Light at the end of the tunnel: terrorism will wane

There may not be any immediate let up in terrorist attack around the country but there may not also be any stepping up in terrorist activity. The reason is two fold. One that people are waking up to the realization that some Hindus can also resort to terrorism as well as some Muslims do or Christians do. That has the potential of putting India on the map of terrorism that countries among others like Pakistan have had to live down with. As DNA reported that some intelligence operatives do not subscribe to claims by local investigators that the Students Islamic Movement of India was behind the blasts at the Malegaon mosque in September 2006 and the May 2007 blasts at the Mecca Masjid of Hyderabad. There is a complicity of a larger dimension and hence to throw the net much wider to catch. Second, the way Bilal Ahmed has reacted to his name mentioned in the email sent before Ahmedabad blasts of July 26 there is a fair chance that sanity would prevail. Just imagine this madrassa going stripling and skimpy youth beseeching people to eschew violence! His father like most of the Muslims living humdrum life bother more for their family and prospects in life than indulging in any destructive activity. Bilal wanted that people should not retaliate for how he was attacked in the local train between Jogeshwari and Andheri when there was a VHP sponsored bandh called in Mumbai in support of the Amarnath land sanction.

However having said that does not change the situation on the ground unless law and order situation is overhauled. For the way the police dilly dallied with registering his FIR shows deep rooted prejudice that is where we run to a roadblock.

People also have noted that any agitation hijacked in the name of communalism can lead to real terror and more threat to the unity and integrity of the country. The strike in the Kashmir valley was also witness to a surprising fact that Hindu pilgrims were stranded en rout to Jammu on their return journey. The Muslims in the valley treated them most humanely. They not only sheltered them in their own houses to pass the time during the strike and curfew but share meals with them whatever meager meal they could scrap together after weeks of economic blockade. Most importantly the pilgrims returned home safe and sound. This happened despite the fact that Muslim drivers from the valley had harrowing time in Jammu and Punjab and some of them suffered more than Bilal did. It is unimaginable that the valley Muslims who scrape a living out of the Hindu pilgrimage would like to endanger the pilgrimage. Therefore the need of the hour is to avoid communalizing every issue. The safe return of the pilgrims is a sign of good omen.

The real danger is in retaliating to the other community as a whole for the misdeeds of some of its members. The real danger is also in arming ourselves with more stringent laws so as to misusing them to the extent that communities are polarized on how the police apply the same laws to them. While induction of such draconian laws brings desperately needed votes to some it also wrecks the heath and hearth of others and kills the breadwinners of hundreds of families. What happened in Jammu and Kashmir was nothing short of turning the state into “a cockpit of communal intrigue”.

But what is happening in Orissa is also systematic and abysmally communal. The murder of Swami Lakshmanand Saraswati of VHP is no doubt an act of terror. But you cannot choose which terrorist you would like to name who would suit you for your organized campaign of hatred. Parvin Tagodia of VHP has given a clean chit to Naxalites just because the killers did not kill the two policemen guarding Lakshmanand Sraswati.

However the Naxalites have not only owned the responsibility of killing Saraswati but have also warned VHP and RSS that they must expect “more such punishments” if they continued violence against religious minorities in the country.

Such is the piquant situation prevailing in the country that the Naxalites have not been taken on as the biggest terrorist threat to the country. Their arsenal is far more deadly and awesome than all the cache of arms and ammunition caught from all the other known terrorists. Indeed, Bal Thackeray was so much impressed by them that he wanted them to help counter the Jihadi terrorism in the aftermath of the 7/11 serial bomb blasts in the locals in Mumbai! Good lessons we have learnt from outsourcing! Even the intelligence agencies have allegedly used Chhota Rajan in the attempted assassination of SAR Geelani in 2005 after he was acquitted by the Delhi high court in the case of December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament. Things were turning to worse. Lawyers themselves took the law unto their hands and assaulted those lawyers who chose to defend the alleged terrorists in courts of UP and Rajasthan. Even here there is a ray of hope as the human rights activists, ANHAD and People’s Tribunals held sessions in Hyderabad to record the travail of suffering of innocents imprisoned and Tehelka and Communalism Combat brought out special reports that mock our judicial system and investigative agencies. When we begin to unearth truth we have made a leap.

As the realization grows against all kinds of terrorism it would be wiser to do away partisan approach to fighting terrorism. As far as communalism is concerned, what else has brought us to this sorry pass than that?