Hindu Suicide Squad: What An Idea Sirji
- From: PakistanPal <pakistanpal@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:29:49 -0700 (PDT)
Created 2008-06-28 01:16
By Tukoji R. Pandit - Syndicate Features
Published on Asian Tribune (http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/11956)
The aging Shiv Sena tiger Bal Thackeray can be called the country’s
uncrowned king of hate-politics. It is part of his ‘duty’ to excel in
incendiary, irresponsible and unacceptable rhetoric either through
utterances before crowds of fawning Sainiks or his edits and columns
in the party organ, Saamna. His latest farman is for Hindus to form
suicide squads to counter ‘Islamic terrorism’. What he says amounts to
a call to Hindus to raise an Al Qaeda type of terrorist organisation.
If one recalls correctly, his call for a ‘Hindu suicide squad’ is an
idea or a variation of the idea he had floated a few years ago when
terrorists had attacked the very symbol of Indian democracy, the
Parliament House. Apparently he did not follow it up, for whatever
reasons. His renewed call for the Hindu suicide squad has come not in
the context of an attack by an ‘Islamic’ organisation on an Indian
symbol or a gathering of Hindus but after a bomb surfaced at an
auditorium in a Mumbai suburb, Thane a few days ago. Presumably, his
burning desire to take on the ‘mini Pakistanis’ that made him to
revive his idea of a ‘Hindu suicide squad’.
The Shiv Sena supremo would have been a little disappointed that his
call in the name of defending the Hindus did not get an overt and warm
approval from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party of self-appointed
custodians of the Hindus in the country. While most senior leaders of
the BJP preferred to hide behind silence, one of them, Venkaiah Naidu,
BJP once, said nobody should be allowed to take the law into his own
hands.
In fact, Thackeray’s own son Uddhav, the ‘executive’ head of Shiv
Sena, was reported as saying that the Shiv Sena did not need suicide
squads because Shiv Sainiks were quite powerful on their own. He could
not have openly denounced the Thackeray senior but he perhaps did
indicate that talking about suicide squads was politically incorrect.
BJP’s official silence may be studied and tactical, considering the
fact that the countdown for the next Lok Sabha poll has begun. Saner
elements within the Sangh Parivar, of which the BJP is the political
arm and the Shiv Sena an honorary member, might do well to weigh the
pros and cons of implementing Thackeray’s suggestion for raising a
force of Hindu terrorists.
The very first point to ponder is: has terrorism achieved anything?
The so-called Islamic terrorists have only added to the woes of their
fellow religionists all over the world. Indeed, they have done a
singularly harmful service to the very religion in whose name they
justify their wanton and murderous acts.
One of the arguments given by some to justify acts of terrorism is
that territories like Israel and Kashmir have to be ‘liberated’ and
their ‘infidel’ occupiers have to be sent to their doom. The truth is
that Israel has fortified itself so much that its ‘annihilation’ in
order to convert it into a Palestinian territory looks like a dream.
The goal of establishing a peaceful, prosperous and sovereign state of
Palestine alongside Israel looks more distant than at the time of
earlier ‘peace’ accords. As for Kashmir, one thing that has become
abundantly clear is that the Kashmiris themselves are getting tired of
terrorism and blame it for ruining their paradise-like valley.
It would have pleased Thackeray that the forces that had transported
and then sustained terrorism in Kashmir are now paying a heavy price
for their thoughtless acts that have brought them the same misery they
had set out to inflict on India. Terrorism is clearly a double-edged
weapon that should be kept away for one’s own safety.
There is no doubt that the world has an overwhelming negative view on
terrorism. Suicide squads form an important ingredient of terrorism.
It will require no survey to prove that very few people on this earth
actually support terrorism, which the majority of human beings
associate with mindless acts of brutal murder and indiscriminate
destruction of life and property.
If the Shiv Sena chief thinks that terrorism is exclusively a Muslim
phenomenon, he would like to know that ordinary persons in Muslim
countries dislike terrorism as much as anyone else elsewhere. The
reason is simple; most ordinary people, irrespective of their religion
or country, would like to live in peace to carry out their daily
chores and live their lives as well as they can afford.
The few who do support terror philosophy do so for their own interest
by misinterpreting their religion. Their purpose would appear to be
political in the ultimate analysis because their professed aim is to
run the world in a manner they think it should be.
Welfare of ordinary people, meeting their basic daily needs or
establishing an equal and just society—things that normal human being
want—do not figure in their agenda. It is difficult to imagine that
the kind of world the terrorists seek can ever attract the majority of
human beings, even from a single religion.
Thackeray does not seem to realise that he is talking about a concept—
terrorism and suicide squad---that has drawn strong universal
disapproval and caused immense damage to Islam. Does it occur to him
that the world reaction would be no different if another religious
group adopts the same tactics? Is that how he wants to serve the
Hindus?
- Syndicate Features -
.
- Prev by Date: Fresh clashes in Kashmir land row
- Next by Date: Pakistan thanked for preserving Buddhist sites
- Previous by thread: Fresh clashes in Kashmir land row
- Next by thread: Pakistan thanked for preserving Buddhist sites
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
