Author: B Raman
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: February 2, 2011
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/silence-over-jihadi-violence-is-equally-barbaric/20110202.htm
Senior analyst B Raman questions and deeply
condemns the near-to-total silence of Valley separatists over the barbaric
murder of three Kashmiri girls by suspected LeT militants.
In our excitement over the revolution from
nowhere sweeping across the Arab world and in our preoccupation with trying
to understand what has been happening in Egypt, we should not fail to highlight
and protest against the utter barbarity of the cold-blooded murders of two
young Kashmiri Muslim girls at Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir by three suspects
believed to be from the Lashkar-e-Tayiba on February 1-- two of them suspected
to be locals and the third suspected to be a Pakistani.
Such jihadi barbarity has been known in the
past and continues in the present. Public opinion ought to be shocked and
outraged not only by the act of barbarity that put an end to the lives of
two innocent and young Muslim girls, but also by the deafening silence of
large sections of the population of the Valley in general and by many -- if
not most -- of the separatist leaders in particular.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
and Sajjad Lone, the dissident leader, need to be complimented for strongly
coming out against this barbarity.
The almost total silence of many others in
the face of the courageous articulation by leaders like them of their outrage
should not be a matter of surprise either. It had happened in the past and
it continues to happen in the present.
These silent people never hesitate to condemn
and protest every time there are allegations of excesses by the security forces.
They never hesitate to come out in their hundreds and thousands and demonstrate
in the streets against the security forces.
But they seem to have lost their voice, conscience
and courage when innocent civilians were deliberately and barbarically killed
by the jihadi terrorists.
Their silence not only speaks of their physical
and mental cowardice. Worse still, it also speaks of their willingness to
tolerate and white-wash jihadi barbarity. 'Jihadi barbarity is understandable,'
that seems to be their view.
Silence in the face of barbarity amounts to
complicity in the commission of barbarity. Not only is the cold-blooded murder
of these two girls barbaric, the cold-blooded silence of these people is equally
barbaric. Those who murdered these girls are guilty of barbarity in action.
Those who remain silent are guilty of barbarity in mind.
One has not yet seen any strong reaction from
roof-top liberals such as Arundhati Roy and her ilk to the barbarity perpetrated
at Sopore. One should not be surprised if they come out with double-edged
words to rationalise the act of barbarity while seeming to deplore it.
Our electronic media has done well in highlighting
the barbarity and the accompanying criminal silence. They should keep it up.
It should not be just a proforma outrage. It should be a real outrage.
- The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute
For Topical Studies, Chennai.
