[Reader-list] Taj, Trident and Terror

[Wali Arifi]

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8786&Itemid=53

Taj, Trident and Terror
    When Religion, Power and Crime join hands, violence becomes enduring,
self-justifying, and immensely destructive

Mehmood-ur- Rashid

It is not just about cheap head rhyme, but there are portent signs that Taj,
Trident and Terror may in all likelihood emerge as the triangle-of-trouble
in this part of the globe. What happened in Mumbai, intriguingly, involves
symbols for all the contestations that are involved in the great battle
ground - imaginary and real, remote and immediate, historical and political
- Taj for Muslim, Trident for Hindu and Terror for Strategy. Since the
memories of 9/11 are still fresh and the images of planes running into the
towering structures flash across the mind as if the incident has just
occurred, public mind tends to superimpose on it the images of Mumbai.
Although the scale of attack and the kind of talk that surrounds are
strikingly similar, drawing similitude between the two is all
understandable. However, what is being nudged out of the frame is the larger
picture where India seems to be slipping into the diabolical labyrinth that
connects Religion, State, and Crime, giving birth to an extended framework
of organic nationalism – a lethal beauty that enchants but kills in the end.

Up until now the easiest way for India to get away with such things was to
blame Pakistan, and Islamic terrorism (whatever that means), thereby
propitiating some poor souls at the altar of state and state sponsored
nationalism. After 9/11 and subsequent strangulation of Pakistan by US led
global power structure, India slyly and at times shamelessly tried to
project itself as the prime target of International Terror, with the single
aim to piggyback US and settle scores with Pakistan. That is how India
wanted to fuse an ambition that is purely regional with a programme that has
global extent. It may be premature to draw an opinion conclusively about
every single terrorism related incident in India, but the way India brazenly
attempted to jump the bandwagon of War-on-Terror is instructing in more than
one way.
The way Islamic terrorism and Pakistan have been offered centrality in the
whole popular debate, of Nationalism in India, manufactured by state and
marketed by media, things will always remain easier for invidious
manipulation within this country, called India. Saying all this may sound
quite cynical and distasteful at a time when the blood of innocent victims
at Mumbai is still fresh, but the way things are shaping up in India
unmistakably alludes towards far more ominous shapes waiting to bear upon
us. The way Indian State is taking up Nationalism as the ultimate project
and invoking the passions of people around this theme, making use of
religious symbols, and historical misrepresentations may look like the most
effective strategy, and one-solution-to-all-problems, but ultimately it will
morph every brick of this huge edifice into a mass of dynamite. India is
piling the wood for its own pyre, exactly the same way as Pakistan dug her
grave; and the two separated at birth may meet in their death.
In the very beginning of Mumbai strike, the death of Anti Terrorism Squad
Chief, and some other prominent persons in the anti terrorism ring, got
eliminated. Things are yet to clear themselves, how all that could happen.
Given the fact that ATS Chief had made some revelations in the backdrop of
Malegaon blasts that were unnerving for many bigwigs in the Indian power
politics, the question was supposed to strike, and will continue haunting
until the details get cleared. It does sound repulsive and off putting if
this single strand is projected as the whole tapestry. It could well be a
coincidence that the death of ATS Chief happened in such circumstances.  If
Mumbai happened just after when Malegaon was about to embarrass many
'respectful' politicians of India, it is not necessarily imperative that
there is any deliberate sequential order in the two. All this is just
possible. But the larger question of India witnessing a marriage of Terror
and Power politics does not rest on this clumsy cynicism or cheap suspicion.
Mumbai aftermath, both in terms of how the politics and foreign policy of
India is going to make use of it, and what the investigations might reveal
in due course of time, is significant to find answer to this appalling
question.
Of hand there are some easy surmises. Hindu right wing is going to make use
of it as a tool to clear the way to power. The problem of terrorism will be
sold to naive and unquestioning believers, and the aggressive marketing will
have all these ingredients – Hindu Nationalism, Pakistan  bashing,
malevolence towards Islam and Muslims. And this will the beginning of yet
another elaborate exercise at solemnising the  insidious contract between
Terror and Power politics. Hindu radicals will make use of it to stuff Hindu
mind with extreme hate towards anything sounding Pakistan and Muslim, and
intoxicate the Billion believers. The bargain will get automatically struck.
Hate, based on religious sentiment, will become a more permanent part of
Power politics in India. It won't be anything new happening, because it has
been already growing in India. BJP rose to power only when Babri Majid was
demolished, an essentially terrorist act. This happened with the connivance
of the power of the times, Congress. As a consequence to it Mumbai shook
with blasts. It wasn't just Pakistan and Islamic 'terror' network, as world
loves to call it, but the underground criminal network that emerged as the
centre of happening. Somehow Indian right felt comfortable in the typology
based on religious denomination. Dawood Ibrahim was considered more as a
Muslim than a criminal. So the answer to it was to be necessarily Hindu;
Chota Rajan was the answer. Since in the beginning it is always pleasing,
but its ending is horrendous. The two underworld networks were suitably made
use of by agencies in Pakistan and India. The element of volition and
commitment flowed from religion. Thus a deadly brew was served. In Pakistan
this process was first justified and thought of as compulsory to win the war
in Afghanistan. Later Kashmir was wedded to the same scheme of things.
Intriguingly, India is following the same track. Post 9/11 India has been
overambitious to head off Pakistan from the side of Afghanistan. For this
getting allied with international theme of War-on-Terror is an imperative.
In the overall pattern of terror strikes in India this strand is now visibly
present. India earnestly wants to become the launching pad for all the
operations against Pakistan. Now take the case of Kashmir. What ex-governor
S.K. Sinha did here is all too clear. Hindu sentiment was to unleash a whole
new dynamic in Kashmir. Amamrnath Pilgrimage, Sharda Peeth University,
Saffronising Army; all this is only recent exposure.
The pain and anguish that Mumbai strikes inflicted on India, must not blind
its secular and liberal mind to the underlying themes. If India remains
unchanged towards how it is making use of its army, its organised crime and
its religion in Kashmir and Afghanistan, the gathering storm forebodes an
immense destruction.