THE GREAT INDIAN CIRCUS
Watch your step, Actor
The DMK must now be thanking its star. They may not believe in the Almighty but certainly have a lot of faith in ‘Arunachalam’. The faithfuls now have reason to celebrate. With his typical swish of the hand the super Actor has dismissed any suggestion against the DMK regime for its ‘very minor negligence’ of allowing the extremists to accumulate bombs and weapons which has now caused the death of ‘just’ fifty innocent people. Of course there is the assurance that the self-respecting Chief Minister will, on his own, lay down office if there is a repeat of such a gory incident. Well, the ‘Arunachalam’ has said so. Obviously, his minions and that should include the DMK chief, can be expected to obey.
There is of course a counter suggestion that the blasts may be the handwork of parties which do not want the DMK-TMC combine to win. Surely, the Actor must be in possession of some irrefutable clues, apparently gathered during his sojourn in Hong Kong, to substantiate his ‘doubts’ which will, true to his style, be revealed only at an appropriate time, though he himself may not know when, were and how.
This exoneration by the super-judge notwithstanding, the CM and his government have still not told the people why they remained mute spectators when the terrorists openly built up their arsenal. Does the government want the people of the State to believe that it was blissfully unaware of the burgeoning stockpiles of bombs or that it did not know the hide-outs? If so, it is then an open admission of negligence and the failure of intelligence, and reflects a palpable inability to govern. The self-respecting CM, in which case not wait for another blast and might as well resign right away, as the Star has suggested.
If on the contrary, the authorities did have knowledge of the activities of the terrorists and were in the know of their hideouts and arms dumps, but for some reason preferred to wait till the militants struck, then it is guilty of an even bigger crime. The fact that the police wasted no time in raiding the dens of the extremists and the subsequent seizures of dangerous arms only points to such a prior knowledge. It is this callous tolerance of criminal activities that has been directly responsible for the Koval incidents and the government stands squarely in the dock for its detestable apathy.
Apparently, the Star has not bothered to check facts before embarking on a tirade at his detractors and more importantly, before giving a clean chit to his star-struck followers in politics. Had he done so, he would not have walked into the trap and would have even preferred to extend his holiday in HK. Instead, he finds himself in a pitiable position where he is committed to defend certain elements against the very same allegations with which he pilloried his opponents a few years back. If anything, things have only taken a turn for the worse during the present regime as the frequent disasters bear out. Whatever his averments in favour of the DMK, the credibility gap is quite telling.
The Actor has also espoused another profound theory that smacks of naivety. The bombs would not have been targeted at Advani, he reasons, for had it been so it would ensure the victory of the BJP, which will only turn counter productive to the designs of the terrorists. Besides betraying a confused mind on the question of how to approach the subject of a particular community, the celluloid hangover in such a line of thinking is quite evident. Real life villains are different from their reel life counterparts who are fated to lose to the heroes. The very prospect of Advani’s visit given the ground realities in Coimbatore, would only set their terrorist mind working and not their diplomatic mind, even if they had one. Hardcore killers like those who perpetrated the blasts have terrorism ingrained in their psyche. Every terrorist is sure to lay claim to a rational to justify his acts, but once he turns into one, killing becomes a habit. Considerations of political expediency are unknown to their guns and bombs. A Prabhakaran would not have killed Rajiv Gandhi had he had one bit of political diplomacy. Personal animosities and depravity are even more potent provocateurs than political ideologies. Bhagat Singhs and Chandrasekar Azads are heroes of the past. Those who resort to terrorism today do so not out of any ideological calling, but simply to strike terror. These mercenaries would not mind killing even their own brethren if they deem it necessary. The LTTE’s fratricidal war is once again a case in point. The present day terrorists do not care if the killing of a political or a religious leader boomerangs on their own community. They just move on to their next target.
The super Actor would do well if he looks back at the history of his ‘beneficiaries’. He can make a beginning by giving the Jain commission report a good reading before holding a brief for them. He can even go a little more further down memory lane to the late seventies when a judge named Sarkaria handed out an unprecedented indictment against the Actor’s friends for what he termed as ‘Scientific Corruption’. Such a quick flashback would reveal the sordid track record of the present incumbents- who are they, where they are now partly owing to the Actor’s misplaced charity. Coming back to the present, the Actor could also pay some unbiased attention to the DMK regime’s affinity and affection for the renegade forest brigand Veerappan. Even a novice political observer can discern a trait of the DMK that consistently endears it to such undesirable elements.
Even if one were to be magnanimous enough to forgive and forget the past, their present activities are also none too creditable as to warrant the Actor’s unqualified support. The Actor, owing to his frequent absences from India, is either ignorant or misinformed. Just to brush up his knowledge, the outfits that have now been banned, have been habitual offenders and were carrying on activities like of gunrunning and bomb making for the past several months. Most of them had been arrested and let off several times before. One of the banned outfits openly distributed knives to its members a few months back, while some of them even proclaimed over satellite TV that they would go to any extent to ‘protect themselves’ and were also ‘geared up` for it. Their potential for mischief was no secret to the police which always kept tabs on them and possessed extensive knowledge about the identities as well as the modus operandi of the extremists.
The fact that despite all this, the authorities remained idle, with thumbs in their mouth while the terrorists went about with their barbaric mission, only points to a ‘conspiracy of silence’ at the highest level. The DMK leadership’s tendency to be acquiescent to criminal elements, even to the detriment of the nation, is legendary. It is unfortunate that the Actor should lend his name and image to their benefit and one wonders if he is really aware of the beating they would take if in future he were to be judged by the company he keeps.
The Actor claims that Advani had come down a few rungs in his estimation by associating with the AIADMK. He should instead venture to apply the same logic to himself and he would then wake up to the folly of his dalliance with the DMK. If he fails to do so soon, even god cannot save him.
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