[Reader-list] Revenge and Reconciliation

[rashneek kher]

Dear Sonia,

What Jyoti Punwani did not write was how Bitta Karate(the butcher of
Pandits) was given a rousing welcome in downtown Kashmir upon his release
from the prison.He didnt confess nor did the Police build a case.Same with
Yasin Malik.I hope Punwani reads this mail and writes about them too.
Maybe he wont because he too like the RSS has a certain ideology to follow
but in case he takes a leaf out of the "reformed" Aseemand's life then I
will salute Punwani.

Best

Rashneek

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 1:19 PM, SJabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
>
>
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-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com