adarsh bhat’s blog

It was shocking to see television footage of the unpleasant events that took place in Mumbai yesterday. Being thousands of miles away, these were merely events happening somewhere else, to someone else. But I must confess that it did hurt a little bit. I felt a connection to these strangers whom I might never meet. They felt like my own — my countrymen. Like the rest of the people in India yesterday, I spent all day glued to news channels. I cringed a little bit when I saw videos of really young men driving through a crowd of bystanders and opening fire on them. Like everyone else, I lost a little more faith, felt more a little more insecure.

As unfortunate as this event was, I fear the worst is yet to come. I am not predicting future attacks, or claiming that the terrorists have won. What I am afraid of has nothing to do with terrorists. It has do with our reaction to this event.

What shall we do now?

I guess not doing anything is pretty much out of the question. Everyone is really angry. The same citizens who were hungry for information about the attacks, are now going to be hungry for action. There shall be cries for blood. In fact, there already are. The blogosphere is rife with war cries — people demanding that something be done, people claiming to do something themselves if their leaders do not, people seeking to exact vengeance. Even before the people did so, the media did it for them. What was initially called “Terror attacks on Mumbai” soon got painted, quite inexplicably, as “War on Mumbai.” Now this is not really a war in any sense of the word. But the implication is that there is going to be retaliation – in kind – and that the use of force is now warranted on obvious targets who have been charged guilty without trial. The role of the media is to report facts, and perhaps reflect public opinion. But what we see here is the media forming public opinion.

So far, the international media has maintained the official position that this is an internal attack. India has been quick to point fingers at Pakistan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Taliban, the Al Qaeda… you name it. The evidence is flimsy. But for the moment, let us agree that India is right. What do we do about it? People point out what America did after 9/11, and say that perhaps we should do the same. But there is a difference here. America is a super power, and the world watches in silence when they lash out blindly in anger. That is not going to work the same way in India’s case. Even so, what do we do? Attack Pakistan and take out the terrorist training camps? Join America in Afghanistan? How about Iraq? Clearly none of these is a viable option.

India is not in a sitation to take any huge step against a faceless enemy. Still the government can’t appear to be doing nothing. So what they will do is clamp down on the country — on us. What they will do is take away our rights. This is going to be a BIG challenge to civil rights in the country. This is when the terrorists will really have won.

You and I will gladly give away some of our rights for better security of our countrymen. But then what we really will be doing is chipping away at the very foundation of our democracy.

This is not my imagination. This is already happening. Even as the National Security Guard commandos were fighting terrorists in the hotels of Mumbai, opposition chief Lal Krishna Advani felt no shame in seizing the opportunity to gain political advantage and to take a few cheap shots at the government. He made a demand to have stronger laws. It was as if we had done everything else in our power and it was only because of this weak law that the terrorists were able to get away with this.

India is still a budding democracy, and notions of civil rights have not yet been firmly rooted in the minds of the people. What we need now is stronger enforcement of peoples rights, not laws that take rights away from people.

I hope and pray that all people in India would listen to the voice of caution, sleep over the matter and then, in the morning, think calmly about how best to handle the situation. India’s strength is in her democracy. We are not terrorists, and must not become terrorists. We must play our strengths. Let peace prevail.

mumbai, terrorism