Terror, Talk, Tantrum

On that fateful evening of 26th November a breaking news caught my attention while sipping tea in not so chaotic newsroom. What initially seemed to be a typical Mumbai gangwar later turned out to a sophisticated terror strike at the heart of Mumbai. After sixty two hours of uninterrupted confrontation by our brave commandos and police officers the terrorists met their obvious fate. But what followed is something to ponder over the developments since the incident. The jingoism, rhetoric, political chauvinism and warmongering patronised by the media, so called socialites and the politicians. The obvious reason behind 26/11 was security lapse and lack of a political consensus on national security. But the talks and tantrum on national media since the incident has again brought back the issues of religious terrorism, responsibility of media and political will on national security to the fore.
Since 1992 riots Mumbai is not a stranger to terror attacks and communal violence, sometimes by religious groups and sometimes by regional chauvinist parties like MNS. The audacity, flamboyance and planning of the recent attack was able to leave us numb for those 60 hours. In fact, the terrorists were trying to get maximum publicity by targeting the commercial capital for the country. And to some extent they were very much successful. But there is one misfortune of our nation, which is in the form of netas who leave no stone unturned in getting political mileage out of every terrorist attack or communal riot.
There is no denying the fact that it was a case of great security lapse on the part of our security agencies. In fact we may call that this attack on Mumbai was the mother of all security lapses, which caught our intelligence-gathering network in shambles. It has been seen that after each and every terror attack our politicians start blaming each other and indulge in shouting about the so called "Islamic terrorism" or "Hindu aatankvaad', but the country keeps bleeding with frequent terror. In fact each and every terror attack is an attack on the spirit and idea of India. Now a sense of insecurity has gripped the people of Mumbai and it's the responsibility of the centre and state Govt. to ensure that such a dastardly act of terror would not be allowed to happen again.
And it's the right time for all the parties and the politicians who survive on the politics of communalism or hatred understand that they are not doing anything good for the country by giving the name of the religion to terrorism. A terrorist is a terrorist and I am totally against the words like Islamic terrorism or Hindu terrorism. It's an established fact that the main reason of each and every communal riots and terror strike is deep rooted in the hatred resulting out of the Babri Masjid demolition and the movement headed by Mr.L.K Advani. Now Mr. Advani must stop practicing the politics of hatred. Every rabid terror organization justifies its acts of terror by either mentioning Babri demolition or the Post Godhra Gujarat massacre in which the goons of Sangh Parivar were let loose by the Narendra Modi administration to carry out carnage in the name of a peaceful religion as Hinduism.
But whatever the cause, no one can justify the killing of the innocents. The people who are carrying out carnages in the name of Islam do not know that exact principle and ideals of Islam as practiced by the Holy Prophet himself. They do not know even the exact meaning of Jihad. One should always take inspiration from the tolerance based on ideals and principles of Islam practiced by Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad against the atrocities and tyranny of the greatest villain in the history of Islam, Yazid in the battle of Karbala. Imam Hussain choose to get all his family members massacred by the army men of Yazid bin Muawiya but he never deviated from the path of righteousness as preached by the Prophet himself. He accepted martyrdom rather than to kill any innocent in the name of Islam. These so called Jehadis or the self-styled flag bearers of Islam should take a lesson from the towering personality of Imam Hussain. In fact Imam Hussain gave the best lesson of Jehad.
The same can be said about the Hindu extremists who preach hate in the name of Lord Ram, the Maryada Purushottam. They should self introspect that what would have been the reaction of Lord Ram post Godhra massacres in Gujarat. I cannot understand the reason behind the absence of the whole leadership of BJP from the funeral of Late Hemant Karkare. In fact the same leaders of the Hindu far right who were present at the funeral of Mohan Sharma, the Delhi police encounter specialist killed in the Batla House encounter, were conspicuous by their absence.
Terror has no religion and a terrorist has no heart. He is out on a mission to kill and cause maximum damage to gain maximum attention. A murderer is only a murderer, no matter if he is born to Muslim or Hindu parents.
India's biggest challenge now is to ensure that its secular credentials are not tarnished in the war against terror. The government along with intelligence agencies and all the political parties must not let the communal bias enter in the war against terror. Because, after dastardly attacks of Mumbai the whole world will be watching our response to the biggest menace which we are facing right now.
As far as media is concerned it has turned this event into an emotional soap opera more concerned with TRPs than honest reportage. The CEOs of every mainstream 24/7 channels forgot that terrorism thrives on media coverage and indeed without media terrorism loses its reason for existence. The right to be informed is not the same thing as the right to be a spectator. The thoughtless broadcasting of every single detail was probably been more helpful to the terrorists than anyone else. The coverage of not a single news channel was balanced and up to the mark. Two of the most irresponsible comments were made by Simi Grewal and Times now's Arnab Goswami. The former said on NDTV's "We The People", that "the Pakistani flags are being hoisted at every dwelling in Mumbai slums". Ms. Garewal should have known the seriousness of the situation before making such an offensive statement. Are Shobha Des, Simi Grewals and Ness Wadias supposed to represent us, the citizens. While Arnab in the midst of a live coverage criticized Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan by saying that they were "disgusting". In fact such a controversial statement from one of the most famous faces of the Indian media is totally unwarranted. On some news channels we were supposed to answer in "yes" on "no" to the questions having pre- determined answers. Not even a single channel proposed a political solution.
The intelligence agencies should understand their responsibilities towards the nation and it's high time for them to prove their worthiness. The only thing, which can stop the dance of death in the form regular terror strikes, is modern and effective intelligence apparatus. If it is not done then we have only one option, to act like Americans in righteous indignation, make this terror attack to launch a war that will never reach conclusion, as a result killing thousands and thousands of innocents. Given the history of Indo-Pak relations there cannot be such a thing as limited war or surgical strike.
There were so many obituaries written about the Taj and Oberoi Trident by none other than the so called elite class as if these structures were the landmarks or the icons of the public. Taj is a property of India's richest businessman and he will take not much time to rebuild it. Very few of the social parasites cared about the victims killed by the terrorists at the CST and Perhaps the reason was obvious as they were not party hoppers like the Simi Garewals or Shobha Des.
These social parasites those advocate the carpet-bombing of Pakistan out of their jingoism do not care about the deadly repercussions of war between two nuclear-armed neighbors. Neither they care about the poor who die each and every day due to the injustices of the society towards them; while these so called elites are sipping whisky in the bars and restaurants of the five star hotels of our big cities. When they threaten not to pay their taxes out of arrogance unless their security is guaranteed, it has nothing to do with their love for the country. What about the security of the poor? Is it all right for the downtrodden to remain unprotected? These people think that civic amenities and security are the domains of the rich only.
Whenever there is a terror attack, some people or parties start shouting in favour of more tough laws like POTA, but the fact is that the anti- terror laws are not meant for terrorists. They are for the people that governments don't like. The arrests made after the 2002 Gujarat riots are the great testimony to this fact. In fact our country do not need more tough laws to curb the menace of terrorism, but we need honest men at the helm to implement the already existing laws.
In nearly all the previous terrorist attacks before 26/11, most of the victims killed were the poor but now this is the first time the rich and powerful, or the elite class have been made vulnerable. The powerful or the elite class always used to think that they can access security, but in the Mumbai attacks the fire brigade took hours to come. This terror attack affected the well to dos directly.
Being an Indian Muslim is a great feeling, and I am proud to be a Muslim in India because here I can get in touch with the people from almost all religions across the world. But the way media and the so-called elite class of the society acted made me feel a little angry, but one gets angry with his dear ones only. The media moguls in India must try to think beyond the TRPs because nowadays they are becoming very much jingoistic just to get their channels at the number one position as far as viewership is concerned. It hurts most when nearly after each and every communal riots and terror attacks the people from a particular community are supposed or expected to show their level of patriotism by wearing black arm bands or organizing anti- terror rallies. 99.99 percent of them are as Indians as the follower of any other communities.
Now as the New Year knocks at our doors, let's hope and pray that this year will bring some happy moments for our beloved country without any communal riots, regional chauvinism and terror attacks.
Long live India, with no terrorism, communalism and regionalism.
Syed Hassan Kazim