Losing to terror

It is no secret that India is fighting terrorism or rather involved in the “war on terror”, as some would say. It is important that we get the key ingredients – understanding of the problem, a vision on how to solve it, the resolve and capacity to solve the problem – right. If the politicians who are destined to formulate the policy against terror think they have got it right, they are wrong. Either consciously or unconsciously they are losing this war.

Terrorists use violence to intimidate people into submission to achieve their goals. To fight these terrorists we need the resolve to resist them and not to give in – but our politicians have lost this very resolve as recent incidents would show. Take the Gujjar agitation demanding ST status, or the protests in the Kashmir valley against diversion of land to SASB or the counter protests in Jammu to restore the land to SASB (though their demands haven’t been accepted, they are at least talking!), our politicians have cowed down to violence in each of these occasions.

But shouldn’t the government look into the genuine concerns of the protesters? Shouldn’t people have the right to protest against what it perceives as oppression by the governments? – are two pertinent questions here. But doesn’t the government realize the genuine concerns of its people? Is it that, only in the face of violent protests leading to damage to life and property, the people at the helm can open their eyes to these concerns? Or are we sending a message that violence is an effective tool in order to meet your demands? Either ways, our politicians are inadvertently promoting terrorism by failing to recognize the concerns of people which could be solved at the rudimentary level by peaceful talks. What’s happening in J & K is a perfect example of this. The decision to revoke the land diversion without taking concerns of the people of Jammu, but rather trying to appease the more violent valley was a short sighted move which back fired with Jammu taking to violence too. Only now when faced with violence from both sides unable to cater to either side as both have become violent does the government see the necessity to take the concerns of all involved into account and find an amicable solution.

How do we fight terrorism if the people who are responsible are intimidated by violence? And not surprisingly the terrorists are fully aware of this, which was resonated in the mail send by the Jihadis before recent attacks in Ahmedabad:

O Muslims of Gujarat! If a petty population of Rajasthani Gujjars can use force for fulfilling their needs, then are we even more subjugated than these backwards?

If we are too give in to violence on one side, and then say our resolve to fight terror is not affected, we are just fooling ourselves.

Conspiracy Theories Abound

The Great Indian Tamasha continues, now, its Sushmaji of the BJP who has come up with a conspiracy theory to keep the tamasha going.

“The blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad reek of a conspiracy to divert attention from the cash for vote allegations and also to bring back the Muslim vote which the Government has lost due to the nuclear deal,… The attacks in two BJP-ruled states in a span of two days and within four days of the UPA Government winning the confidence vote has some meaning and what I am saying is proved by enough circumstantial evidence,…” [IBN Live]

Well, Sushmaji you are laying too big and extraordinary a charge that demands an extraordinary evidence. Talking about circumstantial evidence, they indicate far more probable reasons for these attacks. If there is anything you have proven today, it is that, for now you should better watch your words or still better, shut your mouth for the good of BJP and the nation at large.

When are our politicians going to start using their intellect (if there is one) and energy at tackling the issues of people rather than getting involved in mindless blame games?

The Taboos on Imagination

Thomas L. Friedman writing few days after 9/11 termed it a failure of imagination. [via Offstumped]

That 19 people would take over four civilian airliners and then steer three of them into buildings loaded with thousands of innocent people was, I confess, outside the boundary of my imagination. The World Trade Center is not the place where our intelligence agencies failed. It is the place where our imaginations failed. [The New York Times]

Something similar happened with us over the weekend. Who would have expected that in the wake of supposed heightened security and alertness after the Bangalore serial blasts that the very next day someone would actually attempt to carry out a more dreadful wave of blasts in Ahmedabad, killing 46 and injuring hundreds? Still worse who would have expected that these heartless demons to have saved the most powerful bombs to have gone off on that fateful day for the two nearest hospitals treating injured (from the other blasts), killing the injured & good samaritans who had come to aid the injured? The motive clearly was to kill as many as possible. Never in the annals of terror attacks in India, have there been attacks on successive days and nor have we seen bombing of Hospitals which treat the injured. This is the place where our imagination failed us.

It is time to expect the worst, the unexpected and the most perverse. These are the most evil, shrewd and the vilest demons driven by an equally fundamentalist ideology waiting to prey on innocent lives in order to achieve their evil objectives.

The Taboos on Imagination

Now this has happened we can acknowledge our failures and move on to ensure better precautionary measures. But what about closing your minds? What if it came across your mind that these demons could bomb the hospital, yet you chose to ignore it, you chose not to think about it, not to reason? In any other domain you could forgive yourself of this mistake, but when it is a matter of life and death of innocent children, and other civilians it is tantamount to sin. Yet many of us would do it every time there is a terror strike, even take a false sense of pride for upholding our so called secular heritage, not knowing, we could never forgive us of what we have done in some distant future.

Yes, I am talking about our desperate attempts to sound politically correct every time these terror attacks occur. Yes, I am talking about our futile and desperate attempts to convince ourselves and others with self-proclaimed axioms like “religion has nothing to do with terrorism”, “terrorists have no religion” and all such sooth saying to please whom? Worse still, I am talking about the taboos on our imagination.

The moment some one tries to find or hint a religious motivation for these acts of the demons, the person himself is demonized, vilified and termed racist and is accused of Islamopohbia, one of the most brilliant terms to have been concocted to stifle criticism of Islam in any form. I call it a brilliant term as it deceptively camouflages any criticism of Islam with a genuine concern of discrimination and hatred against muslims.

Mainstream media epitomizes this taboo, the private news channels which are hailed as refreshing change from the monotonous state run Doordarshan and a symbol of modern India, have also failed to shed light on this issue. The most the so called expert panels in their talk shows can agree upon as a cause for extremism is poverty, corruption, apathy of the government to the situation of the oppressed (by no means I claim this list as exhaustive due to my fallible memory and inability to watch every single talk show out there), never is religion seen as one.

I fail to understand what kind of poverty drove the Bangalore born Indian engineer Kafeel Ahmed to turn himself into a suicidal mission to attack the Glasgow International airport or what kind of poverty has driven the well educated engineers arrested for plotting terror and for being activists of the banned organizations of SIMI. I don’t for a moment believe, that the poverty isn’t a cause, we have the red terror brigade, which openly proclaims so. In a sense they are far better that they wage a war against the system they see as oppressive and not against innocent civilians. But on the other hand we have these Islamic terrorists who (claim to) vow by the name of allah & their prophet, quote the quran and the hadiths to justify their perverse acts and draw inspiration from them, yet we ignore their claims. We try to convince ourselves that their self-proclaimed motives are not really motivating them, we just prefer to call them terrorists, heartless demons, but rarely expound these obscure terms, rarely do we exert ourselves to find what has turned them into these heartless demons? How ingenious?

While the few of those in the mainstream media who raise this point are snubbed & cut short by politically correct zealots and faith heads (the channels themselves don’t like having these few, for the fear of backlash) as bigots and islamophobes. On the other hand one is free to state anything in the way of apologetics, even misinformation such as muslims can’t be terrorists because Islam means peace (which it is not, it means submission or surrender, even well informed muslims agree, also see here). A certain S M Murshid, who was an advisor to the governor of J&K wrote in the Times of India, that people have misunderstood Jihad and went to the extent of falsely claiming that the word Jihad in the quran can never be construed to be an exhortation to war. While we can find such opinions occasionally in the mainstream print and visual media, never have I found a single opinion expressing the contrary, as though not a single person worthwhile has such an opinion.

The defense is almost always that such arguments will further isolate minorities and push them towards extremism, with no regard for truth. If so, isn’t it an exhortation against any criticism with a threat similar to those of the terrorists? Is it the best free media in the worlds largest democracy has to offer? While the Govt. thinks it can lecture the hindus what their religious texts actually teach and go to the extent claiming that the religious texts have no historical basis. Our media and Government are somehow extremely shy of even considering that the terrorists are motivated by “Radical Islam“.

In this article I didn’t intend to show beyond any doubt that these terrorists are also motivated by the teachings of their religion rather, all I want to convey was there is strong case for it, which we are ignoring at our own peril. Whether one is right or wrong in having such an opinion should be decided by a rational discussion and not placing taboos on the thought process.

Sun Tzu, a 6 century BC Chinese General, military strategist, and author of The Art of War, famously wrote:

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

We neither know our enemies, neither do we know our own selves and how we are going to handle the threat. We will loose this “War on Terror” until we learn.

It is a delicate balance that needs to be maintained. Muslims aren’t our enemies; there are many patriotic and peaceful ones out there, who would have none of this. Our war is with political and extremist Islam that we can’t afford to lose. We need to create a consensus among ourselves, to shun radical Islam, this can’t be done without the muslim community disowning allegiance to Radical Islam.

In the course of this struggle, we may occasionally afford to be let down by our imagination, but never by the taboos on imagination.

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh

Enough is enough, It is time for the people of this nation to rise to the challenge of terrorism. Lets make our voice heard to the people at the helm (Government), against their indolent measures to curb terrorism. It is high time they realize terrorism is an important issue, which the government can no longer give a step motherly treatment. It is true that parties haven’t lost election in India on the issue of terrorism, but its high time it starts happening and we need to make the right noises so those responsible can hear it.

Lets do our bit for all those people who have lost their lives, their loved ones and have suffered unimaginable sorrow and pain.

Please do your bit by expressing your views by writing to the Prime Minister:

manmohan@sansad.nic.in

Or

By expressing your views to the Prime Minister here:

http://www.pmindia.nic.in/write.htm

Or by making your disapproval known to the representatives of your constituency or the state government or the appropriate ministry by sending in your grievance here

Below is the letter I sent to the Prime Minister of India.

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Respected Prime Minister,

It is in the context of the trouble created by the serial blasts at Bangalore and Ahmedabad in consecutive days, I write to you with concern and deep sense of hurt. I seriously want to ask you, “How much is enough?” Those 2 dead in Bangalore didn’t wake us up, nor is the 39 dead in Ahmedabad going to (?), so when are we going to wake up? Can we ever do anything more than merely condemning the attacks and calling for peace & calm?

It was great to see your stubborn & unrelenting stand on the nuclear issue because you supposedly saw it was in the best interest of the nation. But can’t you see there are more issues that needs equal resolve and tenacity? We have for long taken this nonsense, not any more please. Can you and your government rise above petty politics of minority appeasement and whims of your coalition partners, and stand for tougher laws against terrorism & Terrorists? India has lost most lives to terrorism but our laws to tackle this menace are as outdated as bell-bottom pants. When are we ever going stop deluding ourselves with politically correct statement like terrorism has no religion? While successive attacks not only in India but around the world have shown that they do have a religion. Setting aside question of whether the interpretation of their religion is right or wrong. Just give it to me straight, how does your government plan to tackle Islamic Terrorism?

In the wake of the Kabul blasts, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan said a few days ago, “The ISI needs to be destroyed. We made this point, whenever we have had a chance, to interlocutors across the world.” But seriously, have we made it a point ourselves? Do we have the resolve to destroy ISI? I seriously doubt it! There is no use in convincing the world of something, unless we are able to convince ourselves. It is not that we didn’t have our chances, we had enough chances. We have had the upper hand against  our deranged neighbor at a number of times in the past. If only your predecessors were as farsighted as you were on the nuclear issue we wouldn’t have had this situation. Well, those are the things of the past, what is your government going to do now? As your own National Security Adviser, said: “The people of this country deserve to know the facts rather than being carried away by people who make statements that these are insinuations. There are no insinuations. I think we need to pay back in the same coin. We are quite clear in our mind,” Doesn’t your government have the resolve of your NSA? When are we going to walk the talk Mr. PM?

There is a talk about modernizing the security forces to enable them to handle terrorism better, but if anything has improved in our security apparatus it is their slothfulness, their apathy. Every time, these blasts occur the most they can do is postulate who could have carried out these attacks and are left high and dry of any actionable leads within a couple of days of the act.

When is this going to change? The Nation deserves an answer.

With Regards,
An patriotic Amm Admi

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Please do your bit, so no more innocent lives are not lost.

Blasts rock Ahmedabad

[49 dead and 105 injured so far]

After Bangalore its Ahmedabad, so we can safely use the phrase “yet another day, yet another blast”

Eight low-intensity blasts have taken place in Ahmedabad. The blasts happened in Maninagar, Isanpur, Narol circle, Bapunagar, Hatkeshwar and Sarnagpur Bridge… Initial reports say about 20 people have been taken injured and six have been taken to the civil hospital from Mani Nagar area. [IBN Live]

So where can we expect a bomb blast tomorrow? (Here is a hint: All the recent blasts have occoured in BJP ruled states Jaipur – Rajasthan, Bangalore – Karnataka, Ahmedabad – Gujarat)

Update on Blasts and Casuality (July 26th, 8:31 PM IST):

12 explosions have been reported, 20 people have been taken injured and six have been taken to the civil hospital in Maninagar. No deaths have been reported so far. [IBN Live]

July 26th, 8:36 PM IST: Thirteen blasts have rocked Ahmedabad killing 2 and injuring at least 48 people on Saturday evening. [NDTV]

July 26th, 8:48 PM IST: Seventeen low-intensity blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday evening. [IBN Live]

July 26th, 9:23 PM IST: Sixteen blasts have rocked Ahmedabad killing 18 and injuring over 100 people on Saturday evening. [NDTV]

July 26th, 11:08 PM IST: Terror struck Ahmedabad when 16 serial blasts ripped across the city on Saturday night leaving 20 dead and over 100 injured sending a wave of panic, a day after serial blasts rocked Bangalore in another BJP-ruled state.[NDTV]

July 27th, 8:51 AM IST: All the 17 blasts occurred in a short span of 70 minutes killing 38 and injuring at least 105. [IBN Live]

July 27th, 3:57 PM IST: The death toll in the serial bombings that hit Ahmedabad on Saturday rose to 45 on Sunday [IBN Live]

Updates on reactions to the blasts (July 26th, 8:26 IST):

The Great Indian Tamasha begins, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the Ahmedabad blasts and appealed for calm.

July 26th, 8:36 PM IST:

‘Vey terrible and the perpetrators are bent upon creating communal divide,”

– Prithvi Raj Chauhan, Minister, PMO

”Please don’t politicise this tragic incident. Whatever is needed we will provide. President had said that time has come that we need a Central Disaster agency. It is needed but states need to come out together for this,”

– Shakil Ahmad, Home MoS.

“I strongly condemn the serial bomb blast in different places in Ahmedabad, coming just a day after a serial bomb explosion in Bangalore. These are pointer to sinister terrorist offensive against the nation. I cover my condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the bomb blasts,”

LK Advani

July 27th, 8:51 AM IST:

“Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has strongly condemned the acts of terrorist violence in the Indian cities of Ahmedabad and Bangalore…He expressed deep sympathies with the families of the bereaved and the victims of this dastardly act of senseless violence against innocent persons”

– Pakistan High Commission