Playing the blame game
Policy of blaming Bangladesh for every terrorist attacks in India are doing more harm than good. At least 42 people have been killed and 50 injured in two explosions at a crowded park and a popular eatery in Hyderabad on 25th August '07, three months after the Mecca Masjid blasts. Soon after the incident, Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal had said, "Some of our neighbours are jealous of India's progress and they keep hatching conspiracies to disrupt harmony in the country." Indian newspapers are blaming it on weak-kneed and bumbling response to terror attacks, both in preventing them and in bringing the merchants of death to book and the failure of the governments to deal more firmly with the scourge of terrorism. What we have observed is that a familiar drill follows every terror attack in India - visits to the spot by some high-level dignitaries and then announcement of compensation and finger pointing across the border towards Pakistan and Bangladesh. We in Bangladesh have always condemned any forms of terror as our people are peace loving and strongly believe that peace can not co-exist with attacks on any community or class of people, whether they are communal, caste or ethnic killings. Everything we do to prevent and punish acts of terror must flow from the basic premise that not only do these take away innocent lives but also divide the country, society, create mistrust among the people and leave scars that can take decades to heal in any country. It is known that terrorism is worse than an act of war against any nation. Rather, it's worse than war, because terror acts are executed stealthily against civil society targeting schools, suburban trains at peak hour, crowded markets as well as places of congregation. Many Indians now feel, according to some newspapers that their anger as a whole should not only be directed towards those who commit such acts, but equally towards those who plan and finance them. Extreme views are arguing that India should take the war on terror even across the border, a very dangerous move and must be a cause of concern for the neighbours. We in South Asia should desperately pursue to achieve the economical sovereignty for our teeming millions putting aside our egos, turf wars and differences, and act as one. Security establishments including some politicians of the region have not yet felt the pang of conscience and looked beyond short-term gains before maligning others. Before we analyze the usual blame game on Bangladesh, let us just delve more into the continuous terrorist attacks happening within the borders of India. The long simmering Ayodhya crisis finally culminated in a terrorist attack on the site of the 16th century Babri Massif -Ram Janmabhoomi Hindu temple in Ayodhya on July 5, 2005. Three explosions went off in the Indian capital of New Delhi on October 29, 2005 which killed more than 70 people and injured at least 200 others. A series of blasts occurred across the Hindu holy city of Varanasi on 7 March 2006. 21 people were reported to have been killed and as many as 101 others were injured. In Sep 2006, at least 37 people were killed and 125 injured in a series of bomb blasts in the vicinity of a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra and in May 2007, 13 people were killed, including 4 killed by the Indian police in the rioting that followed in the bombing at Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad. India has hundreds of thousands of miles of railway track, and over 14,000 trains crisscross the country every day. These are tempting targets for many of the terrorist groups operating within India and attack on trains, whether direct assaults, bombings or deliberate derailing through sabotage are common. Andhra Pradesh is one of the few southern states affected by terrorism and it stems from the People's War Group (PWG), popularly known as Naxalites which has been operating in India for over a few decades. The group is also active in Orissa and Bihar. PWG is a Maoist terrorist organization and labor rights are one of its primary goals. The group targets Indian Police, multinational companies, landlords and other influential institutions in the name of the rights of landless labor. Lashkar e-Toiba, Jaish -e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-ulMujahideen, Farzandan-eMillat and United Jihad Council are also operating in Kashmir and carrying out attacks against the security forces since long. Perhaps the most significant insurgency started in Nagaland from the early 1950s. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) demanded an independent Nagaland and has carried out a number of attacks on soldiers, government targets and public property. Although a cease-fire agreement was signed between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM, yet Manipur, the neighbouring state, apprehended that the National Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) would continue insurgent activities in the state of Manipur and demanded that the government in New Delhi scrap the ceasefire deal and renew military action. Bodos in the state demanded for a separate Bodo land and the government in Delhi gave special administrative autonomy much to the chagrin of the Bodos and consequently led to clash between the Bengalis, the Bodos and the Indian military resulting in hundreds of deaths. Bodo Liberation Tigers and National Democratic Front of Bodoland were involved in number of fatal attacks. Then also the United Liberation Front of Asam (ULFA) formed in 1971 demanded the independence of Assam and the establishment of a socialist government. The ULFA has carried out over hundred attacks in the region targeting the Indian military, political opponents, police, railroad tracks, and other infrastructure facilities. Then suddenly it started blaming Bangladesh for every terrorist's activities in India knowing fully well that the root cause of most of them were social injustice and economic deprivation. This has also something to do with the BJP when it started all this as xenophobia against the Muslims in India and the so-called issue of large-scale migration from Bangladesh. Security establishments in India are finding an easy excuse for the blame game that some Bangladeshis are being used by the ISI for carrying out subversive activities in India. Although so far, no solid proof has yet been provided by India. Bangladesh failed to estimate the impact of such unfounded blame game and the power of the electronic and print media of India and now with every incident, Indian public as well have started believing that in addition to Pakistan, Bangladesh based militant outfits are also involved in these attacks. And the efforts of our diplomatic channel in denying any involvement in such incidents have not helped at all in removing the blame game mindset. We are happy to see that India is the biggest democracy, already a regional power and has recorded rapid progress on the economic side but we strongly feel that such rhetoric of blame does incalculable harm by putting a premium on complacency and masks the feeble response to the challenge. We are, however, lucky that Indian security establishments have not blamed Bangladesh for nearly three decades of reign of terror unleashed by the dreaded sandalwood smuggler, Veerappan, in the sprawling forests of Tamil Nadu and also for the loss of the Noble medal of Rabindranath Tagore from Shantiniketon, investigation about whom has recently been suspended by the Indian CBI. Bangladesh must understand that what has gone into the minds of Indian security establishments can hardly be eliminated over night and we must initiate appropriate corrective actions to remove such accusation through establishing second track channel and people to people contact with the Indian political think tank and hierarchy so that such blame games are stopped and we can move ahead with our economic emancipation along with India. We feel that war against terrorism is too important to be left to governments and their agencies only, rather every one of us must make concerted effort in removing the root causes and act as a combatant and committed to securing a safe future for our children and the nation and only then terrorists should know that we mean business. The author is a freelancer.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments