[Reader-list] Revenge and Reconciliation

[SJabbar]

Remorse can lessen the pain
Jyoti Punwani  | New Delhi, January 27, 2011 | 08:26


When lawyers showered Pakistani governor Salmaan Taseer's assassin with rose
petals, Indians looked on with a mixture of shock and pity. But we needn't
have felt so smug: we had descended to that level much before Pakistan had.
In 2008, when terror accused Lt Col Purohit was produced in a Pune court, he
was showered with rose petals by admirers.

But no flowers greeted Swami Aseemanand when he emerged from the chamber of
the Panchkula magistrate, Haryana, on January 15, having confessed a second
time, to being part of the conspiracy to bomb mosques across the country.
The Swami knew that others, totally unrelated to him, were in prison for the
crime he had committed. He also knew that the police would not touch him. He
is after all, a Hindu godman, not a maulvi, whose beard could be plucked
amid taunts of "call your Allah".

Confession
There was also a good chance that the investigative agencies would abruptly
drop the Hindutva angle, as they had so many times earlier. Finally, he knew
that a confession before a magistrate could be used against him in court. So
there was simply no need for him to admit to a crime that could earn him the
death penalty.

The Swami's confession has provoked a sense of triumph among Muslims and
secularists, who had all along suspected that Hindutva groups were
responsible for the series of blasts outside mosques that started in
Maharashtra in 2003. But while the campaign now on, to get the Muslim boys
arrested for these blasts out on bail is necessary, shouldn't we also
appreciate the act that made their release a possibility? Those fighting
against injustice to the minorities must need be concerned with that cliché
called " communal harmony". Swami Aseemanand's act goes beyond harmony: as
Kaleem, the prisoner who the Swami says prompted him to confess, told this
reporter, in his Hyderabadi dialect: " Bahoot bada kaam hai - confess
karna.'' The interaction between Kaleem and the Swami is truly the stuff
legends are made of. The young man's behaviour is no less inspiring than the
Swami's. Tortured and imprisoned for 18 months for a crime he hadn't
committed; his family hounded into moving house six times; losing his
coveted medical seat (he was fourth in the merit list); finally being
acquitted, and then re- arrested in another case… after all this, to be
kind to the man responsible for the very crime for which he had suffered, is
hard to understand.

His mother had always taught him that revenge is no good, said Kaleem; in
addition, the Swami's age and calm demeanour moved him. Discovering the
identity of the youth who went out of his way to help him, and hearing his
story, the Swami in turn, was moved to confess.

Let's not forget that till then, hatred for Kaleem's community had defined
the Swami's life; and that Kaleem too, had enough reason to hate all RSS
types.

Compassion such as Kaleem's has been seen in recent times only in Gladys
Staines' forgiveness of the man who burnt alive her husband and two little
sons. Even in last week's shocking Supreme Court judgment, Gladys Staines
could see an opportunity for her family's killer to reform. One of the
arguments against capital punishment is the possibility of reform.

That, unfortunately, wasn't what prompted the Supreme Court to refuse to
convert Dara Singh's life sentence to death. On the contrary, the judgment
almost explained away the murder by referring to the intention with which it
was committed. (The remarks have since been expunged, following protests.)
Hardly an incentive for the accused to reform! But who knows? Even a man as
merciless as Dara Singh might be moved to shame by the words of his victims'
wife and mother, the way his fellow traveller Swami Aseemanand was.

Qasab
After all, didn't the most cold- blooded terrorist we've seen in action -
Ajmal Qasab - have his moments of remorse? During his interrogation just
after his capture, telecast repeatedly on TV, Qasab could be seen weeping: "
Bhagwan mujhe nahin maaf karega," when his interrogator pointed out that he
had killed poor people like himself. " Kya jehad hai saab," he said wryly
when asked about the training he received for jehad. He even revealed his
instinct to run away when he heard his Pakistani instructors orders to keep
on killing. " Hum bhi insaan hain yar,'' the 22- year- old Pakistani,
strapped to his hospital bed, told his Indian interrogator.

Had he not been captured, Qasab may never have felt remorse. But it was
obvious during his trial too, that Qasab was unnerved at having to face his
victims' families and those who survived his bullets. Obviously, his
trainers had not prepared him for the possibility of having to confront, as
living human beings, the faceless Indians he was trained to kill.

(Were Muslims just faceless enemies for Aseemanand too, till he met Kaleem?)
Just a year's training in arms hadn't been enough; Qasab the jehadi actually
wanted some kafir to tie him a rakhi! There are chances of Qasab reforming
if he is spared hanging. But will we have the guts to allow that? We would
rather do the opposite - witness how the new Deoband chief, elected to be
the spiritual guide for millions, has been pressurised into saying, " We
will take revenge on Modi; we will pray to Allah for this.''

Reconciliation
Reconciliation after years of conflict and hatred is a goal many of us yearn
for. Such reconciliation is not possible without justice, goes the usual
argument. But humans don't follow such formulae. Even after his wife was
burnt to death in Coach S- 6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February
27, 2002, Dr Girishchandra Rawal, aged 60- plus, refused to support the
massacre of Muslims in Ahmedabad that followed. He told this reporter: " I
would like to burn the entire society. But my religion doesn't permit me to
do so.

There's no space for revenge in it.'' Gladys Staines didn't wait for Dara
Singh to be sentenced to life before she forgave him; she did so immediately
after he inflicted the most painful death on her family. Her actions could
be explained as that of a true Christian. What of Kaleem? He was eventually
acquitted in the Mecca Masjid blasts case, but was that justice? Could it
bring back his lost opportunities and make up for his family's humiliation?
Yet, he chose to serve the Swami.

Moved to repent, the Swami could have kept his remorse a private matter
between him and God. But he went public knowing he was trapping not just
himself, but all his associates; more than that, he was helping the
community his organisation regards as traitors. As Kaleem pointed out, it's
not just the Muslim blast accused whom the Swami has absolved; his
confessions have lifted the " terrorist" label from the entire community.

That in itself is a great disservice to the RSS. So far, the RSS has always
exposed its intolerance and fanaticism involuntarily, by its actions. When
one of its most committed ideologues chooses to expose the terrorist acts of
its members, at great personal cost, we need to salute him.