The silence
The attacks in Mumbai the last week have been unprecedented and stunning. I got an email forward from a friend with the statement purportedly sent by those responsible ("Deccan Mujahideen") which talked about justice for Indian Muslims. I think the best explanation of this nonsensical idea is conveyed by John Oliver on The Daily Show (video below).
The irony is that a sensible perspective comes from a comedy show in a distant land. Of course, Jon Stewart is an anomaly even in the US, a fact that he indirectly refers to in the beginning of this video.
Of course, I was one of the millions who watched the news channels and felt sick about the senselessness of the attacks and the people they killed. But I also had incredible trouble watching the news channels, for not only the gore that they showed but also for the narrow mindedness and stupidity of the news media. What kind of idiot will show the positions of the commandos on live television? It was outrageous! Do these guys have any braincells? Or they just so pumped up on adrenalin and are such parasites that they will do _anything_ for getting something unique aka exclusive. At that point, I turned off the TV, though I did sporadically turn it on to be up to date on the happenings.
I was also disgusted at the amount of time spent on the missing journalist. Nearly 200 people are dead but they spend so much time on this one person just because she is a journalist? Where the fuck is the 'humility' that is supposed to be 'Indian Culture'?
I just read a very sensible perspective written by Gnani Sankaran here. But people like him seem to be quite scarce. He even questions the logic behind three top cops traveling together in the same vehicle. I would actually go further and say that people like the head of the ATS should not have been moving around with terrorists on the loose. I thought it was really stupid of Mr Hemant Karkare. Brave perhaps but stupid, nonetheless.
In the midst of all this, we had Mr Advani talking about the need for stricter laws to control terrorism. If that is his solution, I wonder in which India he lives in. Stricter laws have never been a deterrent for crime anywhere in the world and least of all in India. If that were the case, dowry deaths would be non-existent by this time. Untouchability would have been a thing of the past. His unimaginative and primitive mind can only think of draconian laws that will inevitably be used to harass the minorities and the powerless. As John Oliver says in the above video, "when you're a bankrupt ideology pursuing a bankrupt strategy, the only move you've got is the dick one."
The violence is finally over but the consequences of their actions and the possibilities scare me.
2 comments:
Apurva,
Calling Karkare stupid is insulting. The ATS team probably underestimated the type of weapons terrorists were carrying. It could be a fatal error in judgment.
--shashi
His error in judgement cost him his life and a psychological blow to the country.
I am not calling him stupid but his action stupid. He was probably an honest cop and I applaud him for his (later) actions in the Malegaon case. But as head of an important organisation, I still maintain it was stupid of him to have gotten into the thick of the action. He was not a soldier and his presence and experience at the head of the operations would have been important and vital, instead of heading into the encounter. The news channel showed him putting on a bullet-proof vest. I don't know whether it was a show or whether he actually headed into site of the encounter but it is clear that he was ambushed and could have been avoided if he had kept his cool and left the fighting to the soldiers/policemen.
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