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Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s piece entitled ??????? ????????? ???????? ????, ???? ???????? ?????????????? ??????? that appeared in Kannada Prabha on 23 February, 2013.
Image Courtesy: Kannada Prabha
2 May, 2011
Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was flushed out by the United States and gunned down. Not only did the US extract its revenge, it didn’t cremate Laden’s body—it simply chucked his dead body in the sea. Predictably, everybody did expect Al Qaida to take their revenge against America in turn. Al Qaida didn’t disappoint them: on 6 May, Al Qaida uttered words of revenge and bravado on its website after confirming that its leader, Bin Laden was indeed dead. So did Pakistan’s rogue Tehrik-e-Taliban. An atmosphere of fear and anxiety prevailed. Even non-Americans were nervously confident that Al Qaida wouldn’t sit still.
Almost two years have passed since this incident. How many terror attacks have happened on American oil?
Forget the situation after Bin Laden’s death. Tell me, how many terror attacks have happened, how many terrorist bombs have exploded inside America after Sep 11, 2011? Give me just one instance. Who has emerged victorious, who has proved stronger—the murderous hands of Al Qaida and Tehrik-e-Taliban or the protective hands of the US Government?
But what has happened back home?
On 21 November 2012, Ajmal Kasab, one of the 26/11 terrorists was hanged to death. On 9 February 2013, Afzal Guru, one of the masterminds of the Parliament Attack too, was hanged to death. Barely 14 days had elapsed, the Indian Mujahidin blew up a bus in Hyderabad killing 14 people and injured about 119. How was the Indian Mujahidin able to strike so swiftly and avenge the death of these hanged terrorists? It seems the Intelligence Bureau had prior information. It seems the IB had already alerted the Hyderabad police. Despite this, how did this carnage happen? Who do we need to blame here? The hands that executed the terror attack, or the hands that are responsible for protecting us, the hands of this impotent Government?
What did the United States do after 9/11?
When 3000 Americans died in 2001, the then US President, George Bush declared that “the most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our No. 1 priority and we will not rest until we find him.” And on 7 October, 2001, barely a month after the attack, he officially launched war against Taliban. Simultaneously, he fortified US borders. Also, by the time the Taliban was demolished and an interim Government installed in Afghanistan, the US set up the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which later became the National Counter Terrorism Cente (NCTC) by law in 2004. The NCTC included about 20 agencies including the CIA and the FBI. The reason Al Qaida and Tehrik have failed to carry out their 6 May, 2011 threat is because of the efforts of the NCTC. Forget bombing or attacking the US, these terror outfits have been unable to even touch a single American citizen anywhere in the world. However, this doesn’t mean such attempts haven’t been made—either outside or within the US. About 50 such terror attempts have been made but they’ve all been nipped right at the planning stage.
BUT…
How has the Manmohan Singh Government behaved since Mumbai was attacked on 26/11/2008? If the former Union Minister A.R Antulay blamed the Sangh Parivar for 26/11, the then Home Minister Chidambaram spoke about “Saffron terror” keeping a steadfast political eye on the Malegaon blasts. That’s not all. Ajmal Kasab’s capture fully exposed the sinister role of Pakistan behind 26/11. Despite this, a fundamentalist named S.M. Mushrif wrote a book titled Who Killed Karkare in which he tried to pin the blame for 26/11 on the Sangh Parivar. Guess who graced the book release? Congress party’s General Secretary, the pathetic Digvijay Singh.
What do you think this man, who is the direction-giver and conscience-keeper of Congress party’s Vice President Rahul Gandhi, has been doing all along?
The Mumbai attack happened on 26/11/2008. About two months prior, that is on 19 September, 2008, a police encounter occurred in Batla House at Jamia Nagar, New Delhi. Two terrorists, Atif Amin and Mohammad Sajid died in the encounter while two others, Mohammad Saif and Jishaan escaped. The police began their operation based on confirmed information that Atif Amin, an IM commander was staying on rent at Batla House. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, known as an encounter specialist and a decorated officer (he’d won 7 gallantry medals) died in this episode. Yet, what did Digvijay Singh do? Instead of mourning this brave officer’s death, instead of visiting his family and assuring them of his support and condolence, the eminence of Digvijay Singh visited Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh from where the terrorists hailed. He met the terrorists’ families and consoled them. If that was not enough, he declared that the police had staged a fake encounter. As if on cue, our self-styled intellectuals and sickularists peddled a fiction which ran as follows: Mohan Chand Sharma was killed because of intra-departmental rivalry and that his own team members shot him from behind. They further hollered for an inquiry from the National Human Rights Commission. Finally, the NHRC did conduct an investigation and gave (surprise!) a clean chit to the police. It also dismissed the false allegation that Sharma was shot from behind by his own colleagues.
DESPITE THIS…
When Uttar Pradesh polls were announced in February—March 2012, this selfsame Digvijay Singh crawled out of the woodwork with yet another bout of Muslim appeasement. He repeated again, the fiction that the Batla House encounter was fake. Not just that. He went on to add that the Prime Minister also supported his fake encounter fiction!
And then we have the Samajwadi Party, which thrives on Muslim appeasement. One of the first things that Mullah Mulayam Singh’s son, the present UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav did was to withdraw cases against all those terrorists imprisoned in Azamgarh on the charge of the Batla House conspiracy. Additionally, he has withdrawn cases against all those imprisoned in the serial blasts against the CRPF in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, and Faizabad in 2007. Thus, when the Government itself tells the court not to proceed with cases which have already been chargesheeted, what message does this send to the police force, which is tasked to maintain law and order? What does this do to their morale? What does this tell the police who have risked their lives—and in many cases, lost their lives—to apprehend terrorists and traitors? What does it do to their spirit when the Chief Minister orders the withdrawal of cases after evidence has been painstakingly gathered and when they’re sure of getting a conviction?
Madani, the mastermind of the 1998 Coimbatore blasts was released by both Karunanidhi’s Government in Tamil Nadu and the Communist Party Government in Kerala merely by passing a Resolution on the floor of the respective assemblies! When the Government is itself in the hands of such worthless scum, what can the police do? Why would they in future risk their lives? Why would they volunteer to make widows of their wives?
The Hyderabad police aren’t incompetent. When terrorists hatched a plan to eliminate prominent people in Bangalore, it was the Hyderabad police that tipped off their counterparts in Bangalore. After the Lumbini Park blasts on 25 August, 2007, the Hyderabad police evolved their own innovative system of monitoring and tracking terrorists and terror conspiracies. Given this, the fact that blasts occurred on 21 February, 2013 simply means this: those who rule us are unworthy.
This however, doesn’t mean that we don’t have any responsibility. When people come to rent out your house, it makes sense to do a background verification of the person instead of asking his/her caste, community or how much rent you can get from him/her. Keep a vigilant eye on strangers who come to your locality. When you decide to sell your property, don’t think about the kind of money you’ll make; instead, think about whose hands your property will pass on to. Today, alarming developments have occurred in the Western Ghats region, all the way from Coorg to Shimoga. Control of land has passed on to alien people. Only your vigilance can prevent this from growing. Do you think that a Government, which became an impotent spectator when Yasin Malik went to Lahore and shared the dais with the terrorist Hafiz Sayeed, will come to your aid? A S.A.R Geelani comes all the way to the heart of Delhi and makes a highly inflammatory speech against India and coolly returns. The Manmohan Singh Government is spineless to throw him into jail right away.
While the US set up the NCTC post 9/11, the UPA obliterated the POTA. Finally, in the face of massive public anger, the UPA was forced to set up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2009. But what was the use of setting it up? While the NCTC has successfully prevented 50 potential terror attacks, our own NIC has managed to merely file 48 cases. Of this, it was unable to file a chargesheet in 23 cases. As for the remaining 25, although chargesheets have been filed, the NIC has failed to apprehend the 45 perpetrators responsible for the crimes mentioned therein. A paltry two cases have been awarded with convictions. Of this, only two people have been sentenced while two have been acquitted.
What does all this show?
That this is a system devised by a Government, which has been busily looting the nation. What else can we expect? There’s a proverb which holds that the hand that protects is greater than the hand that kills. But then what kind of knaves have we have entrusted our safety and protection to?