The Bomb Blast Near the Delhi High Court.

YET ANOTHER BOMB BLAST and that too near the seat of justice! What is the response!  Yes, before they condemn the blast they were condemning the police department, intelligence, the home minister, the UPA government.  BJP launched a faster and stronger attack on the UPA.  The earlier practice of standing together against the blasts has given way to condemnation, fault finding and a blame game.

TV debate is as usual useless.  They are searching for people who should be blamed.  Their first question is whose heads should be rolled.  They point out that there were no CCTVs installed, metal detectors not working, intelligence failure or no actionable intelligence etc, etc.  There were also some inputs from city planners, though good suggestions.  The role of the police came in for strong criticism.  Maxwel Pereira, a good officer, had to do defending of the police force with valid reasons.  Unimplemented Police reform also came in for discussion.  Arnob Goswamy’s favourite subject of Pakistan connection, Karachi project etc. came in for review.  By the way, would it be too much to expect from the media to expose the places which are susceptible for terrorist attack and are without CCTV or where metal detectors are not working.  The media, particularly the news papers do expose bad roads with pot holes, food grains rotting and places where disasters waiting to happen.

Some made the whole issue broad based to include fascist right wing people who could have also been involved in the terrorist attack.  Some even demanded that Afzal Guru should be hanged within a month to send a strong message to the terrorists. We forget that the terrorists are sending strongest message to us and we are not willing to listen to it.  What message the terrorist would like to learn if Afzal guru is hanged? Terrorists are not bothered about their fellow terrorists’ lives.  They involve in terrorist activities with full belief that they would come out dead after the action! Kasab was a suicide operator who never dreamt that he would remain alive.  His payment for giving his life has been made to his family by the handlers of the operation.

It appears that the police are expected to live perpetually expecting a bomb blast.  The home minister should organize the police force to catch the culprits before a bomb explodes.  May be one more department in home affairs will come up, “Security against Bomb attacks”!  The society should live as if bombs are place even in their pockets.  Is there a place for people to live a normal, fearless life?  Do they not have right to that?

In all this no one mentioned the unresolved problem of Kashmir. I believe that is the root cause of majority of the terrorist activities. Pakistan wants Kashmir to be the first agenda in all talks with India.  We have been always trying to scuttle this issue with the hackney phrase called “composite dialogue”.   If Pakistan wants Kashmir issue to be the first on the agenda then we should take their point of view seriously.  Gwneral Musharaf had already told Arnob Goswami that in 1971 the East Pakistan was dismembered from Pakistan and India was the sole supporter for this.  They even accuse India that their national integrity was destroyed by India in 1971.   The Indian army moved in the East Pakistan and defeated the Pakistan army and handed over East Pakistan to, what Pakistan would call “the secessionists”.  We have gained little or nothing from Bangladesh. Our friendship treaty with Bangladesh went sour.   Some time I feel we have created one more enemy in our lap.

We know that Pakistan is ruled mainly by the military generals.  Whenever we have seen civilian rule in Pakistan it is highly militarized civilian rule.  The chiefs of the army have been calling the shots in the governing of Pakistan.  In Pakistan the army is politicised or politics is militarized.  The army mostly is comprised of Taliban sympathisers and they have not forgiven India for our role in the creation of Bangladesh (to put it in Pakistani language, dismembering the East Pakistan from their nation state).  Now Pakistan has Kashmir as an issue through which they want to settle score with India.  This is the main focus of the foreign policy of Pak towards India. 

We have waged two wars with Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.  Kargil war is fresh in our memory and it has shown our younger generation how Pak would like to relate to us. How many terrorist attacks we have suffered?   We should also look at what is prevailing in Kashmir -- the separatists, the permanent presence of army, a regular shooting of so called terrorists, scores of missing people, and the unmarked graves.  All these issues are staring at us. We wake up only when there are crisis in Kashmir.  After the recent stone pelting the four interlocutors are suppose to draw up plan for further action.  How long will it take them to come up with this plan?

Should we not also think about the amount of money we are spending on the security in Kashmir and repercussion of it for the rest of India?

No matter how many heads we would like to see rolled; there may be even change of many governments. But all this will not solve the problem of terrorism.  However creative a home minister might be; no matter how intelligent our intelligence service might be, no matter how tight security we might put in place, as long as the root cause of terrorism is not resolved we will always be at risk.

We as a nation need to have introspection.  What has happened in the country that has put our national security at risk?  Lal Krishna Advani took the famous rath Yatra for Rama Mandir in Ayodhya.  He raised the passion of the Hindu fundamentalists.  Under his eyes and with his tacit approval the Babri Mashjid was raised to the ground.  Subsequently there were Gujarath riots and killing of Muslims.  No doubt the BJP has come out as a strong party.  It has become the second strongest party after the Indian National Congress Party.  But we have paid the price of destroying the social fabric our nation.  Our society stands divided.  The Muslim fundamentalists have joined the force with Pakistan.  The fragile social harmony has been destroyed.  People have lost trust in the different communities and groups of our society.  The locals have started supporting the external enemies.  The high values like social harmony, national integrity have been sacrificed on the altar of narrow communal and party political interests.

We need to relook at the Kashmir issue.  BJP’s stand needs to be completely reviewed.  All the political forces of different colour and ideology should join hands together to protect our peace, security and national integrity. We should stop deriving political mileage from Kashmir issue.  We should recognise that Kashmir is a national issue. We have to live in peace with our biggest neighbour, who was part of our family, sharing common destiny, common wealth and meals together.  Till 1947 Pakistani people fought together shoulder to shoulder with us for freedom from the British rule.  Even Advani proclaimed that Jinnah was a secular man and the partition between India and Pakistan was a costly accident of history.  I keep telling everyone that we cannot draw the map of India without drawing the map of Bangladesh at the same time.  Who knows if we solve the problem of Kashmir we all three, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India may come together to the table to share meals on a regular basis.  Once again we will discover our common origin and common destiny.  Our friendship will make all three of us the strongest.