The blasts in Delhi on Deepavali eve should have been the last straw, but even ten days after that blatant and brutal assault on India, the tendency of our rulers is to wish it away, or rather wash it away, as just one of those usual accidents. In fact on that fatal day, the PM’s first reaction could be had only four to five hours after the blast, which is ridiculous in these days of omnipresent and penetrative media. He probably was awaiting Sonia’s nod because he spoke only after the lady did. And, when he did speak, it was the usual uninspiring stuff, offering neither comfort nor confidence.
Pussy-footing on terrorism is nothing new to Indian leadership which in turn is probably reflecting a national malaise. We would like to believe that the terror aimed at the country would one day pass off by itself and we can live happily ever after. The terrorists, of course, have other ideas, but would doubtless be happy with our attitude. For they know for sure, that come what may, Indians do not have it in them to cross their self- imposed lakshman rekha and hit back with force and ferocity. Or else, how much more bombings do we need, how many more provocations should come our way for us to react like say, the US or Britain?
America crossed two oceans and two continents to secure itself against ‘perceived’ threats. To this day, not a shred of evidence has been produced to justify its war on Iraq nor has it got within even smelling distance of Osama whose captivity was the purpose of the attack on Afghanistan.
Britain sent its troops to the tip of South America to retake the Falklands from Argentina as the world watched the ‘exploits’ of the Royal Navy against a tiny nation. But no one bothered to ask what the UK was doing in such distant places.
Again, Britain’s reaction to the bombings in London went to paranoic levels but it could get away with shooting down an innocent foreigner whose only mistake was to run! Neither of these countries, touted as the harbingers of civilisation and modernity and all associated virtues, has any qualms about treating every Asian as a criminal, particularly anyone with a beard, unless proved innocent. No secular concerns, no niceties or courtesies, and of course, no talk of human rights too. Their national security is deemed paramount, even if it means running roughshod over or ruining the rest of humanity. For that matter no country, Israel, Iran or North Korea, bothers about world opinion when it comes to national security.
But India could be exposed to any risk because it is expendable. And the unfortunate reality is that even the Indians themselves think so. Let alone crossing oceans and continents, India is not even supposed to cross the imaginary and largely invisible Line of Control, to secure itself against an open, blatant and real threat, a threat which has manifested itself every day for the last over fifty years. Four formal wars, including the Kargil one, have been fought. On every occasion Pakistan has been the aggressor. Each time the Indian army not only repulsed the enemy but was in a position to take back PoK, which we officially still claim as our own. And each time, like a rolling trophy being handed back to the organisers after a win, we frittered away the triumphs!
If the country’s leadership does not itself have firm convictions about its stated position on Kashmir and cross-border terror, then how will the rest of the world believe us, let alone help us? Remember the pressure exerted by the big powers on India to exercise restraint and not cross the LoC, even in the face of visible aggression by Pakistan? We routinely fall for this lofty advice and get into defensive mode everytime we are attacked. While the attacker remains cool, it is we who seem keen on talks. We get too careful and coy in associating certain religious beliefs with the killers, though it is common knowledge that India is targetted for its majority religion and not for its avowed secular status and the killers themselves are driven by religious fanaticism. And, next, we have to handle bombers and brutes with kid gloves, in due deference to human rights values and their ‘legal rights’. And we compound our suicidal instincts by abolishing such Acts like POTA even while the whole world is contemplating more stringent laws to counter terror.
Terrorism, particularly religious terror, is not new to India. We have faced it for over thousand years ever since the times of Khiljis, Gajjinis, Ghoris and Babars. And probably we have got numbed by it to the point of not only complete acceptance of the methods of the aggressors but also their rationale! But in these heady times when sense of history and nationalist sensibilibities of the people at large are facing several challenges, a generation may come that would feel that Kashmir is not worth it after all. The current rulers, therefore, owe it not not only to history and their convictions, but also to posterity to retake PoK, which we all believe belongs to India, and is also the home of all Pak-backed terror networks. Imagine a scenario if American interests were to be attacked by, say the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The PoK would then be swarming with US marines by now. India should emulate this example, We can always build world opinion later. But action first.
In any case, have we not already paid a stiff price including the blood and gore of the latest bomb victims? Or do we need to spill more Indian ‘Kafir’ blood for our leaders and their voters to realise that the jihadists are insatiable? A nation that refuses to be outraged by such heinous aggression is both morally and mortally dead.
It is now or never!
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