SOME MORE QUESTIONS

Circa 1946, Mohd. Ali Jinnah was steamrolling his opposition and humanity with his drive for Pakistan. Kashmir was of special interest to Jinnah because of its majority population of Muslims and most importantly its strategic importance. But Jammu and Kashmir which was under the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh was lorded over by another strongman Sheikh Abdullah of the National Conference. Jinnah inspite of his best efforts failed to win over Sheikh Abdullah, and true to his style, launched a vitriolic attack on him, "this man tells me that he is on my side, but when he goes out he calls himself a nationalist. He cannot be trusted." Maybe Jinnah had been pampered by the indulgence of the Congress leaders. But the Sheikh was no Congressman. He retaliated in good measure, "Jinnah is not even a Muslim, he cannot recite a single Kalima from the Quran."

Jinnah faced massive protests wherever he went in Kashmir. In Baramulla,a young National Conference worker Maqbool Sherwani presented Jinnah with a massive garland. The moment Jinnah was about to board his vehicle Sherwani took off the cover of the garland. To Jinnnah's horror the garland was entirely made up of an assortment of footwear. Jinnah immediately left for Rawalpindi.

But evidently Jinnah did not forget this humiliation. For a few months later when the 'tribals' who in reality were the Pakistani army in mufti, launched their incursion, Baramulla faced the brunt. Even the churches were not spared as the missionary sisters were raped and murdered enmasse.What became of the Hindu and Sikh women who had taken shelter there, is a story which was never known.

The Pakistanis after capturing Baramulla were only 30 kms. away from the Srinagar Airport. Maharaja Hari Singh had acceded to India and the Indian forces were on their way. The Srinagar Airport had to be kept free for the Indian forces which had already started landing, but were miniscule compared to the numerical strength of the Pakistanis.

Time was of essence.

Maqbool Sherwani, now pretending to act as an informer promised to show the Pakistanis a shortcut to the Airport.Leading the convoy on his motorcycle he took them on a merry go around and ensured that they lost their way.

The Indian Army took full use of this opportunity and Jammu and Kashmir was saved.

But Maqbool was not.

He was crucified by the infiltrators on an electric pole in Baramulla town by driving nails through his body. He was subsequently brought down in a hail of bullets. Maqbool Sherwani became a martyr for the sake of the nation. Mahatma Gandhi paid tributes to Maqbool Sherwani in his evening prayer meeting.

The Indian Army performed heroic deeds in that campaign, General Thimmaya took his tanks to a height where tanks had not gone before. Hannibal would have been proud. Major Somnath Sharma earned the first Param Vir Chakra in the Indian army during that campaign. That our leaders lost what Maqbool or Major Sharma became martyrs for is besides the point.

What hurts is that were we even educated about the martyrdom of people like Maqbool Sherwani? (I myself read about this supreme sacrifice in an article by a retired army officer, recently.) Or maybe that is what our political elite wanted. For martyrdom has become the preserve of a selected few who rake it for political gains. Elections have been fought over the dead bodies of 'martyrs',with the opponents not even fathoming how to react.That there was a difference between 'martyrdom' and 'political assassination' is well,.... again besides the point.

Today no political leader visits the grave of Maqbool Sherwani is a fact which needs no corroboration. The fact that accusatory fingers were raised at the martyrdom of Inspector M.C. Sharma at the Batla House encounter is an indirect corroborative evidence that this country gives a damn to people who go beyond their call of duty. Even the National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan has endorsed the authenticity of the encounter but the fact is still not sufficient for some, or so it seems.

The country is today witness to the shameful spectacle to the attempt to denigrate the prestige of the Indian army, subsequent to the arrest of Lt.Col. Purohit by the Anti Terrorist Squad of the Maharashtra Police for his alleged involvement in the Malegaon blast. All and sundry have joined in, albeit subtly. The Indian army, perhaps the only institution which can truly claim to be Secular, which puts duty before self, an institution which is in the vanguard of fighting terrorism, fighting floods, fighting communal riots, fighting the aftermath of earthquake, saving children from their falls into open borewells, has an additional fight at its hand. It has to prove its Secular credentials to the politicians duly abetted by its lackey,in this case the police.

The entire saga started with the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose Motor Cycle was allegedly used to implant bombs in Malegaon resulting in the death of 5 people. The ATS should be commended for its prompt investigation, especially in view of the fact that not much headway has been made by it in the Malegaon blast of 2006 in which 37 people were killed, apart from the arrest of some SIMI activists or the Mumbai blasts of 2006.

The electronic media is having a field day in covering this investigation, 'HINDU TERROR' says one channel in the background of its presentation, which anyway is saturated. The discussion revolves around how Hindus are also becoming terrorists. Now the ATS is also investigating the involvement of Purohit and Sadhvi in the Samjhauta express blast a few years back, the Nanded blast investigation is being reopened. The way things are proceeding do not be surprised to see the WTC attack, the Mumbai blast of 2006 also being credited to these motley bunch of people. One Dayanand Pandey, an apparently self styled guru has been picked up . The credit of being the 'mastermind' is changing every day. The best part of the investigation pertains to the fact that it appears that the entire interrogation is being performed in front of these busybodies from the news channels. Some body in the ATS is leaking worse than the sinking Titanic, for reasons not for us to conjecture upon. Somebody please remind the ATS guys of discrete investigation being in their professional call of duty . Or is there more to the investigation than meets the eye?

Praveen Swami in THE HINDU, has gone a step ahead and done a complete analysis of the genesis of 'Hindu Terrorism', notwithstanding the fact that certain literature which was used during the freedom struggle has been selectively interpreted. These people are not far from branding Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki at par with the goons from Jaish-e-Mohd and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Incidentally, a few weeks ago, our friends from the media were stressing upon the need to delink terrorism from religion and stuff like Islam not sanctioning acts of terrorism. Now words like 'HINDU TERROR' are casually being bandied about. My congratulations to these media guys. But please feel free to use the epithet of 'Muslim Terrorism' next time Muslim Terrorists attack a predominantly Hindu India, in order to follow norms of fairplay and avoid accusations of double standards.

Congratulations again on succeeding in dividing terrorists into Hindu and Muslims. It is the mindless urge like this to increase TRP ratings which provides criminals of all hues ammunition to incite fellow criminals, my dear friends, but do we really care? For years our media friends justified acts of terror as 'revenge for Gujarat riots' or 'revenge for the Babri Masjid demolition' and castigated people like L.K.Advani, Narendra Modi, RSS, more than the terrorists themselves. Drawing on the same analogy of revenge can a Hindu child/youth affected by acts of terrorism not seek revenge from the people he feels to be behind the acts of terror ? Any answers ? An act of terror is an act against humanity irrespective of the logic behind it and so it should have been, but in our yearning for votes, sale of books, acceptability amongst the pseudo liberal media, look at the mess we have gotten into.

One issue is intriguing and maybe the ATS or anyone else will clear the air on this. Apparently the motor cycle of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was used to place explosives in Malegaon, the discovery of which has led to these arrests. If the same is true then it must act as a disgrace to the tribe of the criminals, since you are not supposed to leave any evidence at the scene of the crime, let alone using explosives on your own motorcycle. How disingenuous!! If an armyman, who also worked for the Military intelligence, was also part of this naivety, then I call upon the govt. to disband the Military Intelligence unit ........our ATS guys do better.

But we as a country do not want questions but only answers, therefore the 'Army is getting communal' , 'Hindu Terror', 'Save Afzal Guru' campaign prevails over logic and reasoning. For example any answers to the fact that any bombing attack needs months of meticulous planning even for trained army personnel, an organisation, training, reconnaissance missions. If the motley, unconnected group of people such as the accused in the Malegaon blast could carry it off, then only God can save us from the Al Qaida and its friends.

Let us not forget the sacrifice made by unsung heroes like Maqbool Sherwani and Major Som Nath Sharma for the unity and integrity of the nation. Our politicians might stop eulogising them but let us pay our respect to these real heroes by not dividing terrorists into Hindu terrorists or Muslim Terrorists and damaging the interest of the nation. A Terrorist is a terrorist and should be dealt by the rule of law. Elections might come and elections might go, but the country and its institutions remain.

The Indian Army remains awake so that we can sleep. Let us not denigrate the brave sons of the soil for the sake of a few votes.

JAI HIND.