NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
THE STATES
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES
SEARCH REDIFF

Search the Internet          Tips

Recent Columns

Back to the future What's the Hindu bias     in that?! Towards Balkanisation,      Part I Bad Company Married to the mob

Passivity does not a nation protect

The BJP-led NDA government of India put the nation on a state of high alert to deal with any fallout of the attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar. Prime Minister Vajpayee, Deputy PM Advani and Gujarat CM Modi urged the people not to be provoked by the massacre. They pleaded for peace even as authorities were ordered to beef up security at vital installations and other places of worship. And, of course, everyone pointed fingers at Pakistan.

That's rich, coming from "leaders" who have done nothing but boost the self-confidence of Islamic terrorists who infiltrate into India from the 52nd State of the USA (Britain being the 51st).

Cowardice does not a nation make. And Indians are rank cowards. We had no answer when Dr Farooq Abdullah said in 2000, "You never demonstrated the guts to wage a war and liberate what is our part." And we don't have one now, either. Kargil came and Kargil went. Kargil II also came! (Its current status is being kept under wraps.) We released Masood Azhar, of course, but we also released, as a "goodwill gesture," five separatists who were among the 25 hardcore Hurriyat members detained under the Public Safety Act. Then we released Yasin Malik, who had called for a Palestinian-type intifada against India. And yet, we somehow crawled through it all.

Then 9/11 happened, so did the attack on Parliament -- and we stayed put... Despite urging from the Indian Army, we did not clean out the terror camps in the Indian territory usurped by the US' vassal state. Instead, we simply mobilised the army at the frontiers; they've been there for nine months now. Result? "Stressed-out jawan kills CO after combat orders." And, of course, after "India gives Pakistan two weeks to end terror," we stopped train/bus services, overflights and the such. Last status of such threats:

1. Opening of Pakistani airspace for India was not subject to the withdrawal of the forces, [Pakistan's] secretary defence said. 'It was a foolish act of India but a blessing in disguise for Pakistan. We will decide to open the airspace for India at our own schedule'... To correct its mistake, the Indian government announced on June 9 the restoration of airspace for the Pakistani planes. (Pak News.com, September 20)
   
2. The Centre is no longer talking about the 'list of 20' to be returned, as one of the pre-conditions for talks. The Centre does not want to make this an issue right now, due to US pressure. Pakistan has reportedly convinced the US of the pitfalls of handing over Dawood Ibrahim, who figures in the list. (The Times of India, September 21)
   
3. The Indian army has withdrawn three strike divisions from the Pakistan frontier, reducing its war readiness on the border as militant infiltrations decline, high-ranking army and government officials said on Tuesday. (Hindustan Times, July 16)

Next, we tried to send "secular" newspaper editors and a perpetually disgruntled former Union minister to talk to separatists in J&K and PoK. Last I heard about that:

1. Srinagar observed a complete shutdown on Tuesday as the valley voted in the second phase of assembly election in J&K... the abysmally low voter turnout in Srinagar could easily be blamed on the Hurriyat Conference's bandh call. (rediff.com, September 24)
   
2. Soon after the Kashmir Committee proposed talks with Pakistan's National Kashmir Committee, its leader [Abdul Qayyum] said time was not 'conducive' for dialogue. (The Pioneer, September 9)
   
3. [Pakistan's] Foreign Minister Innam-ul Haq and Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar have received instructions that no retired Indian army general, NGO activist or Indian intellectual will be entertained in future as the 'messenger of peace.' Only the Foreign Office will call the shots because of prevailing consensus that back-door diplomacy channels are always used to create misunderstanding between Pakistan and Kashmiris (The Weekly Independent, September 19)

With the Akshardham attack, ISI-sponsored Islamic terrorism has well and truly entered India. Not that this is the first instance of such terrorism; there have been myriad cases of sabotage and murder perpetrated by Pakis and Pak-sponsored Indian traitors throughout India. But this attack stands out because it is different from the attacks on government facilities, like the J&K assembly and Parliament; the attacks on defense camps, like Kaluchak and Badami Bagh; and the massacres of innocents at Chattisinghpora, Amarnath and Raghunath Temple.

Akshardham is the FIRST fidayeen attack aimed at the massacre of Indian civilians outside the state of Jammu & Kashmir. And, there will be more...

What "high state of alert"? Do you for a moment believe our Sakharams would be able to suss out a terrorist with an Uzi in his bag from amongst the hordes thronging Churchgate station or Chowringhee or Bengali Market? Do terrorists need to fire only in temples to cause maximum damage? Terrorism of this kind cannot be controlled on an ad hoc basis -- one *has* to get to the root of the problem. One of which is Pakistan, the other being the Islamism disseminated in madarsas.

Already, a leading Islamist of India, the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, who holds sway over 130 million Muslims, has said that "it was too early to say whether the attack was staged by relatives of Muslims killed by Hindus in the recent riots or the raid was part of a deep-rooted plot by Hindu zealots to rekindle religious violence." (UNI, September 25)

Add to that the statement of the London-based Council of Indian Muslims: "If honest and impartial investigations are made we would not be surprised if the BJP/VHP leadership is found guilty of organising this attack on a temple." (IANS, September 24)

Meaning, just as the massacre of the 58 Hindu kar sevaks in Godhra was perpetrated by Hindus, so is that of the 30-odd devotees at Akshardham... Islam, you see is a "religion of peace." And, if they at all exist, Islamic terrorists -- oops! I should say, "miscreants" -- are just some bad eggs belonging to a widely dispersed terror network of a few thousand members who have "hijacked" Islam...

The Council of Indian Muslims, or even the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, is not an organisation made up of clerics in the mould of Abu Hamza al-Masri and Mullah Omar. These are the "regular guys." When they -- or the pinkos -- say the only way to deal with terrorism is to address its root causes, what they really mean is: Hindus are the root cause. Hindus keep us enslaved and impoverished. The economic success of Hindus makes us look like primitive, fanatical failures... The fault, you see, never can be Islamism.

And so you're thinking: See? This hate-monger has drawn madarsas into fray just because she wants to attack Muslims. Yeah, yeah, think what you like. However, note PTI's report on the leaflets of an outfit named Tehrik-e-Kasak which were found on the bodies of the slain terrorists who attacked Akshardham: "The leaflets suggested that the group appeared to be from Gujarat itself, National Security Guard officials said."

Meaning, Gujarati Muslims. (I wonder, did Bukhari get a tip-off from his handlers...?) At which point, I can easily take off into the entire history of SIMI in Gujarat and lay out a case on the Godhra arson, as well as Hindu rage that fuelled the subsequent riots.

It's tempting, but I'll desist. For I'm more interested in the changes that have been wrought by Gujarat: ToI reports that the Maino Congress disowned Shankersinh Vaghela's bandh called to protest the "security lapse." Instead, it claimed that the bandh was to "protest against the terrorist attack and for mourning and offering prayers for the dead." I can't remember the last time the Congress "felt" for Hindus dying en masse. The Shroud of Turin, accompanied by Manmohan Singh and Kamal Nath, actually visited the temple and condemned the attack without riders. The ToI editorial states, "At a time like this, our two prime concerns should be to express solidarity with the victims of the attack and to rally together to defeat the subversive intentions of the terrorists."

Well, well, well... look what Hindu anger has achieved...

Of course, nothing even remotely connected to the loss of Hindu lives can be of any import to the pinkos. Accordingly, the CPI-M stated: "This attack constitutes yet another assault on the secular fabric of our country which has been under severe strain recently in Gujarat." That is, the assault and strain caused by Hindu rioters.

The CPI, on the other hand, warned that the killing of the innocent people would "only unleash a vicious cycle of killings and counter-killings" and demanded that President's rule be imposed on Gujarat. That is, no matter who and how many died, let's first get rid of the Hindus in government. At the time of writing, I'm unable to ascertain whether any pinko luminary made a trip to Gandhinagar. But I think it's safe to say, not.

If pinkos had, they could have seen the bodies of the dead children lying on the floor of the civil hospital in Gandhinagar. Perhaps, then they would have made statements unrelated to politics and "secularism." Perhaps, they would have seen practicing Hindus as they see other human beings and not as mere objects to demonise. But you know what? Sooner than later, Akshardham will be projected as a "reaction" of the minorities. And, to boost the Islamist morale of the likes of Bukhari, we'll see stuff like:

1. "The sad, honest truth is that Muslims attacked the coach in Godhra after they were humiliated and provoked into rage by a swaggering bunch of hoodlum kar sevaks" -- Bina Sarkar Elias in The Indian Express, May 20
   
2. "Seeking to debar the [BJP] party from contesting elections, it alleged that the Godhra incident was triggered by some action of Kar Sevaks returning from Ayodhya" -- IE report of May 2 on a suit filed by Agnivesh, Nirmala Deshpande and Nafisa Ali.
   
3. "But the facts emerging from yet another affidavit filed before the Commission, by civil rights advocate Amrish Patel, based on statements of the engine driver, guard and passengers of the train and a railway clerk at Godhra station, suggests that the chains were pulled by the kar sevaks." -- Shyam Parekh in ToI of July 16.
   
4. "6 months later, nagging doubt: Whodunnit at Godhra?" -- Rohit Bhan, IE, September 5.
   
5. "Godhra victims may not have been kar sevaks" -- Rajesh Ramachandran, ToI, August 5

Last but not the least, on Wednesday, gunmen entered the offices of a Christian charity and fired indiscriminately killing at least six people. Good timing, wouldn't you say? Mush can tell Bush, "Oh but we were attacked too!"

ALSO READ:
Attack on Akshardham temple

Varsha Bhosle