Page 10
COMMENT
Pak must follow up
on the ban on JuD
THE UN Security Council must be com-
mended for imposing sanctions on Jamaat-
ud Dawa (JuD), the organisation that
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) morphed into
after it was banned in 2002. And the Pak-
istan government deserves credit for act-
ing on the sanctions and promptly banning
the organisation. The international sanc-
tions will grant the Pakistan government
legitimacy to crack down on the militant
outfits functioning under the guise of JuD
without being seen as giving in to pressure
from India.
Pakistan must now ensure that the ban
achieves the objective of dismantling ter-
rorist infrastructure. It served no purpose
when LeT was banned in 2002, as JuD
emerged as the charity front under whose
patronage Pakistani terrorists continued
their agenda. Hafiz Mohammed Saeed,
the head of JuD and one of the four people
the UN has imposed sanctions on for plot-
ting the Mumbai attack, denied any link-
age between the Lashkar and the Jamaat.
US officials, on the other hand, say that
Saeed is still the overall leader of Lashkar.
India and the international community
will have to closely monitor the concrete
steps Pakistan now takes and sustain the
pressure on its government. The civilian
government also needs international sup-
port to check elements from within the
Army and the ISI undermining its author-
ity. Since the proxy terror organisations
have been created by the ISI, there would
surely be attempts to go soft on them or
to let them branch out under some other
name. The first thing Pakistan needs to
ensure is to cut all sources of funds to
JuD, seize their weapons and snap the
supply line of weapons in the future.
With growing international pressure and
UN sanctions, the time is ripe for the civil-
ian government to weed out the problem
that has also been its bane of late. The
action will have popular support if imple-
mented with the message that it is the
right move for Pakistan to make. The civil-
ian government must convince people that
the reputation of Pakistan is at stake and
the country cannot survive if the entire
international community turns its back on
it. Also, India is terribly hurt and angry. It
would not be satisfied with mere cosmetic
gestures. The perpetrators of the massacre
in Mumbai and other terror incidents
should be brought to justice and care must
be taken to ensure that such horrors are
not repeated anywhere in the world. The
world has spoken; now Pakistan needs to
show that it can act decisively.
Too young for it
EVEN as grown-ups vicariously experi-
enced horror and fear through the live cov-
erage of the Mumbai attacks, they seem to
have overlooked the impact that images of
blood, gunfire and explosions could have
on young impressionable minds. But a cou-
ple of weeks on, reports say many children
have found it difficult to come to terms
with the horrific events of late November,
showing grave signs of anxiety, aloofness
and even aggression. Psychiatrists say
many may show no outward signs of dis-
turbance but could harbour trauma inside
their minds. This could have a lasting
impact on their personality and world view.
Let’s be clear on one simple fact: notwith-
standing what Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi might think — he wants ter-
ror education included in school curricula
— knowledge of terrorism is not like sex
education that needs to be imparted to chil-
dren to help them cope with life. It’s obvi-
ously not possible to keep children
cocooned when bombs are going off in the
city but the exposure can be regulated.
Guardians must limit the access children
have to television at such times. Second,
they must try and explain the events with-
out traumatising children or filling them
with hate, thereby helping them overcome
their fears and apprehensions through
counselling, even professional if necessary.
The phenomenon also provides another
reason why media companies must work
out a code for coverage of unusual happen-
ings. They have been right to turn down the
government’s directive about what must be
broadcast and what is a no-no for that
impinges on their right to report on events.
But one reason why the government gets a
pretext to get proactive on the issue is that
media companies have not sat together and
hammered out the do’s and don’ts of such
broadcast. Let the attacks change that.
Mail Today, Friday, December 12, 2008
Cut specious
logic on terror
T
HERE are a lot of
very, very angry
Muslims in India,
The economic dis-
parities are star-
tling, and India has
been very slow to publicly
embrace its rising Muslim
problem. You cannot put lip-
stick on this pig.” That was
Christine Fair, senior political
scientist and a South Asia
expert at the RAND Corpora-
tion offering insta-advice on
the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
This was printed on Nov 27th
in the International Herald
Tribune as the terrorist
attacks were going on and
even before the identity of the
terrorists was known.
It was not just Christine Fair who
had such sound bytes. Maria Mishra
wrote in the Times, “The extreme
poverty of many Muslims in India,
whose status, according to a recent
report, was below that of the
‘Untouchable’ caste of Hindus, has
increased frustration.” This untouch-
ables meme was carried forward by
Asra Q. Nomani in an oped in Los
Angeles Times. Appearing on Larry
King, Deepak Chopra declared, “We
cannot, if we do not appease and
actually recruit the help of this Mus-
lim world, we’re going to have a prob- ering Yasser Arafat with various
lem on our hands.”
As per these experts, poverty of
by Nehru/Gandhi awards, and keeping
away from Iraq did not differentiate
Indian Muslims, the institutional dis-
crimination and lack of appeasement Jayakrishnan us from the Americans, British, and
Israelis. Also, as terrorists sprayed
caused terrorists belonging to
Laskhar-e-Taiba to take a boat from
Karachi, land in Mumbai, and shoot
Nair bullets at CST and Metro Cinema,
they did not exclude Muslims for
whose cause they claimed they were
indiscriminately at Indians and West- fighting.
erners in railway stations, five star people of India” and All India In an interview with a TV station,
hotels, and hospitals. Majlis- e -Ittehadul Muslimeen two Mumbai terrorists mentioned
The second category of experts had which means All India Council of Gujarat and Babri Masjid, among a
the Hindu right to blame. If only the United Muslims. list of other events against which they
Gujarat riots and demolition of Babri Muslim sensitivities have played an were reacting. Though they were try-
Masjid had not happened, such ill important role in Indian foreign pol- ing to sound like Indians, these ter-
fate would not have fallen on India, icy since Independence to the Iraq rorists were not desperate Indian
they claimed. Most prominent war. A profound example is the rela- Muslims, but members of a Pakistani
among them was Martha Nussbaum, tionship with Israel. In 1947 Albert terrorist group banned by India and
who wrote in an oped in Los Angeles
Einstein, who had declined an offer United States. In a letter sent to the
Times about the Gujarat riots and to be Israel's President, wrote a letter media, the terrorists stated they
the attacks on Christian churches to the Prime Minister designate of were avenging the atrocities commit-
skilfully ignoring other violent inci- India, Jawaharlal Nehru, asking for ted by Hindus against the Muslims
dents in India like the rampage of the support in establishing a Jewish since 1947, much before Babri Masjid
Congress party on Sikhs following
Indira Gandhi's assassination or the
Naxalite terrorism rampant in many
state. Nehru wrote back saying that
he was aware of the Jewish suffering,
but did not like the idea of building a
and Gujarat, and would stop only
after each incident had been
accounted for.
states. nation on Palestinian land. He also
These two theories fail to convinc-
ingly explain the Mumbai attacks:
wrote that due to the large Muslim
minority and the support required Reality
why did the terrorists murder Amer- from Arab and Muslim states in the
icans, Britons, and Israelis? They fight against Pakistan, he could not To understand why any future
Deepak Chopra style appeasement
also ignore the elephant in the room support Israel.
— the stated goals of Lashkar-e- will fail against such terrorists, one
Since the start of the Iraq war, there
Taiba. There is, hence, a need to bal- has to look at “Ideologies of South
was pressure on India to send troops.
ance these by certain obvious points The war, which was unpopular in
Asian Jihadi Groups,” written by
which have been left out during the India, was unanimously deplored by Husain Haqqani, the current Pak-
sound byte generation. the Lok Sabha. Still President Bush istani Ambassador to the United
States. The section on Laskar- e -
spoke to Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Taiba lists United States, Israel and
Omissions Vajpayee about how much he would
“love to have Indian troops in Iraq.” India as enemies of Islam and their
The nation, as well as the ruling NDA goal for jihad is to “to eliminate evil
The image, presented by both and facilitate conversion to and
these categories of commentators, administration, was divided on this
issue but after a Cabinet Committee practice of Islam.” They would like
is of an India resembling the Europe to wrest control of not just a small
of the Crusades while it is so far on Security meeting in July 2003,
India rejected the American request. part of India, but “All of India,
from the truth. The great Indian including Kashmir, Hyderabad,
middle class is approximately 300 In his statement, India's Foreign
Minister Yashwant Sinha mentioned Assam, Nepal, Burma, Bihar and
million strong, which means that Junagadh”, since they were all part
about 700 million Indians are not “our concern for the people of Iraq,
our long-standing ties with the gulf of the Muslim empire.
doing so well. The entire Muslim While India is not involved in Iraq, it
population in India is around 150 region as a whole” for staying away.
million and so the oft repeated In short, India did not want to be is actively involved in Afghanistan,
seen as an occupational force among not as an occupier, but as a partner
claim that Muslims alone are not financing irrigation projects in
getting the share of India's prosper- Muslim nations.
Northwest Afghanistan, power proj-
ity does not stand. ects in Herat and Kabul and building
India, the land of contradictions,
mocks generalisations. It is the
Motive roads like the one connecting
Delaram on the Kandahar-Herat
country where Azim Premji can be As the dead bodies were being highway to Zaranj near the Iranian
one of the richest people, Shah cleared from the Taj, Nariman House
Rukh Khan, one of the highest paid
border. The name of an intelligence
and CST, it became evident that sup- service which would be upset by the
actors, and A. R. Rahman, the most porting the Palestinian cause, show-
loss of strategic depth in Afghanistan
sought after music composer. It is
due to Indian presence is left as an
also the country where Dr. A. P. J
exercise to the reader.
Abdul Kalam, who was responsible
for India's missile programme and
the 1998 nuclear tests, can become
YOUR OPINION This is a war against India by a
brutal enemy with a nefarious goal
the President of India. These people
are never mentioned because it
upsets pet theories.
MATTERS
www.mailtoday.in
— one which Christine Fair, Maria
Mishra, Asra Q. Nomani and Martha
Nussbaum have not emphasised in
their articles. As for Deepak Chopra,
The coalition government that is
in power in Delhi currently consists we only hope that he writes a book
You could also SMS us your thicker than Why Is God Laughing?
of two Muslim parties — the Indian
Union Muslim League, a party
opinion by typing MTO <space> so that we can use it to deflect bul-
your full name <space> your opin- lets during the next terrorist attack.
formed “with an object of achieving
the constitutional rights of Mus- ion and sending it to 52424 The writer is an engineer living in
lims, other backward and minority the US. He blogs at varnam.org