Roopen Roy
We’re
in the same boat brother, / We’re in the same boat brother, And if you
shake one end, / You gonna rock the other / It’s the same boat brother….
The fear and shock of the dastardly attacks on Mumbai, our financial
capital, have turned into anger and rage. The carnage of innocent human
beings and the deliberate attempt to inflict economic damage on our
country calls for a fitting response. However, we must be calm and
thoughtful. Thousands of SMSes have whizzed, urging Indians to refrain
from voting. In my view, vote boycott is a wrong response. We must
vote. Democracy is a precious asset that the enemies of the free world
do not have. Indian democracy should serve as a beacon to the countries
where men in olive uniforms rule behind the curtains.
Messages have also attacked the ‘incompetence of our corrupt
politicians’. We must eradicate corruption in public life. We have
talked about bringing down the people who came by boats and those who
came by votes in the same breath. Some angry people have also demanded
that we attack Pakistan. In all this fury and confusion, we must not
lose sight of the real target. We must isolate, attack and outmanoeuvre
the masterminds of terrorism.
The people who planned the attacks are in safe havens. They have used
semi-educated, young Pakistanis as cannon fodder. They have not sent
their own sons. These monsters remote-controlled the angels of death
who came to Mumbai. All but one perished in the pursuit. Their handlers
live on — biding their time to cause more harm somewhere else in the
globe. Our single-minded focus should, therefore, be on destroying the
viper’s nest.
Our battle must be waged from a high moral ground. This time the
Mumbaikars and all citizens of India have stood up as one. We must
build upon this strength. It does not matter what the colour of skin of
the terrorists is, what language they speak, what religion they are
born into or what gender they represent. They are despicable. We must
not allow them to shake our unwavering faith in secularism and our
respect for all faiths and religions.
None other than the President of their own country, who has described
them as “stateless”, has disowned them. Legally, they are not
“stateless”. They have a passport that reveals their national identity.
But they operate in a borderless manner. If yesterday it was New York,
today it is Mumbai, and it may be Melbourne tomorrow. If the spineless
leaders of a country are powerless to contain these mindless criminals,
then it calls for a globally concerted effort that should include the
people of Pakistan.
Our brothers and sisters in Pakistan are victims of these faithless
monsters who blew up the Marriott hotel, killed Benazir Bhutto and who
make the streets of Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar unsafe for Pakistani
citizens and children. We will reach out and appeal to them and make a
common cause with them to fight this menace. The masterminds of
terrorist networks operate under the protection of failed states. A way
must be found to make them feel insecure and unsafe — to make them
suffer and endure in the personal grief of losing a son, a daughter, a
wife, a husband, a brother, a sister or a friend.
Indians are brought up to cherish diversity. We know how to
simultaneously practice the preachings of Gandhiji and the teachings of
Netaji, even if they present paradoxes at times. Following the
teachings of the Mahatma, we must have compassion and love for those
who hate us in order to awaken their conscience. We shall not forsake
our ideals of democracy because they would love to see us do it; we
shall not abandon secularism to suit their agenda and we shall not go
to war with Pakistan because that is what they want us to do. Netaji
had said, “If people slap you once, slap them twice.” We shall speak to
them in the language that they understand.
But, it is not a war that the free world should leave India to fight
alone. Everyone in the free world is as vulnerable as we are. Unless we
clean the nests and breeding grounds of terrorists, we will continue to
be in danger. We must fight with our financial weapons to strangulate
their money supplies, build integrated law enforcement organisations
such as the Homeland Security, use advanced forensic technology, tools
and weapons and mobilise global public opinion against terror. No one
is safe until we clean the vipers’ nests. It would be apt to quote John
Donne here: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in
mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it
tolls for thee.”
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