UrduTehzeeb.com
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TERRORISM |
On April14th, Friday two blasts
immediately after the Arsa namaz injured more than 15 people at Jama Masjid,
Delhi. The Maqrib namaz which followed saw undeterred devotees offering their
prayers, and next day was no exception when the usual number turned up to offer
their prayers. Shahi Imam Syed Ahmad Shah Bukhari's statement acted as the glue
of harmony and peace when he stated that "Emulate the people of Varanasi,
who did not react in anger and defeated the plans of communal forces". The
calm and usual chores followed in the city of Delhi, the city with rich
syncretic traditions and heritage.
The Varanasi example which the Shahi Imam
quoted has become a good deal of landmark in how to respond to terror attacks.
In the aftermath of the dastardly attacks, the Mahant of Sankat Mochan temple of
Kashi, Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra upheld the traditions of inclusiveness and
tolerance. He shooed away the traders of hate politics, who are out to
politicize and communalize every conceivable opportunity to strength their
divisive agenda, and saw to it that the temple continues to be the hub of
harmony amongst the two major communities. The efforts of Joshis and Katiyars
from Sangh combine drew flak and Hindus and Muslims, holding each others hands
ensured the peace in the city; at the same time continuing the glorious
traditions of Varanansi. The Muslim traders observed bandh to express their
sympathy and solidarity with the victims of blasts, and the Mufti of Varanasi
and many other Muslims alims issued fatwa's condemning the terrorist attacks,
while the Muslim men and women, along with others lighted the candles for peace
and condemned the terrorists who tried to disturb the fabrics of amity in this
temple town.
Varanasi, like many other cities of the
country is the city where Hindus and Muslim of the city are interwoven like
threads as in the lovely silk saris for which Kashi is so famous for. This town
has hundreds and hundreds of Muslims artisans weaving the beautiful silk
apparels, which are sold by the Hindu traders. This is also a city where on one
hand we see the likes of Munshi Premchand, who wrote in Urdu as Nawab Rai and
also crafted the acme of Hindi literature, which is not only progressive but is
also a celebration of composite traditions of the country. This is also the city
of the likes of Ustad Bismillah Khans, whose Shahanai begins with devotion to
Hindu deities and hums the pleasant enchanting music into the ears of the whole
nation. It is also the city which like most of the cities of the country,
highlights the intercommunity amity in its most pleasant flavor.
The response of RSS progeny was totally
contrary to the spirit of the Indian national spirit, the nation belonging to
people of all the faiths. Sulking in the backyard of political lanes after the
defeat in the last general elections, it saw this as an opportunity to build up
its political capital on the dead of the bomb blasts. VHP gave a call for
Varanasi Bandh, which got a lukewarm response. At political level they did state
that it is due to the soft policies of UPA (the current Congress led coalition)
that the terror attacks are taking place. They conveniently ignored that number
of terrorist attacks which took place during the NDA (BJP led alliance) regime
were much more in intensity and impact. It was Jaswant Singh of BJP who had
traveled with the terrorists and negotiated with them. But some people presume
that public memory is short and one can go on making any allegation against the
other to gain political benefits.
While the religious leaders and people of
Varansi put their best foot forward to create peace in the society, the BJP
declared of two rath yatras, spanning different parts of the country, called as
Bharat Surakhsha Yatra (Secure India) and also to highlight the appeasement of
Muslims by UPA government. Can terrorism be eradicated by such moves which give
a subtle message against the minority community? How does one deal with the
terrorist attacks, the way people in Delhi did after the Jama Masjid blasts, the
way people of Varanasi did in the aftermath of blasts or the way Advani and
Rajnath Singh of BJP are doing through their yatras?
The War on Terror is the popular slogan
of US and its cohorts. US in a way are the central cause of terrorism today. Its
imperialist ambitions for controlling the oil wealth, its support to Israel's
violation of UN resolutions, its propping up of Al Qaeda for intervention in
Afghanistan, its launching of attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan are the main cause
for the phenomenon of terrorism at global stage. In India the complex problem of
Kashmir has added up to the militancy, terrorism in Kashmir. Here the problem
began with Indian Governments' efforts to suppress the autonomy of Kashmir,
which had formed the basis of Kashmir's accession to India. The imprisonment of
Lion of Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah initiated process of stifling of democracy and
the turn of section of youth to terrorism. Pakistan was waiting for such an
opportunity and played the role of supporting these terrorists. The terrorism of
Al Qaeda, the West Asian issues and Kashmir got intertwined together and are
being projected as if they are due to Islam, due to Muslim. With this the
irresponsible use of Islamic concept of Jihad, by the CIA to train terrorists of
Al Qaeda played the spoilsport and Muslims and terrorists started being used as
synonymous.
The other type of terrorism came up in
the aftermath of Mumbai riots and Gujarat carnage. Mumbai riots were followed by
bomb blasts, which again were an insane 'reaction' to the massive anti Muslim
violence of Mumbai. In the aftermath of Anti Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, the
Gujarat Muslim Revenge group came up to unleash four blasts in Mumbai. One hears
that recently, in the first week of April 06, one Bajarang Dal activist died due
to explosion of the bomb in Nanded district of Maharashtra and police is
investigating the event (http://web.mid-day.com/news/nation/2006/april/134896.htm,
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060410/asp/nation/story_6078822.asp#).
Surprsingly this was not much reported in the media. People become
terrorists due to many reasons and they again are of various types, those
spontaneously going in rage like after Mumbai or Gujarat violence, and there are
others who are/were systematically trained by organizations that have a
political agenda. Al Qaeda falls in the second category.
The Bajrang Dal activists making bomb has
ominous portents. Is it in response to Sankat Mochan temple attack? Again the
organizations which are illegal (Al Qaeda and the ilk) and the legal (Bajrang
Dal for example) and resort to terrorism have to be dealt with differently. The
so called war on terror is a bogus thing as they are not dealing with any
defined enemy. The terrorist camps set up by CIA to train Al Qaeda can be easily
strangulated once their life line is withdrawn. It is also true that terrorism
is like a cancer, coming up as a disease/ or being promotes consciously, but
than the control mechanisms on this is not effective. While dealing with this
phenomenon, it is imperative that the core reasons of terrorism are taken care
of, without that it cannot be eradicated. The points of dissatisfaction have to
be dialogued and sorted out, those outfits believing terrorism have to be dealt
with firmly, sinister designs of legal organizations like US and Bajrang Dal
have to be opposed at political level as well.