[Mahajanapada] Condemn Ahmedabad and Bangalore Serial Bomb Blasts!

[In the meanwhile, it remains a great mystery how some twenty bombs, all
mercifully unexploded, got planted in different places, including trees, in
the city of Surat (in south Gujarat) and who tipped off the police?]

I/lll.

*RESOLUTION*



This convention against draconian laws organised by Asha Parivar, INSAF,
NCDHR, FDI, SAHR APDP (J & K Manipur forward youth front, Civil Liberties
Monitoring Committee Hyderabad and Reach out condemns the serial bomb blasts
at Bangalore and Ahmedabad.



In any civilised democratic society killing of innocents, women and
children, whatever the demands and politics should be condemned. We condemn
the barbaric acts of killing, maiming and sexual assaults in all forms of
conflicts.



It should be noted that the serial bomb blasts will further vitiate the
already communally charged atmosphere of Gujarat.



The country is yet to overcome the shock and trauma of the ghastly
state-sponsored communal carnage in Gujarat in year 2002, which is one of
the blackest spots in Post-Independence India.



Garhwal Bhawan

New Delhi
Date : 27/7/2008

II.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072950010800.htm

*Serial blasts: Don't blame the government alone *

**
*Rasheeda Bhagat *

------------------------------
*

No government can measure up when it comes to detecting terror plots and
sub-plots with adequate time to spare to prevent their coming to fruition.
They desperately need the help of citizens to tip them off. And it is here
that a vigilant Muslim community can help, says RASHEEDA BHAGAT.

The horrendous serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, which killed
46 in Gujarat's commercial capital and two in the IT capital of India, and
triggered a wave of panic across the country, deserve condemnation in the
strongest possible terms.

As expected, political innuendos have been tossed across from both sides of
the political divide — the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
Government in Delhi and BJP leaders of various hues — as both the targeted
States are ruled by the saffron party. The BJP leadership has once again
made a pitch for the revival of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), and some
disparate, though subdued, voices have come from the Congress camp about how
crime management is a State subject.

Watching heart-rending scenes of the destruction of lives, the misery and
pain caused to families of the dead and the injured and the realisation that
in such an atmosphere of terror nobody can be safe in any part of the
country, has also evoked public anger. "India has become a soft State; we
should learn how to deal with terrorism from the US and the UK", and other
similar sentiments can be heard from angry Indians sending theirs response
to television channels and the print media.

That in Ahmedabad the terrorists had targeted two hospitals — a place where
those already in disease, pain and suffering come for succour — only shows
the new depths to which terrorist organisations have plunged in their
dubious attempt to get 'justice' for whatever cause they might claim to
propound. The very sight of doctors and other medical staff, patients and
visitors — some of them children — getting battered and bruised in these
attacks will result in these fanatics losing the slightest bit of sympathy
that anybody might have for their cause.

Terrorist always one step ahead

Over the last 48 hours, a lot of lung power has been spent on what the
government, security agencies, etc can do to prevent such serial blasts. But
many voices have also conceded that the terrorist always has the advantage
and is always one step ahead… he gets to choose when or where to strike,
particularly in a heavily populated country such as India with its limited
resources in stuff like surveillance cameras and other sophisticated
equipment required to monitor the movement of people in crowded areas such
as malls, theatres, railway and bus stations and places of worship.

India is not the only country where terror strikes with such deadly
precision and frequency; most parts of the world have become vulnerable to
the warped thinking of sick minds. But, in more ways than one, India is a
country that needs to become ruthless in dealing with such acts because more
than any other country, it has had an ugly history of communal polarisation.


It is a country that was partitioned on the basis of religion and the
ugliest face of this communal poison was revealed at the time of Partition.
The baggage of that ugliness and poison has been carried through 60 long
years on either side of the divide, and has found a voice in the acrimony
and anguish ingrained in the Kashmir dispute.

Hence, when terrorists strike, and organisations such as the Indian
Mujahideen send out lengthy and triumphant e-mails not only claiming
responsibility but justifying their dastardly acts in the name of the Quran,
there is always fear of a backlash. Needless to say, when such mayhem is let
loose — lives are lost, property destroyed, children orphaned, women widowed
— the pressure is felt much more among Indian Muslims. How can they help not
feel ashamed? Whether Jaipur, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi or Ahmedabad, the
signature is evident; it was the work of terrorists who are Muslim and who
claim to be waging a jihad for causes that don't deserve to be spelt out.
That is because no cause, however just, can be served by killing innocent
people.

But over the last few times serial blasts were carried out — all of them in
BJP-ruled States — Muslim leaders at the local level have been quick to
condemn the bomb blasts. What gives hope is that increasingly Indian Muslims
are disowning such terrorists claiming to wage a jihad in the name of Islam.


And so we are hearing lines such as "these are not Muslims; Islam does not
preach violence; these people will burn in hell as they are stealing parents
from children or bread winners from families."

Prof Bandukwala from Surat, himself a victim of the 2002 Gujarat riots,
appeared on a television channel on Sunday, armed with suras from the Quran,
which clearly spelt out how Allah has assigned hell for those who take the
lives of innocent people.

He was trying to give more such examples but, of course, the anchor had no
time for such stuff, and quickly moved on to the politicians and corporate
honchos lined up on the show. But an important point that he made, and which
has been endorsed by Muslims cutting across various organisations, is that
Islam has no place for such acts of terrorism; "we do not recognise these
people as Muslims", he said.

Muslims have to do more

It was indeed good to hear such strident voices. But the Indian Muslims
will have to do more. Mere condemnation is not going to help prevent such
crimes.

They will have to go a step ahead and help the authorities to weed out such
poisonous weeds from their community. Let's face it; no government can
measure up when it comes to detecting terror plots and sub-plots with
adequate time to spare to prevent their coming to fruition. They desperately
need the help of citizens to tip them off. And it is here that a vigilant
Muslim community can help.

I cannot believe that somebody can get sucked into the cause of terrorists
without those around him — family, friends, neighbours, etc — not getting a
whiff of the changes that are bound to be discernible.

To remain silent spectators when something is brewing in the mind of a
friend or a relative is also a crime. One concedes that it is an extremely
difficult task to report the suspicious behaviour/activities of somebody
close to you. But look at it this way… by tipping off the authorities you
will be able to help that person in the long term. For instance, how many
parents would want to see their child ending up in splintered pieces as a
suicide bomber?

Fortunately, and one certainly hopes so, most often it will not have to be
such an acid test. Suspicious movement by some youth in your neighbourhood;
purchase of stuff that goes into the making of a bomb — crude or
sophisticated — such as gelatine sticks, also need to be reported.

Close and intense co-operation from the community is absolutely vital for
detecting such terror plots before they can explode into death and
destruction.

Bitter though it might be, the fact remains that if Muslim youth are going
to be involved in such misguided terror missions in the name of jihad, then
the odds are that their friends, associates or relatives from the
Muslimcommunity are likely to get the first signal.

On its side, the investigative agencies will also have to address the just
grievance of the Muslim community, that they will not use such information
to unnecessarily harass and torture people under the guise of investigation.
Let's not forget, trust begets trust and there is no substitute to justice
and fair play.

Another challenge before the Indian Muslims is to ensure that their young
get quality education; it is here that the leadership will have to rise to
the occasion. Education brings not only good jobs but also enlightenment and
the capacity to reason and see through designs aimed at exploitation. But,
sadly enough, this is one commodity that is grossly lacking in the Indian
Muslim community.

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)
*

III.
http://www.sabrang.com/edchoice/jyotirmaya29july08.htm


13 July 2005

*India should not become like Israel, beyond repair and utterly vulnerable*

by Jyotirmaya Sharma

THE blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad once again would generate a largely
futile debate about the internal security scenario in India. Political
parties will fling charges of incompetence and ineffectiveness at each
other. Calls to revive draconian laws such as POTA will grow louder. Very
few voices will dare suggest that beyond questions of administration and
policing lie larger issues of politics. And beyond the arena of politics are
issues of whether we are any longer capable of living together in peace as
civilised people. The BJP has always advocated special laws in order to
tackle terrorist acts, a demand that loses its legitimacy at the very
threshold of its ideological stand on minorities, and more so its recent
record in a state like Gujarat. Administrative and police reforms make sense
only when they go hand in hand with political and electoral reforms.
Generating hysteria about the state of India's internal security often is a
way for arguing that we become a surveillance state, more or less on the
lines of Israel, a country that the Sangh Parivar greatly admires. Neurosis
of the kind that Israel harbours leads to mindlessness of a high order, as
was evident last May during my trip to that country.

*Israel *

The El Al security staff at Mumbai airport were not only suspicious of my
beard and less than comforting looks, but also were greatly concerned about
the fact that I was going to make a " presentation" at the Hebrew
University
of Jerusalem without a computer or any slides or charts or graphs to show. I
did not even have a pen drive in my possession to prove that I was indeed
going to give a lecture at a university in Israel, for which I had a
bonafide invitation. Worse still, the stamp of my visa, which read, "
Invited by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem" was not good enough for the
national carrier of that state. The security officer, then, proceeded to ask
me why I taught political philosophy, and I was asked to give a small "
presentation" on what I understood by political philosophy. Further,
having
noticed a copy each of my recent books in my hand luggage, the security
officer proceeded to ask me what these books contained. I tried to give a
gist of what they said. On hearing me, she asked, " Are you a Hindu?"
I said
I was a Hindu. " Why do you, then, write against Hinduism?" When I
refused
to answer such inane questions, she demanded that I present before her a
gist of the paper I was going to present at the conference in Jerusalem. Had
I agreed to do so, it would have made some sense to her because I write
about contemporary India. But what if I was a scholar of Panini's grammar or
of the philosophy of Bhartrihari? This wasn't enough. She demanded to know
why I had recently switched from being a journalist and gone back to being
an academic. None of this has a bearing on whether I was a potential
terrorist or whether my tract on Hindutva was good enough, in itself, to
blow an aircraft in mid- air. But the hysteria about security, which feeds
on stereotypes, is also about proforma driven mindlessness. As I tried to
contend with the security officer, who happened to be Indian, I wondered
whether she might also be a sympathiser of the Shiv Sena or the BJP. Working
for the Israeli national carrier and her own political affiliations,
perhaps, had come to a happy and diabolical synthesis.

*Price*

In Israel itself, the suffocating preoccupation with security is alarming
for someone who still manages to live in relative freedom, where one does
not have to go through innumerable checks of identity and person to enter a
university or a restaurant. The surveillance and security mechanism in that
country is today independent of the democratic process and feeds on
systematic brutalisation of everyone alike who refuses to participate in the
Zionist nationalist vision. One has to go not too far from Jerusalem to see
what the Israeli state has done in the name of security and demography to
the many villages scattered in South Hebron. In this instance, the Israeli
state has actually legitimised the Jewish settlers in Palestinian
territories to oppress and dehumanise an entire population, the more
malignant version of our own Salwa Judum. Of course, none of this helps in
the long run. There is nothing one can do to prevent a suicide bomber from
carrying out an attack and every bit of the oppressive security mechanism
comes tumbling down with every such instance of gratuitous violence. The
residual effect of this endless preoccupation with guns, closecircuit
cameras, X- ray machines and identity cards is the creation of a Humpty
Dumpty state and society, utterly vulnerable and beyond repair. Once such a
state is created, the silent and disapproving majority goes into sullen
silence and seldom questions the ways in which a democratic state argues in
the name of saving human lives and protecting its citizens. This silence is
the victory of the state as well as the terrorist. Caught between the two
are ordinary human lives, insecure and vulnerable, and ready at all times to
surrender liberties in the name of preserving the fundamental unit of
existence, life itself.

*Fear*

On the flight back from Israel, the scene at the airport was no different.
But the security officer, a lady, was less aggressive and less self-
righteous. She too asked me questions about the conference paper I had given
in Jerusalem as well as the lectures I had delivered elsewhere. The joy of
returning home made me summarise for her a talk I had given at the Haifa
University. I told her that there was a man called Gandhi in India. He was
of the opinion that fear leads to force. But the initial application of
force, if it is not legitimate and ethical, leads to greater fear. Greater
fear, in turn, leads to reliance on greater force. It is a spiral that has
no end and leads to destruction, brutalisation and annihilation. The
security officer was a bright young girl. She smiled and let me go. The
message had hit the target. Of course, I did not have the heart to tell her
that I was carrying with me vivid memories of witnessing a brutal police
reaction in South Hebron to a joint Israeli- Palestinian peace
demonstration, and also had in my much searched and X- rayed bag, a
documentary about the moral bankruptcy of the Israeli state, that was far
more explosive than anything they could have found in the bag of a potential
terrorist. What I could not tell her was that I live in mortal fear of my
own country turning out this way.

The author is professor of politics at University of Hyderabad