Terror's Happy Hunting Ground

We, bloggers, write mostly when the dust has settled and the blood has dried on the sleeves. 

The news-channels go into their habitual mode of manic over-drive to televise "breaking news" of blood being  spilled and flesh being ripped "while they actually happen".

Our leaders call for "restraint" in "such times of crisis".

Police officials promise "prompt action" and "return to order".

Conflicting claims owning responsibility for the strikes surface.

And we rue the sorry state of our country while warming the sofas of our bedaubed drawing-rooms, letting out that occasional sigh of resigned helplessness over a cup of luke-warm tea before moving onto  some other channel with brighter things on offer. 

Days pass and we forget.

And that is precisely the most terrible curse that an overpopulated nation like ours face

 -  The Curse of Collective Forgetfulness. And the value of human life becomes gradually more trivialised. 

While Mumbai turns into a veritable battlefield and people all over the nation are left wondering "where next?"  a grotesque spectacle of terrorism unfolds before our very eyes.

No more RDX, no more detonations from a distance. Their war has now decidedly come down to "hand to hand combat". But, how can "terror" gain visibility if only the security forces are engaged. How can it strike fear and further its "noble cause" if the corpses don't pile up on the streets. No act of terror is complete without few innocents getting slaughtered, and so we have the count pegged at 100 and till reports last came in they were still counting. This time the casualties have nothing in common between them. Some were inside plush hotels, some on roads earning their daily wages, some in taxis and some waiting on railway platforms. The purveyors of death have made their disregard for social strata apparent with their bloody statement. 

" No class. No mercy. "

And we have taken note.

As NSG commandos storm their posts, bringing them down one by one, and defense analysts join the political bandwagon in dissecting their 'modus operandi' and 'objectives', it is time that we, as a nation wake up to the realization that its about time that our leaders put "petty politics" behind them to avenge this resounding slap on the face of our continued policy of tolerance. It does not matter if "they" were Hindus or Muslims, Deccan Mujahideens or Kashmiri Fidayeens; it does not matter if there was the usual "foreign hand" behind these attacks or something entirely indigenously orchestrated. Fire can only be fought with fire and there are no two ways about it.

Too many lives have been lost already and someone must sound the bugle now. If not, popular outrage might soon consume the last vestiges of whatever is considered 'civil' in our society and a protracted reign of violent vigilantism might soon ensue. Unlike the political and military posturing in the wake of the '2001 Parliament Attack' concrete action is the call of the hour. An Advani or a Gandhi visiting the blast-sites when the muzzles have all gone cold is not good enough now. If they want to send a message to the millions that they need not panic in their homes, that must show in their work, not words. It is needless to say that every Indian city now awaits its turn in the terror turn-table with bated breath, that every ordinary citizen now stations himself in a crowded market-place relying more on faith than the "IB information" that is always over-looked before the blasts and highlighted only after they occur unhindered. I admit that it is very convenient to play the blame-game sitting in the comfort of one's study, reading news-portals and venting righteous ire but these are only cultured reflections of the emotions of an exasperated majority, who, if given a chance, would put it with much more vehemence and scorn. 

It will be inappropriate right now to speculate on the possible political stances that might emerge in the coming days, ones which might already be underway in the corridors of power, but any more "politicising of terror" at the expense of innocent lives and we will have a "bigger, graver situation" on our hands. Soon.

Then, mere 'storming the gates' might not be of much help.

links: rediff.com

A Haunting Mistake

The Arushi murder case has not ceased rolling out one surprise after another but somehow it now seems to have been a classic case of misinformation and a terrible example of administrative goof-up. The narco-analysis makes for shocking revelations. [link here]

The fallouts are notable.

Henceforth, the Noida Police will find it very hard not to trigger raised eyebrows whenever it comes out with a sensational theory behind a crime. It had single handedly misguided the public opinion and generated rhetoric and slanderous gossip that would put even Page-3 journalists to shame. To have cast aspersions on the character of a 14 year old who had fallen victim to a horrible murder was outright shameful and that to have come from someone of the post of an Inspector General of Police. Not surprisingly social commentators and ordinary people alike were guilty of expressing disgust and reproach as part of the knee-jerk reaction at the aftermath of such a visibly gruesome tragedy. Many, including me as can be found from the contents of a previous post, were part guilty of being too gullible in believing the 'illicit affair' angle to the murder. My sincerest apologies to the departed. Thanks to the electronic media, preposterous as it might have seemed a few years back but the marriage of crime and media generated sensationalism today necessitates training in media management of public servants. A similar blunder, that of jumping the gun cost the Kolkata Commissioner of Police his job in the Rizwanur Rahman case. The Govt. must take note of the amount of weight that the words of a senior official carry and if any modicum of respect and dignity is to be still salvaged in favour of these hallowed institutions it will be through inculcation of 'responsible public conduct' in these officials.

The lure of the flashbulbs should not blind one to the rigors of his duty.

Murder of a Hope - The Light of Larkhana goes out

Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in cold blood.

In one of the most shocking events ever in the history of the sub-continent the former Prime Minister of Pakistan was shot in the neck a few hours back while attending an election rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.

As violence erupts in the streets of Karachi and Peshawar following the news of her death the future of democracy in Pakistan gets bleaker by the hour. General Musharraf, who faces probing questions as to why the security of such a high-profile politician like Benazir was not taken up with utmost priority, having already survived a suicide-attack and repeated threats being made to her life by various Islamic militant organizations, will be hard-pressed to provide acceptable answers if any. With the suspension of the January 8^th elections looking imminent the ‘road to restoration of order’ in Pakistan seems beset with more unfortunate cataclysms than one had initially accounted for.

While Sindh mourns the death of a dear daughter, political analysts the world over see the attack as a consequence of the threat perception she embodied to the thriving ‘terror industry’ in provincial Punjab. She in her recent political rallies declared in no uncertain terms how she would do everything in her power to reign in terrorists operating from Pakistani soil. Given her charismatic persona and undeniable charm, coupled with the paucity of choice that an average Pakistani has while going to vote she seemed set to ensure a sizable number of seats for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the coming elections. Popular sentiment could have worked in swaying the scale either in her favor or Nawaz Sharif’s. Her tragic death has unjustly precluded such an electoral eventuality. The pre-emption of her premiership in such ghastly a manner must ring alarm bells in far-off Capitol Hill right now. If the global community (read USA) is in any measure earnest in wanting to tackle the scum of Islamic extremism it needs to answer the call of the hour with immediate effect. Mere issue of official condolences will not suffice in stemming the rot that USA’s major ally in its ‘War against Terror’ is reeling under at this moment. Benazir’s shocking assassination is a macabre indicator of how desperate the militant forces are in resisting the revival of people’s rule in Pakistan. The International community must ensure the installation of a democratic government instead of a Musharraf stooge climbing to power by rigging polls only to serve his high-handed master. If a call is not taken now it might be too late for Pakistan to recover and repair for her loses. Not only will that be a colossal tragedy for the 60 million Pakistanis but a turn for the worse for the future of South-Asia and the prospects of World Peace in general.


Peace be to her soul.


photos: google images

Bullets for that bubble-gum

The grisly inauguration of ‘gun-culture’ in India having been formally completed over a twelve year old’s body, the country is all abuzz with shock and consternation in no time.

But, didn’t we see it coming?

My answer is yes. We should have.

Moreover, if we fail to stem the rot with immediate effect ‘campus killings’ might get glamorized in no time in the coming future. Children fed on graphic images of blood and gore from a very tender age grow up to believe in the apparent acceptance of it in real society. Too much time spent on the virtual world of computers give them an entirely false impression about the ‘real’ world outside. Hence, when provocation, however minuscule, coupled with the juvenile indifference to restriction cloud their senses they choose violence as the form of apt retribution. Aiding these abettors in crime are factors like negligence and lack of attention from the parents’ end which slowly make the child attention-hungry. A chance to make the world stop and take note of you is but an extremely attractive proposition in those circumstances.

One incident of Abhishek Tyagi should act as an eye-opener to all of us before our university, college and school campuses become infested with psychopathic killers on the prowl. What’s most disturbing is the fact that the offender is said to have acted out of fear of his own life, owing to a previous death-threat by the victim to him.

Bullies are not a novel concept to schools and school-goers. Hence, the fact that a mere threat was perceived to be ‘real’ in nature and that the boy really thought that the victim could actually deliver on his threat is the point of measured consideration. Two twelve year olds taking a ‘death-threat’ seriously and acting upon it in a pre-emptive manner is something that the society as a whole must deliberate upon with grave concern.

Are guns becoming too easily available? Well, if you talk of Bihar, Jharkhand, UP (and lately our own Nandigram) the answer is “yes”. But by meaning ‘availability to the urban populace who apparently have no use of it’ one would say “yes” at the risk of being labeled an outright alarmist. So, should every parent wait till there are more reports of kids getting shot by their friends before they trash that ‘Resident Evil’ or ‘God of War’ cd? The answer is anybody’s call.

But, the future in case of unrestricted exposure of children to violence does seem gloomy from here. Our indulgent eye might be met with terrifying images when, five years from now, a DU or a CU campus might see a depressed maniac or a disgruntled lover on the rampage. Only this time there might not be a petty revolver in his hand. He might be wielding a blood-thirsty Kalashnikov, fully loaded.

And he might not turn out to be as saintly as our own Sanju baba.

Photo: from gettyimages.com