP-RSS-VHP has been indulging in such talk, now
major sections of Indian middle classes brought up on neo-liberal
economic ideas and depoliticized to massive and shameful extent are
doing the same.
One saw
sloganeering of Bharat Mata Ki Jai during rapes in Orissa, one heard
nationalist slogans in Jammu when Kashmiris were hunted and highway
blockaded.
To those who may
not be amenable to cold logic but can understand what a nuclear
weapon means, our point is simple:
Pakistan
is not Iraq. It does have WMD. The Indian media and establishment
forget to mention it. It has a complicated terrain, and its armed
forces have sections that may not shy away from using the WMD if
push comes to shove.
The only thing
that can succeed in such a scenario is to take the inimical
perception out of it.
It is time New
Delhi goes all out to ensure sustainability of
Pakistan’s
democratic forces. And anyone desirous of keeping the terrorist out
of India must understand that they will have be kept out of
Pakistan.
For that, Pakistan needs assistance. Assistance of all kinds.
The trick lies
in pulling Pakistan out of this terror bind in order to save others.
It will help the US and it will help India.
Only forces it
will not help are Indian brahamanical forces. Will the people of
India allow themselves to be held hostage to such machinations of
these forces that pervade across political spectrum, or will they
see through their tactics and rise to the challenge? Therein lies
whether we will rid ourselves of the terror, or whether New Delhi
would become the new terror bully in the region?
If you want to
fight terrorism, go and tell P Chidambaram that his Operation
Greenhunt is terrorism against the poorest of the poor. Thank Medha
Patekar because by fighting against Land Acquisition Bill, she is
preventing more people from turning towards terrorism.
Choose your new
and progressive way of fighting terrorism. Choose to add your voice
to the concerns of minorities and the repressed classes. That way
you will ensure that terrorism does not get new recruits.
16
December 2009
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