Author: M.J. Akbar
Publication: Arab News
Date: August 3, 2008
URL: http://www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=112356
In the general elections of 2004 the irrepressible
and sometimes irresponsible Lalu Prasad Yadav used to tow around a maulvi
when in campaign mode. Nothing particularly wrong with that. Politicians have
this tendency to turn mullahs into best friends at election time. What was
the particular competence of this maulvi that attracted Lalu Yadav? Was he
a great alim, or scholar, erudite in the finer points of Shariah? Was he a
fine economist with specialized knowledge in the intricate problems of rural
Bihar?
The reason was less subtle. He was a lookalike of Osama Bin Laden. He even
handed out autographs signed "Osama".
Lalu Yadav sent out two unmissable signals
with his thoughtless pandering. He told non-Muslims that the true role model
of all Bihar Muslims, irrespective of what they said in their politically-correct
avatar, was a person whose name had become synonymous with terrorism. And
he told Muslims, particularly their impressionable young, that Osama was a
legitimate role model.
Did Sonia Gandhi, an ally of Lalu Yadav, question
him or even raise the subject? Not a word. Votes were more important, even
if they came in the name of Osama Bin Laden. Did the subject arise when Sonia
Gandhi offered Lalu Yadav a prominent place in Manmohan Singh's Cabinet? No.
To be fair to Lalu, this traveling Osama was
not by his side in the assembly elections that soon followed the general elections.
He had switched over - or, to be more precise, had been purchased by Ram Vilas
Paswan. Did the Congress ask questions this time around? Not a chance. Votes,
votes, votes: That was the only morality. It was all dismissed as a joke,
and the laughter was doubtless very hearty in the comfortable drawing rooms
of Lutyens' Delhi. The joke has soured on the killing fields of Malegaon,
Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and a roster of cities that could
enter the list of dread. The dead do not laugh even when there is a comedian
as rich in range as Lalu Yadav.
The innocents have been killed and maimed
by terrorists who have Osama Bin Laden as their inspiration. I could produce
a spread of direct and indirect evidence, from the manifesto of Indian Mujahedeen
to the taped speeches of Mohammad Masood Azhar (released by the BJP during
the bargain over the hijacked Indian Airlines) to the honorifics used by "commanders"
of the terror groups. Maulana Sufiyan Patanigia, once head of the Lal Masjid
seminary in Ahmedabad, and now on a revenge mission after the Gujarat carnage
of 2002, is known as the Indian Mullah Omar, while his deputy Suhail Khan
delights in the nickname "Chhota Osama". The hate literature spawned
by the Indian terrorist groups are full of the anti-Hindu venom that is encouraged
by organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, with its haven in Pakistan.
Common sense would suggest that those Indian
politicians who claim to have some sympathy for Indian Muslims would seek,
in their speeches, to create a distance between this deadly extreme fringe
and the broad mass of the community, not only because this was wise but primarily
because this was true. Instead, such of their ilk who are in the present government
in Delhi have indulged in a curious, and inexplicable, dichotomy. On the one
side the Lalu Yadavs tout an Osama to fuel the worst kind of sentiment. And,
on the other, there is what amounts to a complete denial that is inconsistent
with facts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to subsist on comfort food,
perhaps because the truth is politically indigestible. The most serious instance
of comfort food was the formulation he offered to his good friend George W.
Bush during the latter's official visit to India. He said that no Indian Muslim
was involved in terrorism, and offered as evidence that you could not find
any Indian Muslim in Osama's Al-Qaeda. President Bush, in his wisdom, picked
this up as proof of his theory that democracy was a panacea for all ills.
Not only did democracies never go to war against one another, but they also
managed to secure Indian Muslims from the temptations of terrorism.
Manmohan had clearly not consulted his intelligence
agencies when he came to such a conclusion. Even a check with the Mumbai courts
might have persuaded him otherwise. Indian nationals have been involved in
terrorist conspiracies at least since 1993, after the trauma of the demolition
of the Babri Mosque and the Congress government's startling indifference to
both its loss and the communal havoc that ensued. It is possible that Manmohan
meant well. But self-delusion is not diagnosis. It is perhaps such a frame
of mind that takes the government toward a soft view of the guilt of Afzal
Guru. Guru has been convicted for possibly the most outrageous attack on the
Indian state. His conviction has been confirmed by the Supreme Court. There
are no more legal avenues to traverse.
Look at this situation from the point of view
of the veteran or the prospective terrorist. To start with, he knows that
in India there is a lot of crime and very little punishment. If the guilty
do get caught, it is often fortuitously. For lesser crimes, corruption is
the sanctioned solution. For unforgivable crimes like terrorism, there is
a pattern. An incident occurs, and lights flare in media. Worthy dignitaries
visit the site and trot off to hospital. The home minister of India repeats
the same inane things he has been saying for four years. And then everyone
retreats into the default mode of complacency. What is there to worry about?
And when an Afzal Guru is caught and convicted, the state dithers. Perhaps
this is why the Indian Mujahedeen had the belligerence to taunt the government,
through an e-mail (sent before the timers wreaked their damage) that they
were Indians and that there was little use in explaining this away with alibis.
The most interesting characteristic about
homegrown terrorism is the degree of sophistication it has acquired. The Ahmedabad
bombings began with an automobile theft in Navi Mumbai; the cars traveled
to Surat and Vadodara to pick up their arsenals before reaching Ahmedabad.
The detonators were timed to inflict maximum damage on innocents, with a first,
second and third tier of victims. This is a large operation from mastermind
to foot soldiers, with a foreign connection but an Indian network. If our
police cannot fold in a net, then policing has lost all meaning.
The battle is in India. India is being poisoned
with a cancer. And all the government has as an answer is Band Aid.
