Within minutes of the Pulwama attack, as news studios went ballistic and outrage across the country reached a crescendo, the prime minister who should have immediately addressed the nation with an appeal for calm and unity remained missing for the day, reminiscent of Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burnt. He emerged the next day to talk about avenging each death even as the entire country was turning into a play-field of divisiveness with attacks against minorities particularly Kashmiri Muslims. He spoke not a word of maintaining restraint.
On November 26, 2008, terrorists struck Mumbai and pounded down nearly 150 civilians and 20 security personnel including top police officers. Clearly, India was caught off its guard. In its aftermath, the BJP which was in opposition then began berating Manmohan Singh led UPA government for its deep slumber and for its inability to act against terror outfits and Pakistan which is home to the bases of several jehadi groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The mocks of “such attacks would never have happened under a BJP regime” were brought out of the bag in run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to project the 56-inch chested resolve of Narendra Modi to fight till finish the terror outfits. What the pitch clearly missed is the rooted to ground reality of impossibility of terrorism being fought with an arsenal of B-grade Bollywood dialogues.
According to the South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP), there were 388 major incidents in India from 2014 to 2018. While terror attacks in Indian hinterland and Maoist areas have declined, a continuing trend since 2011, Kashmir Valley has seen a major upshot in insurgency since 2014. Among the major strikes of jehadi groups are the Pathankot, Uri, Sunjawan,Nagrota attacks on vital security installations in places with high security vigil. Pulwama suicide car bomb is part of the sequel. All these have happened under the watch of Narendra Modi government. If ‘Singh’s weakness’ was responsible for Mumbai, how is it that Modi can be let off the hook for the attacks that have happened during his tenure as prime minister. Why is it that despite attack after attack, his regime is unable to get the right recipe to prevent them from being repeated? The remedy does not only lie across the border where the likes of Jaish and Lashkar enjoy a free rein. That is only one aspect of the problem.
The larger problem is that the Indian government has neither effectively understood the challenge nor assessed it scientifically, forget its inability to look at meaningful options. For the Modi government, the rhetorical muscle-flexing is the only answer to terror strikes. This can only be fodder for the gullible. More than a week after Pulwama attack, a quick recap into the past only reveals that the government has completely lost the plot. It is not only groping in the dark and focusing on histrionics that sound vote-catching enough in run-up to elections, it is resorting to actions that hamper national interests even more.
Uri was responded to by the much publicised surgical strike. It neither made a dent to Pakistan, nor checked the growth of insurgency, which has been on the rise in the Valley since 2016. The military action was supplemented by the economic surgical strike called ‘demonetisation’. One of the official justifications was to stop the hawala transactions and terror-funding. Other than robbing people of their cash and laying them off their jobs, it could not help stop the rising trajectory of militancy in the Valley, which is effectively fed by multiple factors including human rights abuse, rash muscular policy, political alienation and radicalisation.
Pulwama tragedy fully highlights the failures of this government. The digital prime minister of the country either had no information of the attack or feigned ignorance as he continued to shoot for a film for Discovery channel at Corbett National Park. Had he chosen to use his mobile phone to keep himself abreast of latest information rather than for selfies, perhaps, he wouldn’t have needed the NSA to inform him of what had happened. The prime minister was in the area for 4 hours after the attack, addressed a scheduled rally in Rudrapur on phone amidst celebratory cheer of the crowd while he sought votes for his party. It is not a non-serious issue that the prime minister either chooses to ignore the information of such a major calamity or that his command is so weak that he remained uninformed.
Within minutes of the Pulwama attack, as news studios went ballistic and outrage across the country reached a crescendo, the prime minister who should have immediately addressed the nation with an appeal for calm and unity remained missing for the day, reminiscent of Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burnt. He emerged the next day to talk about avenging each death even as the entire country was turning into a play-field of divisiveness with attacks against minorities particularly Kashmiri Muslims. He spoke not a word of maintaining restraint. His assertion that his ‘blood was boiling’ (it took too long to simmer) and his call for ‘revenge’ instead became a veiled innuendo for promoting mob-inspired surgical strike – this time on Kashmiri students, traders, shawl vendors and tourists. Venom poured out on the social media. Fake news became more fashionable than ever. A right-wing JNU don called for public hanging of 40 Kashmiris, Governor of Meghalaya, a man holding a constitutional post, called for boycott of Kashmiris and Kashmiri goods. Such remarks gave greater legitimacy to the attacks that went on in hostels and streets. The streets of Jammu were ablaze, thanks to an administration conveniently in slumber. The usual mix of ‘Pakistani slogans’ and ‘celebrations’ was used to justify mob-violence. The sight of a Hindu marriage party dressed in all their shining best and dancing to the tune of drums amidst the curfew bound Jammu streets (while the national mourning was on) wouldn’t be treated with similar suspicion or questioned for the ‘lack of patriotism’. The attacks on Kashmiris and other Muslims betrayed more than just this sheer hypocrisy of different yard-sticks used to judge people with different identities.
These shocking and shameful incidents laid bare the threat to democracy and amounted to onslaught on the constitutional values of equality and secularism. This is a far serious threat than the threat to the territorial security and integrity of the country. Besides, do such attacks contribute to strategic strengthening of security? On the contrary, they are counter-productive. That, instead of the political dispensation the CRPF had to take on the task of countering the hate propaganda and appealing for calm, is a small indication of how such attacks can heighten the challenges for the security forces fighting insurgency in Kashmir. The trauma and damages caused to the Kashmiri students, traders and others in these mob attacks across India and the silence of the government in face of it will add to the already deepening sense of alienation to create a more fruitful ground for anger in the Valley and radicalization. Such a situation only adds to the existing challenges of the security forces in the Valley. The disproportionately high casualty of army personnel in an encounter post Pulwama attack illustrates this better.
While the attacks on Kashmiris highlight the twin dangers to Indian democracy and Indian military security, some of the other knee-jerk responses have ended up being counter-productive. The rhetorical upping of ante against Pakistan has now been drowned post the visit of Saudi crown prince. The celebratory mode of the Modi style welcome to the foreign dignitary with beating of drums and a bear hug did not help fetch absolute solidarity but a promise to intervene for India-Pakistan dialogue. The UNSC statement similarly balances between India and Pakistan. The threat of snapping sporting ties and denial of visas to two Pakistani shooters for the World Cup have ended up risking India’s chances of hosting the Olympics or any other international sports events. The threat to abrogate Indus Water Treaty only ends up giving Pakistan a high moral ground and the prospect of floods in Jammu and Kashmir in case the government goes ahead with that bizarre move.
Like Hindu mythology’s Bhasmasura (a powerful demon who has the power to turn everything he touches into ashes and is finally tricked into turn himself into ashes), the Modi led BJP government has entered into a completely self-destructive mode. Faced by an enemy, it has begun burning the country from inside. The week-long knee jerk reactions to Pulwama have jeopardized security interests further, damaged the country’s secularism and democracy, weakened rule of law and made the nation a laughing stock before the world. All this exposes the incompetence of the Mr 56-inch chest. Hoping for propaganda to cover up for his massive failures, he has yet not understood the necessity to play a role as prime minister and resort to damage control. Instead, he dashed off to Seoul to get peace prize at a time when peace lays in tatters in the country he rules.
source: Kashmir Times