OK, so the man for this week of Mr Abdul Rehman Antulay, Minister for Minority Affairs of the Govt Of India. Apparently Mr Antulay aired his "suspicions" that it was sheer coincidence that all the senior offices of the Mumbai ATS, including Late Mr Karkare, who apparently was one of the "few" genuinely secular and honest police officers in India went to Cama Hospital rather than the Taj". I am pretty sure that any account by the eyewitnesses including the injured policeman at that spot who was with Mr Karkare would reveal the chain of events for that day.
1) To be honest, I am appalled by the media reaction, and for the umpteenth time, we in India has shied away from doing a serious self introspection of the kind of secularism we follow. Agreed, that being a Minister in the Govt of India, Mr Antulays comments were irresponsible, but Mr Antulay is a symptom, not the disease afflicting the Indian Political space. For that matter, Mr Modi, Mr Tagodia, Mr Advani, The shahi Imam of Delhi, the Shiromani Akali Dal in Amritsar, all and I repeat, all of them as institutions/Parties/Individuals are just the symptoms of a deeper malaise afflicting India. You can bash all these guys anytime you want, you can plead them every day to rise above their prejudices and narrow vote bank politics, but all this amounts to asking a TB patient, not to cough. Cough is the symptom, TB is the disease. :)
2)Look at the history of the subcontinent, we have had bloodbath and trouble each time religion has "transgressed" into Political space. Pakistan is not wrong entirely when it asks India to look at its Mirror, when it brandishes a Sachar report to question India about the possibility of fifth column, or when it shows the likes of Advani/Tagodia/Modi and plays the "allienation" card. Similarly, Indian Muslims are also right when they say that they should not be made to prove their loyalty to Indian state every time there is terror in the name of Islam, similarly, their grievance about misuse of so called "Draconian Laws" is legitimate and from a neutral perspective, there is also a reason for increasing number of Hindus drifting towards the sangh and its affiliates.This is the breeding ground of the disease, the environment, which facilitates the diseases. Like those unkempt and polluted neighborhoods as compared to TB example.
3) Lets analyze the argument further, take the example of Sikh Militancy of the 70's to the late 80's. This was the time when Sikhism as a religion was allowed to transgress into Political space. This was the disease, namely of allowing religion, and facilitating the entry of religious zealots in the Political Space, who did it and what were the reasons is immaterial in the present analysis, but a honest evaluation of the events would prove that, until Sikhism only was preached at the "Golden Temple' in Amritsar, we were fine, the moment political discourse started flowing from there, we were in trouble, we ended up with the unfortunate situation of taking our Tanks into the holy shrine and hurting the emotions of the patriotic Sikhs :(
4) Take the instance of Babri demolition, was it not again a case of Religion transgressing into the Politics ? Opening up the Gates of Somnath and Babri, and allowing a particular amount of religious transgression, namely the interference of VHP, the RSS and even Muslim organizations like the MPLB and the Ulemas in the policy making resulted in the unfortunate events that culminated on Dec 6 of the fateful year and makes the head of the Indian state hang in shame every where.
5) Godhra also is testimony to the same malice that has afflicted us, we keep on allowing religion into Public space and polity.
6) Just in case you brand me a "Pseudo Secular", I would also emphasize an example of the Shah Bano Case, The day the Indian government showed its impotency to stand up to Muslim religious extremism and was not able to provide a small amount of money as alimony, it allowed Islam to transgress into Political Space. Now we have a Parallel Sharia Law being enforced in the name of MLPB. Every time it allows the Shahi Imam of Delhi to speak into his mosque, and berate the Indian Democracy, allows him to make rants like not flying the National Flag on republic day, the Indian state allows transgression of religion into politics. Every time we bring religious affliction to contest singing even national patriotic songs, we gave scope for the disease to spread.
7) The Role of Pakistan: The role of Pakistan has just been that of a "Catalyst" to the Indian disease. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born "Islamic" its masses largely support the totally "Sharia" compliant nature of its rule of state. India by itself agreed to be secular. So the only thing Pakistan can actually be accused of is facilitating the training, indoctrination , moral and physical support of subversive activities by the Indian 5Th column, be it the Sikh Militants of yesteryear's, the Radical Muslim fringe of today or the Insurgents of NE. Apart from this, Pakistan can not be blamed for the other ills, now Pakistan for sure is a catalyst and I am not trying to absolve it of its sins here.
8) The Recent Hindu Right Wing extremism: By recent, i do not mean to say that we never had Right Wing Extremism in India, saying that would be to be in a denial mode. What i want to emphasize on is the recent trend in change of the methods employed by the right wing. The point that people miss, largely is that, the main accused in the Malegoan case is an "Army Man" who was trained in explosives. This is no surprise to me, as the right wing desperately needed this, this is one aspect that the right wing in India never had, that is physical training and guidance in arms and ammunition handling. If you look at all the incidents before Malegaon, be it Godhra or Mumbai or Babri, the Hindu Right wing could never use sophisticated military grade explosives (RDX), it hardly used the automatics that Islamic and Sikh militants used, just for the specific reason that it never had the "catalyst", it never had some one like "Pakistan" whose army(ISI) could train them :)
The LTTE could do it, because the Indian Army was the catalyst, but the Hindu Right wing till Col Purohit came in was more reliant on mob culture, it used the numbers which favor the majority to show its Muscle. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise that Hindu Right wing and Christian Right wing have largely used mass mobilization and riots as weapons unlike the Islamic/Sikh radicals.
9) We as Indians, allowed free discourse of religion in society assuming that it wold be used responsibly. We chose not to be secular the "French" or "Turkish" way. But the problem is that, the way we chose was the toughest, it was based on the assumption that, each group would act in a civilized way, with utmost restraint and accommodation of ideas/faith along with a high degree of tolerance. We failed to play by the rules, be it Hindu's, be it Muslims or Sikhs or Christians, we largely failed to our stated objective. We let our Gods, Government and Guardians down.
10) We can sure take Pakistan to task for acting as "catalyst" but till we tell our Mullahs/Pundits/Priests to keep religious discourse from transgressing into our Politics, we will never be able to win the war on Terror at least inside India. Bombing the Catalyst might reduce the speed of spread of the disease, but would not eliminate it completely, we need to sanitize the surroundings, have a clean society and then some medicine, some love, some prayers could alleviate our pain :) Amen!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saber or Sober?
This week has seen immense Sabre rattling from the two nuclear neighbours in South East Asia, both Indian and Pakistan Media and some sections of the society in general baying for each others blood. Some quarters even emphasizing on the Nuke card and dooms day scenario.
1) The silver lining in the clouds seems to be the fact that both the GOVT's have shown remarkable restraint. Considering that the National elections are round the corner in India in summer, the restraint shown by all political parties is commendable, it is very important that we do not get jingoistic at this delicate hour. Yes agreed our restraint has its limitations, and we wont allow our motherland to be raped every once in a while by Islamic/Hindu Jihadists or extremist of any other hue. We should at least show to the world that we would support the Pakistani civilian government in cracking down genuinely on these extremist groups in Pakistani soil and help in any way possible. At the same time, we need to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure, and make the world known that we have all options open on the table.
2) Pakistani and Indian media have escalated the situation a bit, this time around it seems its the media playing to the gallery rather than the politicians. Both need to observe restraint, action has to be on the ground not on the TV studios. :)
3) India needs to decide strongly on some issues. India needs to understand that it can not afford to fight inside its own territory, it needs to move the war to an external theatre so that the collateral damage that we might need to take is more related to the Armed forces and civilian interests are protected and at the same time we must not openly state that we are at war. Seems confusing right? Well the point I am trying to make is , we would not officially go to war, no use of "Shock and Awe", if we do that Pakistan surely will blackmail the world on a nuclear catastrophe. We would lose the existing support of international community for flaring up the region. We can not afford a nuclear war, which ever sides argument we deem fit, Pakistanis believe they have the right to first use and they would use the nukes if India shows signs of aggression and believes that this right would protect it, and from an Indian perspective, hardliners assume that If India is nuked Pakistan would also be wiped out, well both are extremist scenarios. We do not need to go to that extent, we need to keep the diplomatic channel alive and pay Pakistan back in some of its own coin.
4) India needs to assure its minority community that helping stabilize Afghanistan is not undermining Islam, and then, we have a base in Tajikistan if I am not wrong, so lets move the theatre of conflict to western Pakistan. Pakistan has been trying to blackmail the US that it would have to move its forces to eastern front, and that would leave USA on one leg, so lets make USA strong, get our Army into Afghanistan, we have interests there, we can say we want to protect the infrastructure and men that India has provided to help Afghanistan. Yes Pakistan would sure cry wolf and accuse the Indian missions of fermenting trouble but that should be fine, as long as our regulars do not cross Afghanistan, we can always get away, if any one is caught in Pakistan destroying these terror infrastructure, we would also say they are "non-state" actors and give a rousing speech about how we are also victims and how it is it in the interest of both countries to sort the mess out :P
5) It is time we drop the so called "Gujral Doctrine" and restart covert operations in Pakistani territory, it is a point to note that we did have some capability before, and the Baluchis have always had a soft corner for India, The Bugti who was assassinated this year by the Pakistan army was probably the most secular voice in Pakistan, we need to make sure we have some assets inside Pakistan and that would also give us the moral high point that we are showing restraint against the civilian government of Pakistan but at the same time protecting our strategic interests.
6) Its time we understand the problem of religious extremism be it of the SIMI kind or the VHP kind, we need to rise and condemn both forms. Also, lets not give stupid theories about poverty and oppression. If poverty was the reason, then the misguided Muslim youth should have joined the Maoists not the jihadis. Take this example, say india has 100 people, out of which say 60% is below poverty line, this means approximately 10 muslim and 45 non muslim youth are below poverty line, not well educated, not having good access to governance, so how does it so happen that relatively less numbers of the non muslim groups end up in religious extremism of the kind perpetuated by Muslim extremism? The root cause is not poverty or education as the recent arrests have indicated, even highly educated youth are getting attracted to this wrong idea of Islam propagated by the Mullahs of certain organizations. Islam stands for peace, and India allows any Muslim to practice Islam without any interference, and I think the only solution that will bring peace should and can come only from the Mullahs. They can only save India, they need to declare that Jihad against India is not permissible.
7) We would sure see some remarkable improvement in governance now, some politicians have behaved in a more admirable manner in the past week, so lets hope we achieve our ends without having to go to war, which is not in the interest of any one. I would like to appeal to the people of Pakistan that no Indian dislikes them, but yes, they can not afford to be in denial, extremism and militant Islam would not help them also in any case, I hope they wake up sooner than later and save the Islamic Republic Of Pakistan from stagnation and destruction. Do they really believe that their Qaid-e- Azam formed Pakistan for what it is today?
8) War need not be fought with fighter planes and Tanks, lets fight it, but in a more subtle way, lets strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan and hit at the extremists.
Would the saber win or would sober have the honors of the day?:)
1) The silver lining in the clouds seems to be the fact that both the GOVT's have shown remarkable restraint. Considering that the National elections are round the corner in India in summer, the restraint shown by all political parties is commendable, it is very important that we do not get jingoistic at this delicate hour. Yes agreed our restraint has its limitations, and we wont allow our motherland to be raped every once in a while by Islamic/Hindu Jihadists or extremist of any other hue. We should at least show to the world that we would support the Pakistani civilian government in cracking down genuinely on these extremist groups in Pakistani soil and help in any way possible. At the same time, we need to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure, and make the world known that we have all options open on the table.
2) Pakistani and Indian media have escalated the situation a bit, this time around it seems its the media playing to the gallery rather than the politicians. Both need to observe restraint, action has to be on the ground not on the TV studios. :)
3) India needs to decide strongly on some issues. India needs to understand that it can not afford to fight inside its own territory, it needs to move the war to an external theatre so that the collateral damage that we might need to take is more related to the Armed forces and civilian interests are protected and at the same time we must not openly state that we are at war. Seems confusing right? Well the point I am trying to make is , we would not officially go to war, no use of "Shock and Awe", if we do that Pakistan surely will blackmail the world on a nuclear catastrophe. We would lose the existing support of international community for flaring up the region. We can not afford a nuclear war, which ever sides argument we deem fit, Pakistanis believe they have the right to first use and they would use the nukes if India shows signs of aggression and believes that this right would protect it, and from an Indian perspective, hardliners assume that If India is nuked Pakistan would also be wiped out, well both are extremist scenarios. We do not need to go to that extent, we need to keep the diplomatic channel alive and pay Pakistan back in some of its own coin.
4) India needs to assure its minority community that helping stabilize Afghanistan is not undermining Islam, and then, we have a base in Tajikistan if I am not wrong, so lets move the theatre of conflict to western Pakistan. Pakistan has been trying to blackmail the US that it would have to move its forces to eastern front, and that would leave USA on one leg, so lets make USA strong, get our Army into Afghanistan, we have interests there, we can say we want to protect the infrastructure and men that India has provided to help Afghanistan. Yes Pakistan would sure cry wolf and accuse the Indian missions of fermenting trouble but that should be fine, as long as our regulars do not cross Afghanistan, we can always get away, if any one is caught in Pakistan destroying these terror infrastructure, we would also say they are "non-state" actors and give a rousing speech about how we are also victims and how it is it in the interest of both countries to sort the mess out :P
5) It is time we drop the so called "Gujral Doctrine" and restart covert operations in Pakistani territory, it is a point to note that we did have some capability before, and the Baluchis have always had a soft corner for India, The Bugti who was assassinated this year by the Pakistan army was probably the most secular voice in Pakistan, we need to make sure we have some assets inside Pakistan and that would also give us the moral high point that we are showing restraint against the civilian government of Pakistan but at the same time protecting our strategic interests.
6) Its time we understand the problem of religious extremism be it of the SIMI kind or the VHP kind, we need to rise and condemn both forms. Also, lets not give stupid theories about poverty and oppression. If poverty was the reason, then the misguided Muslim youth should have joined the Maoists not the jihadis. Take this example, say india has 100 people, out of which say 60% is below poverty line, this means approximately 10 muslim and 45 non muslim youth are below poverty line, not well educated, not having good access to governance, so how does it so happen that relatively less numbers of the non muslim groups end up in religious extremism of the kind perpetuated by Muslim extremism? The root cause is not poverty or education as the recent arrests have indicated, even highly educated youth are getting attracted to this wrong idea of Islam propagated by the Mullahs of certain organizations. Islam stands for peace, and India allows any Muslim to practice Islam without any interference, and I think the only solution that will bring peace should and can come only from the Mullahs. They can only save India, they need to declare that Jihad against India is not permissible.
7) We would sure see some remarkable improvement in governance now, some politicians have behaved in a more admirable manner in the past week, so lets hope we achieve our ends without having to go to war, which is not in the interest of any one. I would like to appeal to the people of Pakistan that no Indian dislikes them, but yes, they can not afford to be in denial, extremism and militant Islam would not help them also in any case, I hope they wake up sooner than later and save the Islamic Republic Of Pakistan from stagnation and destruction. Do they really believe that their Qaid-e- Azam formed Pakistan for what it is today?
8) War need not be fought with fighter planes and Tanks, lets fight it, but in a more subtle way, lets strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan and hit at the extremists.
Would the saber win or would sober have the honors of the day?:)
Saturday, December 6, 2008
At Cross Roads - An analysis
The gruesome act is over, now is time for introspection.
1) The Middle Class cares about governance?
Seems the Indian elite has suddenly woken up, one wonders why? Did it need an audacious attack of the scale of mumbai to make the middle and upper class in India to demand effective and efficient governance? The thing is that , we could not afford to outsource security of public places to private players. Well am still not a leftist, bit the fact is that, when the Indian state failed to provide quality education, we created good private schools paid for them or sent our kids to foreign lands, when the Indian state divided the seats in colleges on the basis of caste, we still found a way out, the rich and to an extent the upper middle class just sent kids to USA. Similarly when the Indian state failed to provide effective health care, we just created Apollo's and Care hospitals, our private sector created such good hospitals that India is looked at as a medical tourism destination showcasing world class health care at effective cost :)
The question is can we do the same to security? Can we allow Black water for India? Can we afford licensing automatics to citizens, well the answer is "NO" not at any cost, we can not afford that. We have no option but the Indian state to provide us security, and that's why even the private sector is out on the street, lighting candles and demanding governance :) We suddenly realise, the way be bribed bureaucrats in the past is the bane of security in a way..our "chalta hai" attitude has resulted in this mess, will this turn the winds and create good governance in India or will this also fade out? Only time has the answer, but lets hope for the best :P
2) Do we have an alternative for the Politician?
Yes, India's politicians are pathetic, indefensible, arrogant even treacherous at times and seems like suddenly the Indian middle class is fed up of it, but then one begs to ask the question, what are the other options? The worst years India ever had as a nation and civil society , are the years or emergency. So we know democracy is precious, don't we? The most important thing that makes me bow to Indian Armed forces in respect is that , no general has ever cast his eye on the Raisana Hill, thankfully, we never had a general with dictatorial tendencies, that's a blessing my fellow Indians, be proud of it. We sure don't need a general, we have seen all over Asia and South America what military rule does. I agree that Indian society has its problems, systemic deficiencies, the politics thrives on vote banks, but we can not afford to ditch the system, as Churchill once put it, Democracy is the worst system of governance, but the best among all other forms that have been tried :)
Please go ahead and vote in and vote out every time there is election, change the system by being in the system, else there is no difference between us and the Naxals, they are as harmful as terrorists, aren't they?
3) The Muslim Question:
Today is the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, I am ashamed that some right wing militants brought down the mosque, I am a Hindu but i condemn the act, whatever the controversy and provocation be. I sincerely hope that we rise above our historical religious bias and solve this issue once and for all.
But I see that the Indian Muslim is suddenly defensive, the Bakrid will be low key this time, but then we don't need them to sub due celebrations, we do understand that we have a fifth column in the Mumbai underworld and in the form of some misguided Muslim youth, but just that in no sense of the word makes all Muslims unpatriotic. Our Muslim brothers need not have to prove their patriotism for India, after all India has has a Muslim chief of Army staff, we should not make them prove themselves everyday, I trust my country men to the hilt, before being a Muslim, they are INDIANS.
But I have a plea, yes Babri was bad, Yes, the Mumbai Riots was a crime, Yes Godhra was state sponsored terrorism, at the minimum for the failure of state to not protect the minority community, but please, can we get over it? After so many years of Babri demolition, do we need to give a chance to terrorists to avenge it? How many deaths would avenge it? Lets move on, Lets pray for a better tomorrow, and in this context i remember the below lyrics:
Yeh Mandir hi woh Butkhana,
chahe ye mano ya woh mano,
Matlab to hi dil to Samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano...
4) Is Indian security tormenting minorities?
For once lets understand this in the context of bringing down insurgencies and terrorism. I do not think India has been targeting based on religion. When "Sikh" insurgency was at its peak, KPS Gill and company fought fire with fire, We used TADA and at that time also there were instances of human rights violations and misuse of TADA by the civil rights groups, so this is one instance of tougher laws involving random pickings and allegations of torture in some instances.
When naxalism was at its peak in Bengal, we did put down the predominantly "Hindu" naxals with an Iron fist, we had to detain people at times, may be Indian state gave some officers the license to kill also. So is the case in Manipur against the "Hindu" Insurgents where we have the AFSPA in force, there are violations and instances where the state is really tough.
In Nagaland, where the insurgency is lead by predominantly "christian" groups, the same allegations have been alleged time and again.
The point I am trying to make is, in the interest of nation building some times states do cross their line and transgress in to the civil liberties domain, we should vehemently oppose such transgressions but also give space to the security services to keep the house, nation in this case united. The unfortunate thing is terrorists have no constitution and no penal code to follow the processes. Human Rights group should understand this and then protest.
All in all, the Muslims are not the only ones who can allege such transgressions of civil liberties, when i go through American airports, i am pulled over for routine checks at least 30% of the times, but i don't feel bad, those guys are just doing their jobs. I understand some people are put to more hassles and it is irritation.
We need to stop playing victims at every instance, and some times try to have an inward analysis of situation and times we live in.
5) Would solving Kashmir solve everything?
In the Western media, the idea seems to be that solve Kashmir and everything will be rosy in the subcontinent. I don't quite agree with this whole assessment, the problem is that, militant Islam in the subcontinent has its eyes fixed on a larger area. Any research would prove that groups like Lashkar, Jaish, even the Al Qaida, want to establish an Islamic Caliphate, re group and have the flag of Islam flying over all lost lands, meaning, you give them Kashmir, they would want Hyderabad, Junagadh, Red fort, whole of India, and if agencies are to be believed , it ranges from Europe, to even northern tip of Australia. So its foolish to believe that solving Kashmir would solve this for ever, that is not possible, only solution is the Mullahs have to preach the real Quran, preach peace, because that's what true Islam stands for.
6) India's Options:
India should not and can not go to war, diplomacy should be exhausted first. I hope politicians wake up now and give us better governance, and internal security, then if everything else related to external diplomacy fails, we might use a limited option of either covert operations or air strikes.
Lets hope peace prevails and we don't need to get to that point:)
My country should be blessed by Ram, Allah, Jesus and Moses, cause we believe in all of them, none of them can afford to fail us :) Amen!
1) The Middle Class cares about governance?
Seems the Indian elite has suddenly woken up, one wonders why? Did it need an audacious attack of the scale of mumbai to make the middle and upper class in India to demand effective and efficient governance? The thing is that , we could not afford to outsource security of public places to private players. Well am still not a leftist, bit the fact is that, when the Indian state failed to provide quality education, we created good private schools paid for them or sent our kids to foreign lands, when the Indian state divided the seats in colleges on the basis of caste, we still found a way out, the rich and to an extent the upper middle class just sent kids to USA. Similarly when the Indian state failed to provide effective health care, we just created Apollo's and Care hospitals, our private sector created such good hospitals that India is looked at as a medical tourism destination showcasing world class health care at effective cost :)
The question is can we do the same to security? Can we allow Black water for India? Can we afford licensing automatics to citizens, well the answer is "NO" not at any cost, we can not afford that. We have no option but the Indian state to provide us security, and that's why even the private sector is out on the street, lighting candles and demanding governance :) We suddenly realise, the way be bribed bureaucrats in the past is the bane of security in a way..our "chalta hai" attitude has resulted in this mess, will this turn the winds and create good governance in India or will this also fade out? Only time has the answer, but lets hope for the best :P
2) Do we have an alternative for the Politician?
Yes, India's politicians are pathetic, indefensible, arrogant even treacherous at times and seems like suddenly the Indian middle class is fed up of it, but then one begs to ask the question, what are the other options? The worst years India ever had as a nation and civil society , are the years or emergency. So we know democracy is precious, don't we? The most important thing that makes me bow to Indian Armed forces in respect is that , no general has ever cast his eye on the Raisana Hill, thankfully, we never had a general with dictatorial tendencies, that's a blessing my fellow Indians, be proud of it. We sure don't need a general, we have seen all over Asia and South America what military rule does. I agree that Indian society has its problems, systemic deficiencies, the politics thrives on vote banks, but we can not afford to ditch the system, as Churchill once put it, Democracy is the worst system of governance, but the best among all other forms that have been tried :)
Please go ahead and vote in and vote out every time there is election, change the system by being in the system, else there is no difference between us and the Naxals, they are as harmful as terrorists, aren't they?
3) The Muslim Question:
Today is the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, I am ashamed that some right wing militants brought down the mosque, I am a Hindu but i condemn the act, whatever the controversy and provocation be. I sincerely hope that we rise above our historical religious bias and solve this issue once and for all.
But I see that the Indian Muslim is suddenly defensive, the Bakrid will be low key this time, but then we don't need them to sub due celebrations, we do understand that we have a fifth column in the Mumbai underworld and in the form of some misguided Muslim youth, but just that in no sense of the word makes all Muslims unpatriotic. Our Muslim brothers need not have to prove their patriotism for India, after all India has has a Muslim chief of Army staff, we should not make them prove themselves everyday, I trust my country men to the hilt, before being a Muslim, they are INDIANS.
But I have a plea, yes Babri was bad, Yes, the Mumbai Riots was a crime, Yes Godhra was state sponsored terrorism, at the minimum for the failure of state to not protect the minority community, but please, can we get over it? After so many years of Babri demolition, do we need to give a chance to terrorists to avenge it? How many deaths would avenge it? Lets move on, Lets pray for a better tomorrow, and in this context i remember the below lyrics:
Yeh Mandir hi woh Butkhana,
chahe ye mano ya woh mano,
Matlab to hi dil to Samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano...
4) Is Indian security tormenting minorities?
For once lets understand this in the context of bringing down insurgencies and terrorism. I do not think India has been targeting based on religion. When "Sikh" insurgency was at its peak, KPS Gill and company fought fire with fire, We used TADA and at that time also there were instances of human rights violations and misuse of TADA by the civil rights groups, so this is one instance of tougher laws involving random pickings and allegations of torture in some instances.
When naxalism was at its peak in Bengal, we did put down the predominantly "Hindu" naxals with an Iron fist, we had to detain people at times, may be Indian state gave some officers the license to kill also. So is the case in Manipur against the "Hindu" Insurgents where we have the AFSPA in force, there are violations and instances where the state is really tough.
In Nagaland, where the insurgency is lead by predominantly "christian" groups, the same allegations have been alleged time and again.
The point I am trying to make is, in the interest of nation building some times states do cross their line and transgress in to the civil liberties domain, we should vehemently oppose such transgressions but also give space to the security services to keep the house, nation in this case united. The unfortunate thing is terrorists have no constitution and no penal code to follow the processes. Human Rights group should understand this and then protest.
All in all, the Muslims are not the only ones who can allege such transgressions of civil liberties, when i go through American airports, i am pulled over for routine checks at least 30% of the times, but i don't feel bad, those guys are just doing their jobs. I understand some people are put to more hassles and it is irritation.
We need to stop playing victims at every instance, and some times try to have an inward analysis of situation and times we live in.
5) Would solving Kashmir solve everything?
In the Western media, the idea seems to be that solve Kashmir and everything will be rosy in the subcontinent. I don't quite agree with this whole assessment, the problem is that, militant Islam in the subcontinent has its eyes fixed on a larger area. Any research would prove that groups like Lashkar, Jaish, even the Al Qaida, want to establish an Islamic Caliphate, re group and have the flag of Islam flying over all lost lands, meaning, you give them Kashmir, they would want Hyderabad, Junagadh, Red fort, whole of India, and if agencies are to be believed , it ranges from Europe, to even northern tip of Australia. So its foolish to believe that solving Kashmir would solve this for ever, that is not possible, only solution is the Mullahs have to preach the real Quran, preach peace, because that's what true Islam stands for.
6) India's Options:
India should not and can not go to war, diplomacy should be exhausted first. I hope politicians wake up now and give us better governance, and internal security, then if everything else related to external diplomacy fails, we might use a limited option of either covert operations or air strikes.
Lets hope peace prevails and we don't need to get to that point:)
My country should be blessed by Ram, Allah, Jesus and Moses, cause we believe in all of them, none of them can afford to fail us :) Amen!
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