A Conspiracy of Silence – by Arindam Banerji
Thursday, October 30 2003 19:30 Hrs (IST)
“At the Sagar Juice Centre in Zaveri Bazaar, nobody noticed the unlucky passenger squeezing inside
the taxi outside, nobody noticed the man shopping for shoes nearby. Not until the taxi exploded seconds
later around 1 p.m. …The savage impact of the bomb — the sixth and most ruthless blast since last
December — ripped apart the passenger. As for the man in the shop, his head had rolled out on to
Dhunji Street…As the city staggered through the sickeningly familiar motions of a red alert and the
Gateway of India was strewn with congealed blood, peanuts for pigeon-feed, and shoes. Back in Zaveri
Bazaar, body parts were flung everywhere as car windshields and jewellery showrooms shattered noisily,
far away from the juice centre where two employees lay dead”- Indian Express, Aug 25, 2003
And then, the silence slowly descended. Nothing happened - the few show-case marches tapered off
quickly. We all went back to work. Business as usual – till the next macabre act kills dozens of us. This is
not new to us or even different from the last time. It happens every few weeks.
We do nothing about it and we are confident in our knowledge that our government will definitely
not do anything about it. After all, this happens to other people – not us.
India under siege of terror
While some mis-informed souls are celebrating a one-sided thaw with Pakistan, India is currently under
siege.
You heard me right – India is under siege. In fact, as Nayar puts it – knowing the facts have changed the
opinions of even some of the most ardent left-wing leaders. Quoting him from the Telegraph:
“The likes of Laloo who make common cause with Pakistanis have either not noticed or deliberately
chosen to ignore some significant developments in Calcutta and Thiruvananthapuram. Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee handled the home portfoilo for four years before becoming West Bengal's chief minister in
November 2000. Bhattacharjee and Kerala's A.K. Antony are now staunch proponents of steps aimed at
defending India against the threat of low intensity destabilization from abroad.
So much so that the commitment of these two men to the security and territorial integrity of India
sometimes comes into conflict with the narrow, short-sighted vote bank politics of their respective
parties. Why, even the late Indrajit Gupta was a changed man after serving, albeit briefly, as Union
home minister, during which time he was exposed to the true nature of India under siege”.
While the daily dance of death in Kashmir and North East states rarely draws any attention anymore,
just consider the significance and breadth of terrorism related news from the last six weeks:
- First we hear about revival of terrorism in Punjab: "Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services
Intelligence) has been making attempts to revive militancy in Punjab," Minister of State for Home Affairs
Swami Chinmayanand said in a written reply to a question in Parliament. – HT, July 30, 2003.
- Next, Pakistani media discloses the thousands of terrorists being trained: Pakistan's
noted weekly Friday Times …highlighted the claim of several terrorist publications of having recruited
more than 7,000 youths from various parts of Pakistan. The most high-profile outfits -- Lashker-e-Taiba,
Jaish-e-Mohammed -- claim to have recruited more than 3,350 and 2,200 youths respectively.- HT, July
27, 2003.
- Basic infrastructure like national highways get shut down for the first time: “Terrorists
blew off an important bridge of the strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway at Lawdoora village, in Anantnag
district, on Tuesday disrupting traffic. Police sources in Srinagar said the highway has been closed
following the blast. The highway is the only link between the valley and rest of the country and all
supplies, troop movement and support for the security forces are ferried through this road. This is the
first time in 14 years of militancy that ultras have been able to snap the highway”. – Sept 02,
rediff.com
- Drug mafia is being hustled to take up big-time terrorism: “ISI officials about a fortnight
prior the blasts held a meeting in Karachi …where gangster Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakil were
also present. The ISI officials, led by a brigadier-rank officer, lashed out at Dawood for having become
a "useless man" who thrived on living in that country on official patronage. Dawood and Chhota Shakil
were told in clear terms by their patrons in Pakistan that they must reactivate their network in India to
plan big attacks to prove their worth of being the official guests in Pakistan”. Sify news, sept 02,
2003.
- Pakistani terrorists are regularly caught/killed in the capital, UP and HP: “With the killing
of two militants of Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and the arrest of five others, including two
from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, Delhi Police claimed to have virtually destroyed a module of the outfit
planning "some spectacular strikes" in the capital and Mumbai. The two militants have been identified as
Ateeq and Hanif, who were arrested from Secunderabad area of the district in Uttar Pradesh. Six remote
control devices and Rs 86,000 cash was seized from them”.- Times News Network, Aug 31, 2003.
- Ethnic cleansing continues unabated, unnoticed: “During the past three weeks, on an
average, 10 families from Uarnal, Sarbangi, Sumber Upper, Sumber Lower, Jwari, Chachwa and
Thatraka, the militant-ridden heights of the mountainous region, have fled daily, and there is no protest
or sympathy from any quarter. Posters had sprung up overnight in the name of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
(Chenab division) asking the villagers to migrate and abandon their homes. And the houses of those
who ignored the diktat, have been torched. The populace, mostly below the poverty line, have had little
choice”. – Hindu, Aug 10
- New foot-soldiers for the balkanization effort: “Pakistani military commanders and the ISI
have been indulging in a covert operation to separate Jammu and Kashmir in the North, create a Muslim
majority state in the North-East and carve out another state on the same lines in the South, the BSF
officer said. The BSF officer said by engineering mass scale infiltration of Bangladeshis into Assam in
the Northeast, the ISI appears to have managed a foothold in that region. …The interrogations, he said,
also revealed that the Southern Peninsula has been the target of the ISI for fomenting trouble in this
part of India. Cadres of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)… were in fact being trained
clandestinely by ISI operatives with the aim of launching subversive strikes in the country. "They have
been indoctrinated to such an extent that now they are talking about balkanising India by carrying out
large scale terrorist strikes," he said.- sify, Aug 28, 03
- Huge Financial scams of many hundred crores, to weaken confidence in accepted
institutions: “As the multi-pronged probe by police as well as media into the mind-boggling fake
stamp paper scam is picking up pace, it is believed that the main accused, Abdul Karim Telgi, has strong
back-up for his operations from the notorious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan's Inter-
Services Intelligence (ISI)” – NDTV, Sept 11, 2003
Thousands are killed in Kashmir and hundreds in the North East, every single year for decades now; in
the last 9 months we’ve had 6 blasts in the financial capital of India, regular arrests, attacks and
encounters throughout North-western and western India. Intelligence agencies have told rediff, that
Hyderabad and Bangalore are next on the hit list. Srinagar was boldly attacked by Pakistani-backed
terrorists, while our PM, Dept. PM and all chief ministers were holding a confab.
Remember, its not that Pakistan has tried to fool us about its terror war – to the contrary, even through
this recent peace initiative, Pakistan has, through its initiatives and statements, been very consistent
about what it’s bottom line is, namely:
All peace proposals must follow the pattern of India gives and Pakistan takes territory, with at least
Kashmir valley going immediately to Pakistan, and Pakistan retaining the option to later annex Indian
head-waters and/or all of J&K
Kashmir even if resolved, may not mean end to the Pakistani terror mayhem on Indian women and
children – based on Gen. Aziz’s recent pronouncements, and Musharraf’s on-record statements.
Trade means full access for Pakistan to Indian markets, but no reciprocation from the Pakistani side and
further, no direct access to the Afghan market through Pakistan
Raising money to kill Indians, military training for violent terrorists and exacerbating India’s existing
communal divides are openly supported and will continue to be encouraged within Pakistan
Pakistan has made its intent very clear through the 300 odd terrorist attacks in J&K in the month of
August alone. As G. Parthasarthy, ex-ambassador to Pakistan, tells us
“A close associate of General Musharraf bluntly remarked that if India believed that it could ignore
differences with Pakistan and move ahead economically, his country would have no difficulty in taking
steps to retard Indian economic progress…A few years ago a former Director-General of the ISI
remarked to me that Pakistan would see to it that jihad in Kashmir would draw support from Muslims all
across India. This was in response to an assertion by me that Muslims in India were proud of the secular
ethos of their country”. But, apparently, the message is not getting across.
Our Wagah candle-burners, JNU jholawallahs and sundry “Overseas Friends of ISI” will have
you believe that this unending, escalating mayhem on Indian women, children and strategic interests, is
just a harmless demonstration of Pakistan’s peaceful intent towards India.
It is not Pakistan, but we Indians, who are lulling our selves, into this silence and inaction. The problem is
that we have taught Pakistan, that in spite of its outrageously poor conduct, Indians will treat Pakistanis
like lottery winners.
Teaching Bad Behavior
A few days ago, our conscientious high-and-mighties were all a-titter – it seems 13-year old Munir, had
illegally crossed over from Pakistan and had since been kept, in the safe hands of Rajasthan police.
Munir had to be returned forthwith, they claimed and hence the national hullabaloo. As BBC puts it:
“The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has filed a writ petition in the high court of Rajasthan
seeking Munir's repatriation. The group has also asked that Munir be moved from the police station into
a friendly environment until a decision to send him back is taken. … Kuldip Nayar, a rights activist and
member of parliament, said he would take up Munir's case with the Indian Government”.
Quietly sidelined simultaneously, was the plight of 9-year old Nazia. A couple of Pakistani braves
entered the home of Nazia’s father, Nisar Hussain of Khabala, in the Rajouri Hills region. Unable to find
him, these jihadi terrorists demonstrated their reckless courage and daring, by bashing in the head of
little Nazia with a rifle-butt. Nazia died that night.
Sure, the news appeared in a few papers, but the matter ended there. Nary a murmur was raised by our
conscience-keepers – 9-year old Nazia was just not a worthy enough cause, to deserve their concern.
So, Nazia died unsung and unremembered.
This wicked contrast is not an isolated incident; happens every other day and in every aspect of India-
Pakistan interaction. Read on:
1. Khalid Mehmood desperately crosses the border to get the heart of his 8 year old son repaired in
Bangalore, (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030723/170/4rlyn.html)
while his generous brethren respond by shooting a little girl Mahajeebana (or Juhi)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=84911
Of course, most journalists were too busy taking pictures of Khalid Mehmood and his son, to notice that
Juhi lay near death.
Same thing happened with the Pakistani child Noor – on one hand, Noor was receiving life-saving
treatment in India, while on the other hand, Pakistanis setup a bomb in a school-bus, grievously injuring
5 school-girls. What kind of human beings setup bombs inside a school bus anyway?
2. Pakistani cricketer, Shahid Afridi’s terrorist first cousin, a local commander for the Harkat-ul-
Ansar, was killed by the BSF in an encounter in Kashmir. So, while BCCI is canvassing for increased
cricket with Pakistan and by implication, proposing to bail out the now bankrupt Pakistani Cricket Board,
close relatives of Pakistani cricketers are busily killing Indians. In fact, if we refill the coffers of the
Pakistani cricket and cricketers through our advertising money, there’s a good chance some of it will find
its way back to India – as bullets into the heads of Indians!! And, Jayaditya Gupta writing in IE,
authoritatively gloats “Let's get one thing clear at the very beginning: India and Pakistan should play
each other in cricket and the sooner the better”.
3. Bangalore Rotarians held a large fund-raiser to pay for the free treatment of Pakistanis in India, while
the same week, an imam in Karachi openly announced to the press that he’d just finished recruiting 300
men to go kill Indians in Kashmir. Elsewhere , NYTimes reports that, “Last Friday afternoon at the
Red Mosque in the center of Islamabad, the nation's capital, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the former head of
Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, delivered a sermon to hundreds of worshippers as police officers lounged
outside… After he spoke, members of a new group collected money from worshippers. Asked what the
money was for, two members of the group said jihad in Kashmir…”
4. After dithering around for years, Pakistan decided to indefinitely shelve plans for bestowing MFN
status to India – after all, India had given this moderate privilege to Pakistan years ago. Nonetheless,
India decided to go ahead and hold a “made in Pakistan” exhibition to show-case Pakistani products in
India and facilitate market access for these products.
On Sept 13, twelve Pakistani businessmen jubilantly entered India along with their spouses, hoping to
realize “unexplored economic potential”. Of course, at about the same time, Pakistani terrorists were
chopping off limbs and beheading Shabir and Bagh Hussain Gujjar, two school teachers from Fatehpur
village. A day before, Abdul Hamid Ganai, a shopkeeper from Arampora, buried his young daughter,
Rehana Hamid, killed by Pakistani terrorists, while she was on her way to take her college political
science exams. Fair trade huh!! Yeah – tell that to 2-year old Saddam, who was shot along with his
family, for being an informer.
5. We were determined to show our thanks to the Pakistanis, for the killing of Karam Veer (14) and
Harpreet (13) at Vaishno Devi, while also seriously injuring Jyoti(10), Kamlesh (14), Sumeet (10
months), Ajay (14), Sureshta (15), Naresh (16) and quite a few other Indian children; so, within hours of
the incident, our leaders gratefully declared that the Indian government would pay for the treatment of
20 Pakistani children.
The Pakistani thanks for this offer came quickly. The very next day Ashraf Jehangir Qazi at the recently
concluded ISI-Kashmir Conference, fully justified of the killings of children, thus: "Keeping its stand on
the issue of Kashmir intact, Pakistan has contended that the attacks on civilians and security forces in
Jammu and Kashmir is the result of a "freedom struggle" against state terrorism." - HT (remember this
talk was given about 48 hours after the killings).
All this must be very comforting to the parents of Karam Veer (13) and Harpreet (14) who died at the
roadside kitchen on the way to Vaishno Devi.
The fact of the matter is that we accept poor behavior and rationalize it. Our desire to appease Pakistani
terrorists and adhere to some grotesque distortion of political correctness, runs so deep that most of us
have turned Nazia’s death and the daily butchery of innocent Indian civilians into irrelevant collateral
damage.
Peace with Pakistan has now come to be defined as – Indians nurse Pakistanis back to health, provide
them access to our huge markets, make available cheap cement and drugs to help along the Pakistani
economy, while the Pakistanis keep up their daily quota of dead Indian children and civilians.
Every week, Indian parents have to scrape the bodies of their children off the streets or receive bullet-
riddled bodies in body-bags, thanks to the Pakistanis; and, every week, Indian doctors fix the holes in
the hearts of Pakistani children and adults and send them safely back to their parents in Pakistan.
No, stopping medical access to Pakistani kids is not the answer, but I’m sorry – the current quid pro quo
does not work for India; just as it did not work for Nazia, Juhi, Karam Veer or Harpreet. And it should not
work for you and me, either.
Weakening our resolve
It was a tear-jerker all right, but not for the reasons you expect. Here’s how it happened.
Most of the week of September 1, our army and BSF were fighting and getting killed by terrorists, well
supplied by the Pakistani army, in Kathua. On Saturday morning, terrorists trained and funded by the
Pakistani army, used a car-bomb to kill 8 Indians. Almost every day that week, Pakistani-army minions
carried out horrific acts on Indians. On Friday, two women of Surankote hills were abducted, tortured
brutally, had their limbs and private parts chopped off, before finally, being killed. On Thursday, Ghulam
Ahmed of Sanglani, had his arms and legs chopped off, before being beheaded.
Yet, on Saturday, filmi pretty-face Urmila Matondkar, basking in the glow of cameras declared “I feel
so close to the people in Pakistan”. Teary-eyed Urmila handed over a bouquet of flowers to
Pakistani rangers and threw scalding water on anti-Pakistani feelings.
Strange happening indeed – since, in most countries, movie-stars tend to hug and kiss the soldiers of
their own country – you know, those who are protecting the lives of their citizens; typically they avoid
exhibiting the same behavior to soldiers of armies that are maniacally butchering their citizens.
The issue in the end is not what some deluded film-star decides to do at the Wagah border. Rather it is
a question of the message that is sent, when an Indian celebrity decides to molly-cuddle members of a
terrorist army, all in the explosive view of cameras. Think of the BSF and army men who are putting their
lives on the line, and dying regularly in the process, just to protect the very freedom that Ms. Matondkar
so abused. What goes on in the minds of these young men at the front-lines, when they see such a
nauseating act? Then again, put yourself in the shoes of BSF jawan Balbir Singh’s mother, who just
received the bullet-ridden body of her son, brought back to her in a body-bag, thanks to the very same
“bouquet-receiving” organization.
One thing was certainly achieved – it reduced the value of their sacrifice; reduced the value of their
lives.
Days after the blasts, on September 5, a TOI view point article openly declared
“The men — and also some women — who plotted the gruesome tragedies were not foreign
operatives taking their cues from a command centre located in Pakistan”.
This article was published, even though we already knew the following:
Moin Khan, an ex-army engineer and now ISI had quite possibly helped assemble the bomb
B. Raman, an international expert on terrorism, KPS Gill, India’s leading expert on handling terrorists
and the investigating police all claimed that the blasts had the hallmarks of ISI support
About 100 detonators were found in a railway tunnel near Nasik, just before a passenger train full of
Hindu pilgrims was supposed to pass by – not a sign of revenge attack, but much more of a communally-
divisive act of terror.
Rediff reported that the police “believe that Hanif (the main accused) received instructions from an
outfit in Saudi Arabia, which in turn was commanded by an outfit in Pakistan”.
All this information was available in mass media, before September 5. Sure, the foot-soldiers were
Indian, but the bomb creation, the planning, the brain-washing and the funding, all came from Pakistani
sources. Yet the author, in his cunningly worded view point, chose to suggest the absence of Pakistani
connections. He’s not alone in this shrewd slinging of words – Pankaj Mishra of the “blame
Chittisinghpora on India fame”, does pretty much the same in NYTimes. But, the question is why?
The result of all this conniving shadow-boxing by the media and celebrities, is the slow and steady
dissipation of the resolve to take action; the outrage in the people against the perpetrators ebbs and
disappears. “Apna hee fault hai yaar” takes over – outrage postponed, silence restored.
As Swapan Dasgupta puts it “In a democracy, politicians can only act within the framework of public
opinion. In India, there is nothing resembling the outrage that was felt in the US after 9/11.
Consequently, the political class has refused to go beyond fire-fighting”.
Our silence, results in Government apathy. These editorial writers and celebrities
understand this quite well.
Regularly, these days you’ll find venerated columnists and news-writers, use singular personal
experiences to downplay reality and statistical data. Numerous junket-eers to Lahore, excited over the
free samosas and nimbu-pani, have decided to forgive the weakly score of dead Indians,
the 40,000 butchered in the last decade, the fact that every section of Pakistani society is involved in
this mayhem and regular country-wide fund-raising drives for the purpose of killing Indians are openly
encouraged in Pakistan. A classic attempt at letting personal experiences over-ride reality:
“In fact, Hindi films have also played a role in projecting this exaggerated image. ..many Pakistanis
you speak to ask why Hindi films continue to project Pakistanis as villains and murderers. "The only
Pakistani you see in a Hindi film is a bad Pakistani," a driver said. "Why do you rake up so much hatred
for us? We are ordinary people like you, we like the same music, the same food. Our Governments
might fight but why should Hindi films, which could be a uniting factor between us, project all of us as
bad?" – Kalpana Sharma, Hindu
Notice, that the author subtly insinuates two false generalizations – first, that Hindi movies depict
Pakistanis in poor light and that both governments are equally responsible for the mayhem. All based on
a small set of personal experiences. Such logic borders on lunacy and would have been akin to saying
“I met a Nazi, who smiled at me and doffed his hat, hence, all Nazis are good and of course, both
Jews and Nazis were responsible for the holocaust and in any case, since Nazis are good people, we
should simply ignore the human cost of the holocaust”. Doesn’t pass the smell test, right - but if you
repeat the nonsense about “climate of peace, climate of peace” enough times, maybe Indians
will feel guilty about raising their voice against the ghastly daily body count. That’s what they are
counting on.
But, who loses due to these wily machinations? Children like Savita Yadav who lost both her parents in
the Mumbai blasts, do. As IE described it:
“What does a 15-year-old do when she loses both parents within minutes of each other? What does
she do when her younger siblings—the youngest four years old—look to her for answers? Savita Yadav
has been forced by circumstances to grow up overnight. ‘‘I’m scared to face the future,’’ she says,
sobbing like the child she was till yesterday. ‘‘How will I raise my brothers and sisters?’’.- Aug 26,
2003
Nazia and Savita deserve better than this.
Who will break this silence?
Let us be clear about one thing – No, I’m NOT suggesting that we start bashing in the heads of little
Pakistani school-girls or shut-off medical access to their children. That would make us Pakistanis. But,
silence is not an option, either.
The Government’s silence is beginning to have unforeseen consequences. Having now seen the daily
Pakistani carnage against our women, children and neighbors go unpunished for a decade, our
populace has slowly but surely hardened. It has become convenient to blame the RSS/VHP for this
hardening of attitudes, but that argument misses the point. RSS/VHP have been around for years, but,
now it is the nature of India, that has changed. Indians are angry and sadly, they’re redirecting some of
their anger.
Unfortunately, this means, any group with a gripe and a half now knows, that it will for the most part go
unpunished if it resorts to vigilante justice. Yes, the silence of the government and its tendency towards
excessive diplomacy, is beginning to sour on Indians. Expect a lot more Pakistani blood-money to flow
into this crease.
Our individual silence, on the other hand - yours and mine, also has a cost. Our government does not
have to do anything, because we ourselves have never demanded any action. Today it is Savita Yadav,
Nazia, Karam Veer, Rehana and the 5 school girls from Bandipora who’re paying for our silence.
Tomorrow, it could be much closer to home.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
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