Mumbai 26/11: Still Politically Incorrect!

Mumbai 26/11: Still Politically Incorrect!

By Swati Parashar

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in response to the 11 July 2006 train blasts in Mumbai, had stated; “No-one can make India kneel. The wheels of our economy will move on. India will continue to walk tall, and with confidence. Mumbai stands tall once again as the symbol of a united India. An inclusive India. We will win this war against terror. Nothing will break our resolve.” His statement certainly did not break the resolve of the jihadi terrorists as they indulged in the gory bloodbath in Mumbai for 60 hours beginning on 26 November 2008. As political drama continues to unfold over this tragedy and the blame game rages on, let us reflect on the ‘politics’ of the ‘politically correct’.

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the NSG commando who sacrificed his life so that we could live to see another day, would not have expected such callousness from the political leaders of our state who did not even have the time to attend his funeral. This is not surprising as only a few months back none of our ‘eminent’ national leaders had any time to attend the funeral of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, the military legend of this country. Defence Minister A. K. Antony had explained his absence by stating that the government had anyways made a rare gesture to accord a state funeral to General Manekshaw! Our political masters bestow such ‘favours’ on our valiant soldiers that it would shame us forever. No wonder Major Unnikrishnan’s father prefers suicide to accepting condolence visits from any politician. He spoke about his brave son as not just belonging to Kerala alone but to the entire nation. Mr. Raj Thakre, while hiding in your underground bunker, we hope you take note of this. You had thought that you could appropriate the ‘Marathi’ identity to suit your vicious and divisive politics. Hopefully you have learnt the lesson that Mumbai is not your fiefdom, neither does it belong to Maharashtra alone. Mumbai belongs to India and all of India bleeds with Mumbai at this hour. The NSG commandos who fought to secure Mumbai are more of a ‘Marathi Manoos’ than either you or any of your goons!

Our politicians have no respect for our security forces or for the citizens of this country. Would Mr. R R Patil say that “small incidents like this keep happening in big cities”, if his security cover was taken away from him while he waited at the CST station on that ill fated evening? Mr. Patil needs to be reminded that this ‘small incident’ resulted in the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad losing its core team of brilliant officers apart from the other casualties. Our elite army commando units are wasted in securing those who make us completely insecure. At our expense our politicians enjoy highest level of security cover while we, the taxpayers, continue to be cannon fodder for terrorists as soft targets. The Z plus security that many of our politicians enjoy, consists of 36 security personnel including black cat commandos, NSG, SPG, CRPF and ITBP. Bullet proof cars and electronic pulse jammers are also part of the elite security entourage of ‘eminent’ personalities such as Amar Singh, Rajnath Singh, Priyanka Vadra, Rahul Gandhi, Jayalalitha and Vinay Katiyar, to name a few. Mind you, not one of these people holds any constitutional position to enjoy this highest level of security protection by our elite commando units. The Z plus security cover is often distributed as a gift hamper to buy favours such as in the case of Amar Singh during the nuclear deal related numerical drama in the parliament.

Subsequent to Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s resignation (finally!), Railway Minister Lalu Yadav quipped, ‘kya barkha jab krishi sukhani’, meaning that there is no purpose of rain when the crops have died. He wants us to forget that he is part of this government and cabinet which is supposed to function on collective responsibility. However, for Lalu Yadav, being ‘collective’ or being ‘responsible’ did not mean support for the ban on SIMI, which has established terrorist linkages. Lalu was just too keen to protect his ‘alpasankhyak’ (minority) votes. Politicians like Lalu thrive on creating vote bank constituencies. Let us not forget that this ‘garibon ka neta’ (leader of the poor) had once justified the perpetuation of ‘garibi’ (poverty) in Bihar, on the grounds that the poor are his constituency. He needed them to sustain his politics. On Shivraj Patil’s resignation, Lalu further adds, “Whatever is happening in the country is our priority... the ministerial post doesn't matter”, for he can pass it on to dear wife at any time!

The voice of the ‘oppressed’ and the ‘marginalised’ proletariat, Comrade Brinda Karat of the CPM accuses the BJP of “nakli deshbhakti” (pseudo-patriotism) and of linking religion with terrorism. Comrade Karat’s party have no better claims to patriotism as far as India is concerned. Plunging the country into serious political crisis over the Indo-US nuclear deal, on argument that it was anti-Muslim and then joining hands with Mayawati, the communists had subjugated the foreign policy to religion. Comrade Karat and her cadres would have probably supported a nuclear deal with China as ‘asli swamibhakti’ (real sycophancy). Ms. Karat wants the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to cooperate with India on counter terrorism. Does she or any of her red brigade comrades realise that only the United States (an enemy they love to hate) can put any real pressure on Pakistan? Ms. Karat has stated that, “it has been an utter failure of the Congress government who could not strengthen the intelligence agencies, ensure proper coordination between state and central agencies or arm our agencies with enough software and hardware to pre-empt such attacks.” Selective amnesia here? Ms. Karat your party was an important constituent of this UPA government for four years of their governance (or lack of it!).

Consider this! The PM gets out of his deep slumber and still sleep-walking, calls an all party meeting to discuss the situation after Mumbai. The leader of the biggest opposition party, which does not miss an opportunity to display its nationalist credentials, L K. Advani does not even deem it necessary to attend the meeting. He is in Rajasthan campaigning for the assembly elections! The petty, parochial politics does not allow him to participate in such an important meeting concerning national security. Mr. Advani, did these jihadi terrorists represent the ‘secular’ ethos of Mr. M. A. Jinnah which only you happened to articulate? Narendra Modi, the saviour of the majority community of this country, has one crore rupees to offer to the slain police officers in Maharashtra (whom he had denounced during their lifetime). I wonder if Mr. Modi extended any compassion or compensation to the five crew members of the fishing trawler 'Kuber' that was hijacked by the terrorists. These crew members were brutally murdered by the terrorists. BJP leader, Rajiv Pratap Ruddy, slams the government for their failure to tackle terrorism and rants his party’s election manifesto in a media debate. We are left speechless. He forgets that he belongs to a party that had compromised the security of this country in an unprecedented manner not many years ago.

The then Defence Minister of the NDA, Jaswant Singh, ‘valiantly’ escorted the deadliest jihadi terrorists out of Indian jails during the Kandahar hostage crisis. Let us not even talk about the Parliament Attack, when all the NDA did was to mobilise the army at the border and then move them back.

I would also like to ask our ‘politically correct’ politicians, if terrorism has no religion should counter terrorism strategies be devised according to religious communities? As for people in India and abroad who are worried about home grown ‘Hindutva’ terror in Malegaon, the very fact that this could come under intense public scrutiny in this country, shows that religious concerns do not decide public outrage over terrorism. While the jihadi terrorists have fostered effective cooperation across national boundaries, our political leaders have failed to even foster consensus on counter terrorism mechanism and show solidarity with the people at this time of national emergency. Some of us could argue that after all we get the rulers we deserve, for we are the ones who vote for them. Not true entirely. Many of these ministers have been installed through the back channels of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), without having to face the electorate directly. Minister of External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, who has held important ministerial berths before, never enjoyed the mandate of the people. His first Lok Sabha (Lower House) stint in many years of his ministerial life started only in 2004. Minister of Human Resources Development, Arjun Singh, lost two successive elections to the Lower House (once even forfeiting his deposit!). Now he is an honourable member of the Rajya Sabha and also of the Sonia Gandhi coterie. Just jettisoned Minister of Home Affairs, Shivraj Patil, lost the last Lok Sabha elections in Latur but followed Arjun Singh’s footsteps towards ministerial glory!

We certainly don’t deserve what we get!

Abraham Lincoln had said; “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” I leave the judgement to you!

(Swati Parashar is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University, United Kingdom. She can be contacted at swatiparashar@hotmail.com)