[Reader-list] Taj, Trident and Terror

[taraprakash]

When were Religion, state and crime were not linked? They feed on each 
other.
But coming to a more important point which I would like to make and I fear 
you and many others will not like to here. A state that has its foundations 
built only on hate, mistrust and destruction cannot survive for long. The 
Pakistan experiment has gone for too long, it is time for it to go. It was 
the nexus of religion, crime and state in Pakistan exploited by the US that 
caused jihadi mentality to flourish throughout the world. The US once was 
benefited from it. The USSR's disintigration to a large extent is attributed 
to this nexus, and Pakistani establishment shamelessly flaunts this 
association so often. After the disintigration of the USSR, the breed that 
was produced with this cohabitation of state, religion and crime was 
channelized towards J&K. The business of jihad that started to defeat USSR 
in Afghanistan needed to be sustained now. Its continuation was in the 
interest of the politicians, army and intelligence agencies in Pakistan, 
they were to get a portion of the booty that came for the sustenance of the 
jihadi cause.
Several NGOs were started to brainwash the youth and enlist them in the 
suicide squads. Pakistani establishment after outsourcing the Jihad crapt to 
NGOs found a new ground in Afghanistan to spread the dirty work. They got so 
carried away with their success that they decided to challenge the mighty 
USA. They succeeded, even though there are many in this world and even on 
this list who believe that 9-11 was manufactured by the US intelligence, the 
same opinions are being expressed about Mumbai attacks this time and I take 
none of them seriously.

After 9-11, and we should not forget that a Jihadi criminal had tried to 
blow up World Trade Center earlier as well, there hasn't been a single 
attack on the US soil due to the stringent laws put in place by the 
government. Pakistani establishment took a u-turn after the threatening 
language used by the Americans. Pakistan had to go on war against its own 
brain child.   Later on there was pressure on them to talk to India and not 
support the jihad based terror in j&k. After the pressure from the US and 
talks with India, the establishment decided and the barbarity and savagery 
used to protest Indian rule in Kashmir decreased. The violence significantly 
came down in J&K. The Jihadi elements were cornered in the state. Now 
Pakistan has turned its attention back to Kashmir, the violence no doubt has 
increased even though the ordinary Kashmiri is not really involved. 
Irrespective of the calls to boycott the elections, the polling has been 
unprecedented.

Jihadi element which is so intrinsically linked to the Pakistan 
establishment is raising its head again to gain control of the country. 
Pakistan is at war with itself. The economy is so bad they had to go to IMF 
to bail them out. It is next to impossible for Pakistan to go on as one 
country for long. The country that boasts to be prime contributor in 
disintigration of USSR is on the brink of its own partition. There is some 
hope that anti-India rhetoric will unite the country once more, the 
establishment has started experimenting with that option, it is not likely 
it will work this time.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wali Arifi" <waliarifi3 at gmail.com>
To: "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:32 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] Taj, Trident and Terror


> 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.
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