“ FACE THE TERRIBLE, FACE IT BOLDLY. THE HARDSHIPS OF LIFE FALL BACK WHEN WE CEASE TO FLEE BEFORE THEM ” ---SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
It was around 125 years back in a village in the then undivided Bengal. A young kid was running desperately , being pursued by a dog. As is the wont of young kids, the terrified kid ran straight towards his mother, crying out for help. His mother did not come running for help but instead asked him to turn around and face the dog. The kid turned around and faced the dog. Lo and behold, the dog took to his heels when faced with this resistance. The kid had learnt an important lesson that day. Never in his life did he ever turn his back towards adversity and instead always faced it with a bold heart. Adversity obviously had to be looked in the eye. The name of the kid, Jatin Mukherjee, who grew up to be known as Bagha Jatin. For the uninitiated, Bagha Jatin grew up into a famous revolutionary who took on the might of the British empire. He earned the nickname of Bagha when he killed a tiger bare handed in the jungle where he had taken refuge from the British army. Obviously he had learned his lessons well in his child hood. It was the spirit infused by revolutionaries like Bagha Jatin which laid the foundation for the independence of the country.
Let us now sample an example from the dog chasing the modern day India: “ Today I announce the break up of India, Insha Allah. We will not rest until the whole of India is dissolved into Pakistan,” let us proceed a bit further with this enlightenment for it shows the true face of this vicious adversity, “ We know that the Hindu genetic make up is of the Bania which knows only how to take account of others, rather than giving of itself. However we wish to tell the Hindu Bania that we are that race which does not forget its history, and reiterate it time and again- for example, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia and Kashmir.”---Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohd. Saeed in 1999.
And the Indian response to this, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his famous “ Pakistan is as much a victim of terrorism as India” speech in 2006. It gets better with pseudo peaceniks like Mahesh Bhatt calling for the ‘people to people’ contact between the civilian population of India and Pakistan to be allowed to continue, he further goes on to advocate the continuation of the ‘cultural contact’ between the two countries, for apparently a moderate Pakistan is our ‘only hope’. Bravo Mr. Bhatt, but please ask your moderate friends in Pakistan to ensure that singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh are also allowed to perform in Pakistan or is this ‘ cultural contact’ a one way street only, as rest of the things in India and Pakistan relations.
Things have purportedly heated up post 26/11, with the common people in Mumbai gathering to force the govt. to hear their voice, a special session of the Parliament being convened in order to show the resolve of the Indian people. That platitudes like “ The govt. working towards the creation of a Federal Investigation Agency”, “ India will be victorious in its fight against the barbaric menace of terrorism,” being passed of as action. Fight!! Did you see any fight friends ? Any action gentlemen?
Well why bother since the people in Mumbai and the rest of the country have gone back to earning their bread and butter and the country is slowly getting into the election mode. But please remember that this silence post 26/11 has a eerie sound and is just the calm before the next storm.
The govt. will of course point out to the ‘action’ taken by the U.N.Security Council in proscribing the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and in further proscribing four individuals of the Jamaat-ud- Dawa, including the chief Hafiz Mohd. Saeed who allegedly is under house arrest alongwith the chief of Jaish-e-Mohd, Maulana Masood Azhar. (Rest assured that while the doors of their houses are locked from the front, the back door and the windows are wide open.). Incidentally, the Pakistani High Commissioner to India in an interview to Karan Thapar has denied that Massod Azhar is under house arrest and has further feigned ingnorance about his whereabouts.
Condoleeza Rice has paid a visit and castigated Pakistan, British P.M. Gordon Brown has publicly acknowledged the role of Pakistan in facilitating the Mumbai attack. John McCain, John Kerry have accepted India’s right to self defence. The present govt. can beat its chest for ensuring that the world has accepted India’s position on terror. But has anything changed ? Anything at all !!!
The Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned in 2002 subsequent to the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar were put under house arrest, funds belonging to the outfit were apparently frozen.
The result: Lashkar changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (the name under which it functions now) and continued to flourish . Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar continued to hold public rallies after they were released within a year, spewing anti India venom.
I would wish to invite the attention of the Indian Muslims towards the sayings of Hafiz Saeed and the defacto policy of the govt. of Pakistan. Please do not consider the word Hindu in its literal meaning. For these terrorists anybody residing in India is a Hindu (and rightly so) inspite of the religious affiliations he or she prescribes to. In case of any doubt please refer to the casualty list of any terrorist attack. The names of the victims tell their own story. Anybody who was not a Hindu in thought and action left in 1947.
The govt. of Pakistan has refused to ban the Jamaat in spite of the UNSC resolution and refused to hand over any person of Pakistani origin to the Indian authorities for investigation. With regards to persons of Indian origin, remember Dawood Ibrahim, well apparently he was never in Pakistan anyway! The residence in the upmarket Clifton area of Karachi indicated by Indian Intelligence authorities belongs to Superman of course!! That Dawood’s daughter was married in a lavish ceremony to cricketer Javed Miandad’s son, in Karachi, is a trivial indeed.
That the same country handed over the murder accused in the Daniel Pearl case, Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, within 3 months to the U.S authorities shows that the Bagha Jatin mentality still prevails. You have to take the bull by its horn.
The sudden interest shown by the U.S and British authorities in the Mumbai case and its aftermath is because of two reasons.
Firstly the lives of a few U.S and British nationals have been lost in the attack and these countries value the lives of their citizens more than we with our concept of atman being eternal, do. But the fact also remains that this is not the first time foreign lives have been lost in terror attacks in India.
Which brings us to the more important second point. The NATO forces led by U.S.A are under tremendous pressure in Afghanistan. The flawed policy of targetting Sadddam Hussain and his country had ensured the thinning out of U.S forces in Afghanistan. This monumental folly has given a fresh lease of life to the dreaded Taliban who are on the comeback trail in Afghanistan. It is an open secret that the ISI under the patronage of the govt. of Pakistan provides shelter to the Talibanis in the Waziristan and FATA provinces of Pakistan. The temperature of this area has been rising in the past few months. Aerial attacks through unmanned drones, commando incursions by U.S forces into Pak territory and incessant U.S diplomatic pressure has bogged down the Pakistani army into an unwilling war with the Talibanis. There have been desertions of thousands of Pakistani army personnel in the past few months as they are not willing to fight against their ‘brothers’.
The NATO forces are using the port of Karachi to land their vehicles and weapons and then progressing to Afghanistan through Peshawar. Shockingly, hundreds of armoured vehicles belonging to the NATO forces have been burnt in their Peshawar storage houses in the past week. The message being conveyed by the ISI is loud and clear. ‘if you do not help us out, this is just a sample, we will make life hell for you in Afghanistan’. The Pakistani army has already issued statements to the effect of moving its forces stationed at the Afghan border towards its border with India post 26/11.
Now you understand the sudden U.S concern for India? These guys will let the rhetoric play out and in fact aid and abet it. But on the other hand they will not let you get down to business.
The war In Afghanistan is much more important for the U.S rather than India’s terror agenda. But can we really blame the Americans for their self interest? Wish we could be as clear headed in our focus towards our interests.
The former U.S Secy. Of State Madeleine Albright has referred to Pakistan as an ‘International Migraine’. But unfortunately it is our head which is aching from this migraine and its undeclared policy of ‘bleeding India through a thousand cuts’.
The existence of Pakistan as a sovereign nation is a truth which needs to be accepted and therefore declaring War will not be a solution to this menace which in reality is the unfinished agenda of the partition. India might attain some benefit strategically but remember four wars (including Kargil) have not resulted in anything beneficial, since the politicians lost at the negotiation table what the soldier earned at the battle field. Besides the Americans will never allow that to happen for their own strategic and national interest. War can only be the last resolve in any situation and should not be taken recourse to without utilizing the alternatives, which we unfortunately with our woolly eyed approach towards matters of national importance have never tried out.
‘Stateless actors’, Asif Ali Zardari calls them, knowing fully well that these stateless actors are not faceless or patronless. The irresponsibility of the Indian politicians can only be matched with their counterparts on the other side of the Wagah border. ‘Stateless’ indeed President Zardari! That is why your government does not permit interrogation of the accused held in the Mumbai attack case as requested for by British P.M. Gordon Brown in Islamabad. Stateless indeed ! For that is why your govt. refuses to freeze accounts of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa inspite of U.N.S.C resolutions. Stateless indeed! For that is why you start releasing the prominent members of the Jamaat even before arresting them.
But can India afford to be part of this shenanigan any longer in the hope of the U.S or any other western power helping us out, or the Pakistani rulers having a change of heart?
‘God helps those who help themselves’ is a saying which couldn’t be any truer in international relations. Israel is a case in point. Surrounded by hostile neighbours from its birth, the nation has taken on them all and not only survived but flourished. When we talk of Israel, the immediate thought which springs to mind is its Army and Secret services, but according to my estimate the advancement made by Israel in the field of Science and Technology (Drip water irrigation, is a small example) and its tremendous record in Democracy is no less significant. Mind you Israel is the only place in the middle east with a truly democratic system of governance.
We therefore keep getting back to the fact of looking fear in the eye and not backing out of a confrontation.
“Brave, bold men and women, these are what we want. What we want is vigor in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas. Avoid all these.”-Swami Vivekananda.
But where are the brave, bold men required to face this situation ?
D. Raja of the Communist Party of India has already suggested to take this matter of the Mumbai attack with evidences to the United Nations Security Council, ostensibly in order to pressurize Pakistan to take appropriate action. Do we remember the experience when we last took a bilateral matter to U.N.S.C? The Indian army was on the verge of driving away the Pakistani intruders in Kashmir in 1948 when Pandit Nehru on the devious advice of Lord Mountabatten referred the issue to the U.N and halted the Indian army in its tracks. It would not be out of place to infer that the terror attacks in India are in part an outcome of that monumental error.
How long will it take to realize and accept the fact that Pakistan is one of the pawns in the chess being played out by the Chinese in their bid to attain international hegemony, duly supported by Saudi petro dollars. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is pumping in billions of dollars in this international market of terrorism being run through the aegis of Pakistan in order to distract the fundamentalists from the issue of control of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. The Chinese will ensure that the matter is internationalized if taken to U.N.S.C by referring to the problem of Kashmir. The consequences need no elaboration. What further needs no elaboration is the close relationship between the CPI and the Chinese authorities. Any guesses on whom the instructions are coming from for people like D. Raja?
Pakistan has once again refused to handover Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed as demanded by Indian authorities. Dawood…..well Dawood was never in Pakistan, so say the Pakistanis. The Indian govt. has faced this predicament before and its cluelessness is again being exposed the moment Pakistanis refuse the handover.
But frankly were we really expecting the Pakistani govt. to arrest these people and let India take over? It is also in our benefit that we have not been granted custody of these criminals for what with our inappropriate laws and the approaching elections would have ensured lawyers rushing in to take up their cases and certain bleeding hearts in the political arena to organize human chains and rallies in their support. We certainly do not need more Afzal Guru’s, do we?
Machiavelli in his treatise, ‘The Prince’ said that the end justified the means. Chanakya’s ‘Arthashastra’ is a predecessor of Machiavelli many times over, what with elaborate study on espionage, political assassinations etc. in order to propagate Raj Dharma. But in our suicidal interpretation of Secularism for political gains and its consequential abhorrence to anything belonging to India’s past, we have all but abandoned veritable goldmines of knowledge like the Arthashastra.
Although this post cannot claim to have the intelligence to interpret these great works, but in my humble assessment, if Chanakya would have alive today, people like Dawood and Hafiz Saeed would have been assassinated in their safe houses by paid assassins who might have been the people guarding them.
Find it fantasy stuff? If you care to study Chanakya and flip through the ascent of Chandra Gupta Maurya and his subsequent gain of strength and then compare it with the sayings of the ‘Arthashastra’ the fantasy would come alive before you. But our ‘Secularism’ blinds ourselves to our own heritage.
This option is better than the ‘surgical strikes’ suggested by a section of the media isn’t it? Why dirty your hands when you can hire people to do the dirty job for you? We can repeat the policy of bleeding through a thousand cuts over its inventor.
Fact remains that once a terrorist is able to get out of his house for his mission it becomes very difficult to stop him, howsoever efficient the security or intelligence agencies might be. The only place to stop him is inside his home only, Get him before he gets you.
But do we really have the will to do so? Will our intelligence agencies for once be made free from their espionage about inconvenient political opponents, and permitted to do their primary duties? Will our bureaucrats for once give up their lust for corruption and take responsibility for their actions rather than hiding behind the politicians? Politicians come and go, but the bureaucracy like Amrit is immortal, unaffected, unaccountable. The Mumbai incident is a an example in this, while The C.M and Dy. C.M were forced to resign, the D.G.P of Maharashtra police and the Commissioner of Mumbai Police continue inspite of this massive failure in their duty.
Questions are many, answers limited. Mumbai has been saved for the time being, India is still unsafe. As we said in the last post, the battle might have been won, but the war goes on.
WHO DARES WINS. LET US DARE, WE SHALL WIN----Motto of the British SAS commandos.
CHAK DE INDIA
