Now that all evidences are pointing to the involvement of Pakistani based terrorists and Lashkar-e-Toiba in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, all necessary yet smart steps must be taken by India to destroy Lashkar and bring the culprits to justice. It is very important to give the strong message that no matter what the reason and what the provocation, anybody taking innocent lives will be hunted down equally ruthlessly and the punishment will be as severe as the crime. I will detail my thoughts on what steps should be taken in that regard but I will focus on the topic of ‘equal justice’ in this article.
However, as mentioned in my earlier article, it is also crucial not to paint with a 12-foot brush and use suggestive manipulation like the US government did after 9/11. Let’s clearly and unequivocally give the message that this has nothing to do with any community or religion and anybody suggesting that or spreading that message will also be dealt with severely. This simply has to do with bringing the people responsible for the murder of innocent people to justice. But if we want to give that clear message to every citizen that our country does not discriminate between any two individuals and that justice will always be equal for every citizen then it is time for citizens to make an equally loud noise to bring Modi to justice. Maybe not right away, as we certainly don’t want to give the message that a terrorist attack is the way to get people to correct past mistakes. But when the memories of the recent attacks have faded and hopefully after the perpetrators get brought to justice then we should also focus on the ‘domestic’ angle.
I was proud at the activism and awakening of ordinary citizens after the terrorist attacks and was overjoyed by the sight of citizens demanding answers from their elected officals and kicking out the incompetent ones. I also feel that the perspective of such a tragic incident is the ideal backdrop for this awakening to be chanelled to ignite a higher and pure sense of justice in people. At this time people should ask themselves - “if the brutal killing of innocents citizens in Bombay evoked such strong emotions and a quest for justice then why did the equally brutal killing of a few thousand citizens in Godhra not evoke the same sense of outrage?” (again, for people who raise the moronic question of ‘why are you not talking about the s6 bogie killings?’ let me tell you bluntly that no one is obliged to talk of two incidents in the same breath the same way you are not obliged to talk about the Mumbai train blasts and the latest attacks in the same breath. They are separate incidents and my current discussion is about the retaliation riots in Godhra). “If the merciless gunning down and torture of people made everybody realize more then ever that killing innocent people cannot by justified at any cost then why did the same feeling not arise after the Godhra riots when innocent women were gang raped and killed and men hacked to death in cold blood over a span of three days very alike the three day span of killing we witnessed in Mumbai?”.
The feeling of burning anger that makes the Indian citizens think of going war to bring the perpetrators to justice did not exist during the Godhra riots and I did not hear too many angry voices screaming about dragging Modi to justice (except the press and the elite liberals.. god bless you guys). As long as we pursue two standards of justice for different sections of society and not treat a crime as crime and injustice as injustice then we will always have a section of society which is disgruntled and burning with the anger if injustice and that’ll provide fertile ground for violence of the nature we have seen in Mumbai. The current attacks seem to be carried out wholly by ‘foreigners’ but the next one may involve domestic terrorists. What do you think the relatives of the people killed in the Mumbai attacks will feel like doing? It will not take much for a manipulator to mold some of the affected people into hate machines and make them commit violent acts against the ‘perceived’ killers of his relatives. A similar sense of outrage exists amongst people affected by the Godhra riots or the Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993 and the Babri Masjid riots of 1992. the Acts of injustice and violence always tend to go around in circles and create an infinite loop of terrorism, so to take a step towards ending it let us first instill the confidence in justice and equality in each and every citizen in our country and in the rest of the world and clearly show them right from wrong.
P.S: Let me give my rebuttal in advance for the expected horde of intensely brain-dead responses in the lines of “so are you justifying the actions of the terrorists by blaming circumstances and injustice that the terrorists had to face?”. The answer is NO. As you might have noticed (if you read English) the message I want to give is that killing of innocents will not be tolerated … and yes, I do believe that issues, injustice and revenge cycles are responsible for a good number of terrorist activities though there will always be some terrorism even in perfect world it’ll be lesser if people acknowledge that a sense of injustice plays a big role in terrorism.