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Delhi
blasts killed scores, but we bring you a story
to tell the sorry
saga of terrorism
Terrorists kill people, but a nation state?
And its own?
Kalam Nishan Singh
NEW DELHI: It was a
rather happy Sunday when blasts in
Delhi rocked
India. The sun was
clear, and it was an unusually beautiful day. Suddenly, they came.
One after the other. Connaught Place, Gaffar Market…bodies, blood,
stretchers, ambulances, screams, reporters, and abuses for Muslims.
Did it need multiple blasts in the heart of
India’s capital to
jolt our conscience? Are we thinking more as a result, or less?
Scores dead and scores injured. By now we are all familiar with the
figures, the scenes of gore, the endless talk about terrorists
hitting India, the usual email that lands with a rather strange
regularity at media houses and the follow-up coverage of the uses
and abuse of Wi-Fi, as if India must underline its IT sector
achievements even when blood spills on its roads.
Once again, we are face to face with the question raised
repeatedly and never answered satisfactorily: Does violence have a
logic? And can it achieve any objectives? Can killing innocents be
justified, whatever the aim?
Out there, someone is creating terrorists, and giving them
reasons to defend their actions. The People's Tribunal in
Hyderabad recently
brought forth many stories but I am here to tell you just one.
When Maulana Mohammad Naseerudin of
Hyderabad was
arrested in August 2004, cops accused him of conspiring to blow up a
Hindu temple. He denied the charge, was released on bail and was
asked to report to the CID office regularly, but when he went to the
CID office,
Gujarat cops were waiting for him. Hundreds were aware that Maulana
used to preach for relief and aid for Muslims in
Gujarat who had
been brutalized by the state. The news of his arrest spread quickly.
Some protestors turned up and asked to see the arrest warrant.
23-year-old Mujahid Saleem Azmi, a friend of the family,
started questioning the procedures during the arrest. The cops were
forced to release Maulana. A heated exchange between police officer
Narendra and Mujahid began. The officer shamelessly shouted at
Mujahid, 'Have you people forgotten
Gujarat? I will
finish you all off.' The police officer then said that if he was
looking for a warrant he would show him a warrant and took out his
gun and fired point blank at Mujahid. The rest of the police
officers started firing in the air. They pushed the Maulana back
into the van and drove off. The ATS provided safe passage for the
police to flee Hyderabad. Meanwhile, Mujahid, 23, was pronounced
dead at the hospital.
Heard of any more perfect ways of producing terrorists? Men
like Maulana are all around us, suffering. Some may be breaking down
and dithering into the shady world of violence. Some not in love
with India
could be using them too.
A nation-state that calls itself a democracy must step back
and review what is it that is causing all this trouble? At least its
people must. No doubt there will be some who will churn out the
usual line: “Terrorism is a global phenomenon. It needs to be
tackled with a heavy hand.”
It is. It must be tackled with a heavy hand. But the heavy
hand must not strike innocents with such beastly regularity.
The stereotyping of the Muslim, the attacks on Christians,
the rabid statements from the saffron camp, the anti-conversion
bills being pushed in many states with the Orwellian name of Freedom
of Religion Bill, the demands for more and more strict laws when
everyone is aware about misuse of POTA, TADA and every such idiotic
piece of law – all these point to a strange proclivity by some
forces to push India into a dark zone.
The Delhi Bomb Blasts are condemnable. Who can remain unmoved
looking at the photo we carry: An old man carrying the corpse of his
grandson. Can anyone bear a burden like this? But we must chase
justice at all times, more so in times of such grave sadness.
To catch up with the story, when people pained at Mujahid
Saleem Azmi’s death wanted to file a case against the cops, many
Hindutva forums disrupted the funeral procession and cops used their
special division - the Greyhound Task Force – otherwise meant for
Naxalites, and teargassed the protesters. The Greyhound men went to
Mujahid's house and attacked the family with sticks.
Terrorists deserve heavy hand. Please see what the heavy hand
is busy doing.
We say a prayer for all those who were killed in Delhi
blasts, we hope and pray that lives are lost only for a cause, we
hope that one day the core Sikh value of Sarbat Da Bhala becomes the
motto of life for all those who seek justice for the downtrodden,
the marginalised, the muffled and the muzzled. And we hope the
nation states understand that killing people with their hands ties
behind their backs, burning them inside train bogies, carrying out
Godhra or not punishing the guilty of 1984 massacres does not really
help.
Delhi must be
safe, as also all our towns must be. So must be our minds and
hearts.
17 September 2008
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