Mumbai Attacks: The Blame Game

In the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, internet is replete with views on why India has often been the target of the Islamic terrorism. And one of the most oft repeated mantra has been that the oppression of Muslims and the plight of Kashmiris have been the casus-belli for the 26/11 and for all other atrocities preceding this terrible tragedy. This argument has been accentuated not only by apologists of Islam, but also by other moderate Muslims and Hindus alike. When it comes to oppression of Muslims in India, the statistics that Muslims are under-represented in every field actually justifies the case of the critics. But such an under-representation of Muslims has been often been ascribed to the hegemony of the Hindu majority as opposed to their own non-reformist principles.

On this politically correct backdrop the fact that has been blissfully ignored is that the Hindus as an Indian majority, have always celebrated and even eulogized the achievements of Muslims in many fields. Take the case of Bollywood and the likes of Shar Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and my personal favourite Amir Khan, have always enjoyed similar success and even in some cases more than that of their Hindu counter parts, which couldn't have been possible if not for the fanfare of the Hindu majority. Mohammad Rafi is considered as one of the most melodious singer India has been blessed with and he enjoyed the same success to that of his contemporary, Kishore Kumar. Naushad, the veteran music director and A.R.Rehman, the most influential musician of our times, are both Muslims and they have always enjoyed special place in the hearts of the Indians. Let alone Indian Muslims, even the Pakistani musicians such as Adnan Sami have been heartily welcomed and celebrated by the Hindus. The Indian classical musicians, such as Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Zakir Khan and his father Ustad Allah Rakha, the great Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Parween Sultana have always enthralled the audiences with their soothing music and they always occupied similar place to that of their Hindu musicians such as Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Pt.Hari Prasad Chaurasia.

Of the 41 Bharat Ratna recipients, the highest civilian award conferred to Indians, five of six have been awarded to the Indian Muslims and the other one went to the Pakistani national, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi. Moreover, three of the Indian Presidents- Dr. Zakir Hussain, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam, have been Muslims. Infact, Dr.Abdul Kalam has been voted the most loved president of India in a CNN poll, which would not have been possible if not for the love of majority Hindus. And finally, the Muslims have rarely been discriminated on their religious grounds in Cricket, the nations most loved sport. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Md.Azharuddin have captained India, let alone playing for the country and the contributions of Zaheer Khan, Yusuf and Irfan Pathan have been greatly appreciated by the Indian cricket lovers. From the above, we can say that Indian Muslims cannot be seen as oppressed, at least not to the level as portrayed by these critics. India firmly disagreed on George Bush's war on Iraq and a resolution was passed unanimously condemning the action of coalition forces and refused to allow the US to use its military bases and this has been barely mentioned by these critics nor has been seen as good gesture by the Islamic militant groups. And this resolution was adopted when the BJP led NDA government, considered as a communal Hindu party, was in power.
It is a common knowledge the militants groups such as JeM, LeT and Al-Qaeda have Pan-Islamic agenda, and Kashmir and Palestine are their trump cards. When it comes Kashmir, in my personal opinion, they still should be given an option for a plebiscite according the UN Mandate but a 60% turn-out to the local assembly elections, rejecting and sometimes even braving the calls of separatists, is an ample proof of their affinity towards democratic India.

And the reason why India has been often targeted is because it is a soft target, as I discussed in my previous article, thanks to our bickering and toothless politicians, who could not the address the internal security of this country despite several attacks.

And when it comes to oppression, in my view the dalits are more oppressed than the Muslims and as a Hindu I acknowledge the problem with our caste system which I strongly opposed in my one of my previous article: India needs a real change. It is time that Muslims take some responsibility for their backwardness and start addressing them and stop playing the victim.

A Slap In The Face

The memories of mayhem are indelible and the wounds of carnage are still fresh. The Mumbai attacks have re-ignited the nationalism that has been dormant since our independence and justifiably, the failure to prevent this massacre was swiftly shouldered on to our cosy politicians and never in the Indian political history are the politicians so vehemently vilified. This attack has slapped every thinking Indian on their faces, a strong gesture to wake up from the complacency and apathy and confront the stark reality of the dysfunctional and dangerous world that we are living in. The slap sobered up the drunken state that we are in and reminded us of the true colours of our lackadaisical and hopeless politicians. The slap was so resounding that we frantically started searching for answers for the thorny questions that we should have posed decades earlier. Sixty years after independence, the voter for the first time realized that he shot himself in the foot.

To give the fair share of credit to the politicians, could they have done any better? No government however efficient they may be cannot fully prevent a terrorist attack and 9/11, 7/7 and Madrid train bombings are few examples. But, there hasn’t been attacks on this scale since these happened in the west because the Western democracies have made the homeland security their national priority, and the key word here is PRIORITIZE. Where as in the case of India, some politicians can hardly spell the word let alone action it. While some of rabble-rouser politicians are busy prioritizing trivial communal issues for their narrow gains, a percentage of them have other priorities such as preparing to fight the impending criminal convictions that are pending in the higher courts. Shamefully, six of our politicians, the so-called MPs from hell (Shahbuddin, Pappu Yadav, Surajbhan Singh, Atique Ahmad, Afzal Ansari and Umakant Yadav) are serving jail sentences for crimes ranging from kidnapping to murder and they have other priorities as we can see. The Congress party’s priority since time immemorial has been to make sure that Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s bloodline continues to lead the party and where as BJP’s priority has been to play to the tunes of the majority Hindu vote-bank .On the other hand all other parties’ sole agenda has been to make hay when the sun shines. In a nutshell our politicians cannot and did not get the priorities right.

The Indian poor is still precariously clinging to the poverty line by the barest of threads and on the other hand our judicial system is crumbling with overloaded cases that are decades old. A decent health system is virtually non-functional and beyond the reach of a common man and the police institution corrupt with thier infrastructure dilapidated and archaic. While the political system is rotten to its core, the internal security is in such a despicable state that terrorists can create havoc at their will and yet our bickering politicians have managed to prioritize none of the above. Thanks to the Mumbai attacks, the dissatisfaction among Indians has now reached overwhelming levels and it has now over flown in the form of anger and disgust against the politicians. This change is a welcome sign, a change which is long overdue. This is a slap in the faces of our imbecile politicians who for so long were in a long slumber, completely oblivious to the problems around them.

However, it would be a mistake of biblical proportions if we as citizens of India abdicate our moral responsibility for these attacks as we are to an extent accountable as any politician is. The politicians are what they are because of our vote. Like the turkeys voting for Christmas, we have voted for our politicians and we will have to bear the consequences. Moreover, the anger and frustration of the public against politicos that is so positively and frequently reiterated in the media is another positive change and the longer they manage to keep the wounds fresh the better, as this keeps our politicians under intense pressure. But amidst the fervour and jingoism, we are missing something here. The voices of change in the governance that we are frequently hearing in the aftermath of the attacks are the voices of the educated, english speaking working class which although a considerable representation, is not significant enough to bring about change in the political setup of India. More than sixty percent of Indian population live in villages, most of them unprivileged and socially deprived of the comforts we otherwise take it for granted, for whom terrorism is relatively insignificant compared to the penuries and hardship they face everyday , and their voices haven’t been heard at all amidst this turmoil. It is in fact their share of votes that actually plays a major role in deciding the fate of our country and our opportunist politicians have 60 years of experience and expertise in taking full advantage of their situation. Until, we do not succeed in bringing about a change and uplift this under privileged class, any noteworthy change in our political setup, would be a distant dream. Such an upliftment of our poor is only possible by a diligent, conscientious and visionary political governance and this is where we have the chicken and the egg problem.

It wouldn’t help to be pessimistic in these difficult times, but on an optimistic note, I have to admit that we have made a decent start. But we need to keep the crank shaft moving until it catches enough momentum so as to bring about a change we have been aspiring for so long or else we would not do be doing any justice to the innocent lives that were lost in one of the most heart-breaking tragedies ever witnessed on the Indian soil.