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| Afghanistan-Pak-India |
| What cross-border terrorism? Let's celebrate survival |
| 2005-10-31 |
| By Swapan Dasgupta It is comforting to pretend it's going to be another joyous Diwali. Since the bombs exploded last Saturday, killing 65 ordinary citizens- we still don't know the final count- and leaving another 210 seriously injured, the Capital has been subjected to some dreary sermons. The custodians of national conscience have coupled their generous overuse of hoary adjectives like "heinous" and "dastardly" to appeal for calm, to praise our collective restraint and to assure us that India will not buckle under terrorism. There is no need, the UPA Chairperson has gratuitously informed us, to be either unduly perturbed or point an accusing finger at anyone. Terrorism, after all, is a "global phenomenon". The mood of forgiveness resonates throughout Lutyens' Delhi. Even as the Police speak of the terrorists' links across the Radcliffe Line, a decision is taken to declare Pakistan a non-issue. Nothing, absolutely nothing, must be done to derail the "peace process". The Defence Minister may have spoken earlier about the persisting "infrastructure of terror" and the Army may have aired its concern about the onrush of infiltration across the Line of Control in the aftermath of the earthquake, but these are apparent trivialities. In a spirit of devastated magnanimity, India will not be seen to be shirking from its obligation to make Pervez Musharraf's bluster about a disappearing LoC a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Government is in denial. It doesn't want to accept that what happened in Delhi on Saturday was no freak show. The terrorists wilfully targeted the crowded pre-Diwali bazaars as a gesture of defiance, to show that they are still in business. They had attempted a similar dhamaka in Ayodhya last August, which narrowly failed. On both occasions, the response of the Government has been mealy-mouthed, as if the nation is embarrassed rather than outraged. It is as if a robust response to terrorism violates secular camaraderie! Perhaps it would have been reassuring if the evidence suggested that a serial explosion of LPG cylinders rather than timer bombs were responsible for the killing. The reality, unfortunately, is different. India is once again under attack from an old enemy and the Government hopes the problem will just go away. It is certainly time to be phlegmatic but it is also a time to be angry. For the narrowest of political compulsions, the Government has conveyed the impression that terrorism is a trivial act of deviancy and that the killers must be indulged and treated with kid gloves. The "soft state" is not merely a helpless Prime Minister, an inept Home Minister and a compromised External Affairs Minister. It is a mindset of squeamish appeasement guaranteed to ensure the victims of last Saturday's massacre won't be the last. Diwali commemorates Lord Ram's triumphant return to Ayodhya. This year we will be observing a collective delusion that evil is just an abstraction, maya. We are celebrating survival by pretending there is no war. |
| Posted by:john |
| #4 The geriatrics that rule India fondly remember their youth in Lahore and Karachi and yearn for brotherhood. The PM Manmohan Singh was born in what is now Pakistan. Even the BJP hawk LK Advani (born in Karachi) wistfully recalls his boyhood and hopes for some economic union with Pakistan. The youth of India have no such fondness. They know nothing of the time before partition. Pakistan to them is simply a terrorist neighbor. A rage is building. The political system may yet throw up someone who will wage war on Pakistan. |
| Posted by: john 2005-10-31 17:53 |
| #3 Fill in the blank test: France is to USA as _________ is to India. I guess Pakistan just lost itself a market. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2005-10-31 17:39 |
| #2 Backlash from the Indian public as well... Pakistani onions get dropped like hot potatoes in Navi Mumbai Chittaranjan Tembhekar Sunday, October 30, 2005 22:45 IST More than essential commodities, patriotism seems to be flooding the wholesale market in Navi Mumbai. In protest against Saturdayâs bomb explosions by terrorist outfits in New Delhi, consumers and retailers at the Maharashtra Agriculture Farming Corporation (MAFCO) and Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) and the community at large have refused to buy onions imported from Pakistan. âItâs a silent protest. Retailers and consumers just check the Pak variety out, but buy Indian dry onions saying they donât want either Pak or Chinese ones,â said stockist Datta Sayaji Pawale (shop no 145) at MAFCO market. Of the 19 wholesalers at MAFCO only two have bought the Pak variety from APMC commission agents. Mast, like Narayan Botre, Kamlesh Kand, and Vitthal Atkari, have not bought it because âconsumers refuse to purchase itâ. âLook at the bombings. We donât want produce from that country,â said retailer Sakharam Shinde. He said his earlier stock of Pak onions and Chinese garlic had gone waste. Businessmen and Vashi residents Prabuddha Raje and Usha Kamath said Pakistan always made âour people cry by shielding terroristsâ. Others like Deepak Salunke and Rajaram Gautam said Pakistani onions consumed more oil while cooking as there were not dry. âIt also weighs more,â Salunke said. The protest has come as another jolt for importers of Pakistani onions, who have already suffered a huge loss as the variety got heavily damaged due to delay in offloading consignments owing to custom clearance at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). Besides, the onions, which were imported for Rs 14 per kg, were being sold for Rs 12 per kg. Moreover, the onion crisis seems to have blown over, as consignments from Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, besides from Nashik, Dhule and western parts of Maharashtra are flooding the market, thus bringing down the price of the vegetable. âWhy would we need Pakistani onions now?â quipped a retailer. |
| Posted by: john 2005-10-31 16:33 |
| #1 The tone in the Indian press is decidely harsher. The Indian government will pay a heavy political price if it doesn't show some backbone soon. |
| Posted by: john 2005-10-31 16:26 |