Author: T V R Shenoy
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: July 8, 2005
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/08flip.htm
I was in London on September 11,
2001, watching with millions of others as the planes brought down the twin
towers of the World Trade Center.
That evening I met an old acquaintance
in the British security establishment. Even at that early stage he was
convinced that it was Al Qaeda that had staged the attacks on Washington
and New York. Obviously I could not help asking him whether London could
be the next target.
"Of course it will!" he responded
in the most matter of fact manner imaginable. Then he thought for a moment
before he continued, "The crucial difference shall be that we will be better
prepared. New York was caught on the back foot." (This was quite true;
several of the emergency centres prepared by the city fathers to cope with
just such a disaster had their headquarters in, ironically, the World Trade
Center.)
Today, I have to admit that he was
right on both counts -- London has indeed come under attack and Londoners
have indeed handled themselves better than their cousins across the Atlantic.
That, to those with a sense of history,
comes as no surprise. In World War II, France surrendered Paris to the
Nazis rather than let that beautiful city come under German bombardment.
London refused to bend the knee. In the face of an aerial blitzkreig which
reduced even the House of Commons to rubble, the British capital defiantly
coined the slogan 'London can take it'. I doubt if six explosions, no matter
how powerful, could shake Londoners.
Nor is London unique in maintaining
its cool in the face of terror. I have vivid memories of Bombay twelve
years ago. I was having lunch in a hotel next to the Air-India Building
when the series of explosions immortalised today as the Bombay Blasts shook
the city. The answer from India's commercial capital came the next morning;
a gigantic banner hanging from the roof of the same building proclaimed
that it was back to business. Whatever the financial costs of rebuilding
the physical damage I remember thinking at that moment that the terrorists
had lost the war of nerves.
Terrorism is a tactic designed not
to win territory but to shake the confidence of civilian targets where
they are supposedly most vulnerable -- their sense of security and their
pocket. It was no coincidence whatsoever that terrorists attacked the financial
districts of New York and Mumbai.
The bomb blasts in Bali a couple
of years ago hit the night clubs in an effort to derail the tourist trade
that is the lifeblood of that Indonesian island. Whether it is attacking
schoolchildren in Russia or pilgrims in India, the effort is always the
same -- to gain the psychological upper hand.
The London Underground system is
a soft target. With thousands of people using it at any given time during
the day, it is an easy matter to place a suitcase or a plastic bag containing
explosive substances in some nook. (As it would be on, say, a DTC bus in
Delhi or a suburban train in Mumbai or Chennai.)
I am sure the British security establishment
anticipated the attacks, the only question was whether the Londoners of
today could face the assault with the equanimity that their grandparents
demonstrated to Hitler.
It was no coincidence that the London
Blasts came precisely the day after the city won the bid to stage the Olympics
in 2012. It was meant to be a sharp drop from the euphoria of edging out
Paris and New York to a climate of fear and uncertainty. The terrorists
have, by all accounts, failed.
It is too soon, however, for the
West to pat itself on the back. If the terrorists have failed in their
ultimate aim so too has the West. Al Qaeda seems to have more admirers,
more supporters, and more cadres today in the Middle East than it did in
2001. Surely that wasn't the intended result of the 'War on Terror'!
I cannot end without thinking about
Ayodhya, the site of another terrorist attack a mere 48 hours before the
London Blasts. To my mind, the assault on one of Hinduism's most sacred
shrines is of even greater import than the explosions in the British capital.
The London Blasts were the handiwork of a few cowards who did no more than
place a few packages in places before fleeing to safety.
In Ayodhya, the degree of fanaticism
was so great that the militants were perfectly willing to die if they could
strike a blow at the psyche of Hindus across the world. How long will it
be before Europe too shall witness the fury of fundamentalism at its worst?
There is another thing that needs
to be said. In the face of the London Blasts, the British political establishment
closed ranks immediately to condemn terrorism with one voice. The aftermath
of the sacrilege at Ayodhya has been one where the Congress, the Samajwadi
Party, and the Bharatiya Janata Party indulge in a blame game. Couldn't
they all just keep quiet and save the mudslinging for another day?
