In the aftermath of the Mumbai Blasts there has been extensive coverage across all media. Most of it contradictory. Some of it ironical and reflecting the state of politics in India, where votes matter more than people

A day after the Uttar Pradesh police chief said raids were being conducted at hideouts of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) on suspicion of its links with the Mumbai blasts, the state’s ruling Samajwadi Partyon Thursday virtually gave the outlawed group a clean chit, saying it was not a “terrorist organisation”.

I wish that politicians of all hues and colours don’t have this terrrible need to open their mouth all the time. This is one of the things that we can learn from countries like the US and UK. In times of disaster or national calamity – their leaders present a unified front. Ours, gather like vultures near the dead. Today, while scanning through the news headlines my eye glanced this story:

Pakistan indicated that it was open to postponement of the Foreign Secretary-level talks, tentatively scheduled on July 20, in view of the ‘monstrous tragedy’ in Mumbai.

Well, I am not a hawk. I believe in peace and in dialogue and in negotiation, but I draw the line at this level of appeasement. And, for now – at a time like this – talks with a state like Pakistan is nothing short of appeasing terrorists and their masters. This time around India needs to put not just all talks on hold with Pakistan – atleast until that country is seen to do something tangible about the terror attacks in India, but also take some stringent action. Hit them where it hurts – not through arms but through economics and politics. I would really like to see the Government take some hard action. Stop all people to people contacts. Stop all trade. Stop all cultural exchanges. Stop all transportation to and from Pakistan. Stop all communication lines. Stop all sporting exchanges. Call on the extensive NRI population to do the same. Request friendly nations to do the same. Pakistan today needs to be treated the same way as South Africa was over 15 years ago. The world community is doing the people of Pakistan  a disservice by continuing to talk to their Government. By behaving as though all is hunky dory with the way they behave. Economically, Politically, Culturally, and Socially isolate them, until the people of the country turn on their own state policies to change for the better. Every major urban terrorist attack that has emenated in India 15 years has clear Pakistani connections. So do 9/11 and 7/11. Yet, why is it that successive Governments across the world have problems taking a hard stance on Pakistan. Accept the fact that Pakistan is a terrorist state  and deal with it accordingly. Hit them where it hurts. Sabre rattling in Kargil or Siachin is not the solution. A complete blockade might be.

Finally, a little firm chat with Bangladesh  to get its act in place may not be such a bad idea. I think that India needs to accept the fact that her neighbours are not really going to like her no matter what she does. They are going to envy us, they are going to be resentful of us. And nothing we say or do is going to change that. Our foreign policy should not be aimed at being liked but at being considered business like and no nonsense. Unfortunately successive Indian governments have looked at more how India is perceived by outsiders rather than what is good for country.

7 thoughts on “Hit Them Where it Hurts

  1. An article written with a lot of agony.
    While you mentined SP backing SIMI, you forgot our Congrss Neta- Salma Khurshed, who backed SIMI to the hilt. He is its member!
    What we need is a kangaroo court. Even the slightest suspision, hannf the bastards. Mistakes will be made. Innocents will be killed, but then civil behaviour will become the norm.
    We need to shed the mantle of a soft state, take law into our hands, send our commandos across PoK, blast the camps and get back.
    Wepe them out, in the name of Allah the Merciful. Make these swines shaheeds.
    The less about Bangladesh, the better. Never has there beena nation that has literally bit the hands that fed it. Idnetical treatment and even harsher. India sacrificed its men for liberating this third grade country.
    And let us for now forger the buses and trains to Pakistn. We are not mature enought for it. We are giving safe passage to the terrorists from the terror state.
    Mr. Singh is a good man. We don’t need good men right now. We need men with a couple of spherical objects in them.
    Unless the centre is ready to change its stance, kick out people like Arjun Singh and Co, and get a cohesive cabinet, we will remain where we are, and every few years mourn our dead and say how Mumbai can bounce back in a day.

    I know I am harsh, but truth always is.

  2. I will take a different view on Salman Khursheed – he is fulfilling his role as a lawyer. Everyone is entitled constitutionally to adequete defence, and he is providing it. Much like Ram Jethmalani took on the cases of those who murdered Indira Gandhi.
    But, i have an issue with people like Arjun Singh andA.R.Antulay who are busy playing to a vote base gallery. Prompting our sainted PM to

    …urge the Ministers to refrain from raising “divisive issues” in the Cabinet before bringing them to his attention.

    Kangaroo courts – too many people in India with too many agendas to make it an effective policy. Knowing our political class, anyone who opposes them will become a victim. Imagine a Modi or a Mulayam or a Jayalalitha’s state with these kind of powers.

    I am not sure that the shedding of more blood or the breaking of more rules is the key to the issue. I would think that an effective justice system (as opposed to an ineffective legal system) may provide the solution. Set up a panel of judges like the Nuremberg trials. It is way beyond the ability of one judge to handle. Fast track these cases. If innocent let the accused go? free with compensation. If guilty, then execute them – prefrebly in public. Send out a loud and clear message that India is not soft on terrorism or terrorists. Doesn’t matter if the terrorist is a MP, a film star, an unemployed youth, a Hindu, A Muslim, a Christian, an Athiest or a martian. Apply the law equally and equitably.
    On Bangladesh – seal the borders. If the import of terror doesn’t subside, cut off aid, and impose an economic and social blockade from India. If that doesn’t work, cut off their water supply, and finally if that too doesn’t work – expel every single Bangladeshi from Indian soil, without exception.

    Political parties of all hues and politics need to take a unified “In the National Interest” stand. The people who do India most harm are not in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nor are they members of banned or underground organisations. They are the political class of India.

  3. Some effective suggestions for the everyday citizens of Mumbai post blasts:

    1. Socially boycott Sanjay Dutt movies. He is one of the accused in the devastating 1993 serial bomb blasts to hit Mumbai. Let us not treat these guys as stars.

    2. Mahesh Bhatt, Shabana Azmi, Teesta Setalvad, Arundhati Roy, Dilip D’Souza and other pseudo-intellectuals who allowed slums to proliferate in Mumbai – a perfect base for jehadis – penalize them too by socially ostracizing these termites of Mumbai.

    3. Stop reading Outlook magazine. Vinod Mehta, brother of the cashiered and disgraced Maj Gen Ashok Mehta (for stealing the affection of brother officers’ wives), has constantly demoralized our Army and defends Pakistan as it was his own country. (Ask Army HQ if you feel like checking facts.)

    3. No more cricket matches with Pakistan. If our spineless government goes ahead, quit watching it on TV and in stadiums.

    4. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is more concerned with his son’s film career. Penalize his inept behavior by boycotting Ritesh Deshmukh films (the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons). Ditto with SIMI sympathizer Abu Azmi whose junkie son runs Basilico Restaurant in Colaba and Bandra.

    5. TV channels that glorify Dawood and his cronies should be switched off.

    6. Enough of film news. It’s making our youth stupid and unaware. They have lost the fighting spirit due to this mindless entertainment-based news.

    7. Start a petition to take the Z Security away from our beloved politicians (be it Congress, BJP, Shiv Sena, RSS, SP or any other party) and give it to the common man. Only when they feel the danger will these inept politicians take action.

    8. Boycott SIMI lover Mulyam Singh Yadav, his Samajwadi Party, his cronies Amar Singh, Subroto Sahara Roy and his companies and their social functions.

    9. It is apparent the Gujarati community is being targeted post Godhra. They can use their money power to fund citizen vigiliante groups and cut off money supply to those who associate with unsavoury underworld sorts.

    Don’t rage impotently. These can easly be done or soon India will be another Pakistan.

    Jai Hind!

  4. hi vijay
    i especially like suggestion 7.

    i have a problem with both the suggestion that the Gujarati community is targetted post the Gujarat riots – and the proposal for funding vigilantes. If less people found it necessary to take on working outside the system to achieve their agenda – both riots and terrorist attacks will reduce.

    i would also be against measures that reduced all our civil liberties !

    finally, on parties and politicians that seem to be supporting terrorism or atleast taking a weak stand on it – use your power to vote and throw them out!

    Social ostracism, people power and a sealed border had as much to do with defeating khalistani terrorism in Punjab, as did KPS Gill.

  5. Hi Bhupinder

    I am still not a hawk.I believe in peace and co-existance.
    But i also think that it is time that citizens here left home to go to work or school or university and could expect to come home without being blown up.

    However, despite mulitple attempts for peace it seems that terrorists are still using Pakistan as a base for attacking India. If the only way of preventing it – short of bloody, brutal war is to isolate the nation and make sure that it doesn’t harm us – then it is a course of action that needs to be followed.

    Remember that the 1993 bombers fled across the border and lived like kings in Karachi while the families of the dead are still to get justice.

    if expecting justice for all makes me a hawk, then so be it!

  6. Certainly nothing hawkish about expecting justice. It is the means and actions that your post indicates that led to the question.

    I do not understand how stopping people to people contact or for that matter trade, for example, can help.

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