Face the Truth. Review on Mumbai Blasts 2006

What I write out here might not be unacceptable to some people. But I am going to state it, because that’s my nature. I am a tough, no nonsense, straight to the point person. And I think its time we call a spade a spade. We have suffered enough calling a spade a shovel. These are my views on terrorism, and yes I am willing to get into a debate with any one.

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

Too often I hear statements from some bleeding heart liberals, about how Subash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh are also terrorists. Please get your history right folks. Bose raised an army and took on the mighty British empire, though he never received any help from the Germans or Japanese. Bhagat Singh and his comrades attacked only the British policemen and officers. The revolutionaries only targeted the men responsible for the outrages commited. Udham Singh only shot dead Gen Dwyer in retaliation against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, he did not go around blowing up buses and trains in England. These men never harmed any innocent civilians, don’t degrade them by comparing them with a bunch of goons, who have no qualms in blowing up trains, buildings, buses. Terrorists are not freedom fighters, for that matter they have no ideology, they are vicious killers, simple and straight. Stop indulging in vote bank politics.

For too long, our political leaders have been content to indulge in the most bigoted backward looking Muslim leaders who have no credibility within their own community itself. They assume that doing so would deliver Muslim votes en bloc to them. Such specious assumptions insult the Muslim community itself. The Muslims need people who can solve their problems like educational backwardness and poverty. Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan went around with an Osama Bin Laden look alike hoping to get Muslim votes. When did they assume that all Muslims idolize Osama? If they wanted to project a Muslim icon, there was Abdul Kalam, Azim Premji, Dilip Kumar, all respected Muslims, and revered by the community, didn’t they find some one better than Osama. No wonder both Laloo and Paswan were roundly rejected by the electorate. Its time our political leaders understand the fact that Muslims are ordinary citizens like any one else, and their desires are similar to that of any other Indian.

Kick out all the Bangladeshi immigrants.

The illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are one of the biggest security threats. This is not the view of RSS or VHP or Bajrang Dal, this was stated by the Marxist Govt in West Bengal. If Bangladesh cant manage it’s people properly, why should we bear that headache. It’s a bitter truth, that many of these immigrants have provided support to terrorists. We don’t need them here, let them go back to Bangladesh or whichever country they want to. India is not a dharmashala to accommodate every one.

A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist.

Would you call a gangster as a person indulging in illegal activities not permitted by the law? A rapist as a person who tries to satisfy his sexual frustration in an illegal way? Or a corrupt person as some one who is trying to make money underhand? So why don’t we call a terrorist as a terrorist. Why use terms like militant or extremist? I mean when you have a problem you need to clearly define the problem. Using nice terms, is good for publicity but will never solve the problem. Maybe these people need to look up the Oxford Dictionary for difference between an extremist and terrorist. Extremists are people who have a hard core view of an issue, and they don’t always use the gun to ram their point, you can have verbal extremists like Arundhati Roy for instance. Terrorists are people who believe in terrorizing people to achieve their aim and that makes them criminals straight and simple.

Human rights are for people who are human.

And taking on from above point, you use the term human rights for people who are human. You can apply human rights to some one who murders in a fit of anger or passion. You can apply human rights to some one who steals out of hunger or poverty. But people who plan and kill innocent people are not human in my view. They are worse than animals, and such people deserve to be shot dead on the spot. What use is it conducting long trials for people who have no remorse of their actions? Do you seriously think you can change the mindset of people who have been indoctrinated with visions of paradise or martyrdom? Folks, issue is not Iraq, or Palestine or Kashmir, these terrorists care a damn about them, their vision is simple, a world of one religion, which even fellow Muslims would find it difficult to live. Before you go on breast beating about human rights of terrorists, please think of all those innocent lives lost for no fault of theirs.

Understand the root causes of terrorism.

Again a very noble but utopian idea. It would take years and years to do so. And by the time some one does find it, I doubt if any people would be left there. Yes you are going to triumph about finding the root cause, and then what. With whom are you going to share it, the grave yard, the relatives of people who have lost their lives? Yes we need to have a longer term understanding, but for heavens sake that doesn’t mean we give up the fight. Some one threatens you with a knife are you going to fight him or ponder about why he is taking up the knife against you. Anyway the root causes of terrorism are obvious to any one, the nations which actively support the terror networks. But I guess our sole super power is busy fighting wars elsewhere.

Take no Prisoners.

I never supported the US’s unilateral, blundering war on terrorism. Nor am I a supporter of cowboy Bush. But have we all noticed one thing, after 9/11, there has not been a single terrorist attack again on US soil. In contrast India which boasts about it’s non aligned and Third World leadership, has had its Parliament, its holy temples, its commercial hub, its premier scientific research institute attacked. Osama and the Al Qaeda keep making noises about attacks on US, but in the 5 years after Sept 11, not a single major terrorist attack occurred. Because they know that if they do so, the US will come after them hard. Uncle Sam doesn’t care about public opinion, and he will whack them straight. We have a better army, better thinking heads than US, yet the terrorists strike with impunity against us, because they know we have a political leadership that has neither the character nor courage nor vision to stand up. We need a Rudi Guiliani who rallied New York City during the dark days of Sept 11, we unfortunately are saddled with a Shivraj Patil who only reads from a prepared speech. We need a Putin who went after the Chechen terrorists no holds barred, we only have aged leaders who cant even hold themselves properly. We desperately need a young dynamic leadership, not this bunch of old fogies. We need a Winston Churchill not a feeble Neville Chamberlain, who made peace with the Nazis.