Death in Varanasi- Gautam Sen -Pioneer

[Guest guest]

country suggests that India's national bird should be an ostrich ratherthan a

peacock since wilful self-denial is the hallmark of its people.The mass murder

is anything but mindless, unfailingly orchestrated by India'snewly disco! vered

dear friend General Musharraf, for whom the world's media,Indian included, is

lost for words coining paeans of praise. So bedraggled and morally bankrupt is

India's English language television thatit's entirely appropriately imitating

in every detail the execrable BBC, themost determined surreptitious apologist

of Islamic terror. One particularly diminterviewee insisted yesterday that

Varanasi was like Mecca, while theinterviewer confessed breathlessly to 'being

frightened', presumably at apotential backlash rather than for the

inconsequential dead Hindu worshippersof Varanasi.As it happens, at the last

count, there were no Hindu temples in Mecca though Icould be wrong, nor are

kafirs

allowed into Islam's sacred city. Varanasiitself, by contrast, is barely a

sacred Hindu city since it is now teeming withmosques. Adding insult to injury,

at a moment of rising anger and profounddistress, was the utterly deceitful

suggestion that Muslims regarded the SankatMochan temple as somehow worthy of

respect because Bismillah Khan played there.Is there no end to arrogance and

deceit, no respect for the dead, noself-respect?Just in case there is any

misunderstanding, friend Gen Musharraf is letting hisIndian supplicants know

that President Bush may come and go and goodies mayflow, but Pakistan will

always be there. And tormenting India is its soleraison d'être and its GNP is

mainly in the business of producing and exportingterror. As it happens, it is

the hand of their friend, Gen Musharraf, the truly worthy successor to Jinnah,

that is always behindterror attacks in India. He controls the ISI personally on

a daily

basis and itis they who train, fund and despatch its killers to do their deadly

work. Andsuch activities barely register on their moral Richter scale since

they remainunpunished for monumental crimes in Bangladesh during 1971. And now

we have afemale descendant of Subhas Bose being quoted triumphantly by the

Pakistaniarmy, denying that it ever committed mass rapes in Bangladesh during

1971!The Indo-US accord may be an unfortunate necessity, despite all

theincomprehensible opposition to it, but the counsel of many, that a very

longspoon is imperative while supping with the US, is well taken. A

half-hourexamination of what the US has done to Iraq and its people should

remove anyillusions about US propensity for honesty and goodwill. Alas, supping

with theUS has become an unavoidable necessity for India though remaining alert

to thedanger of betrayal must remain a constant refrain.It also needs to be

recognised that the US

will choose Pakistan over India ifpush comes to shove. And, of course, the price

that Americans are prepared topay for snubbing Gen Musharraf, because US

domestic politics no longer permitsthe earlier carte blanche sanctioned by the

evil Dick Cheney for Pakistan'snuclear programme, is always denominated in the

bodies of dead Hindu women andchildren.Yet every bomb blast, leaving a trail of

dead, consolidates the minorityvote-bank in India, benefiting its unbearably

misnamed secular parties. It ishardly credible that India's cynical politicians

have allowed this marvelloushappenstance to escape their attention. Hindus react

by performing the sad last rites on their loved ones because theyhave no

defenders in the quasi-Islamic State that India has already become.Muslims

simply go out to vote in larger numbers and with greater conviction infavour of

their temporary Hindu surrogates as Jamat leader Ansari, honourably,made

clear in a public meeting at the IIC that I attended.This is the price India's

ruling elites are! prepared to pay in the unseemly andno-holds-barred scramble

for the additional 40 or so parliamentary seats theyrequire to rule the roost

in Delhi unhindered. Never has secular politicsanywhere been so steeped in

communal blood and the voiceless distress of one'sown kin.The pro forma Muslim

denunciations of violence lack all conviction since nothingis allowed to happen

in the interim that might reduce the Islamic truculence,fuelled by lies and

incitement that constitute the backdrop to murderingHindus.The restoration for

POTA is not a measure Muslim leaders are now demanding forthe security of their

Hindu 'brethren' nor the scrutiny of illegal aliensnurturing assassins in their

midst. Business as usual, until the next bomb andmore dead Hindus, while

worshipping in the most sacred sites in their owncountry.The

expressions of sympathy remind! one of a goat being petted with knowingcynicism

just before its head is due to be chopped off. As for the defenders

ofcivilisation, the less said the better because their credibility is at

nadir.Their behaviour reminds one of communities who navigated successfully,

makingmoney and duplicitously betraying fellow Hindus, at the height of Muslim

powerin India.By now, any self-respecting country would have announced its

intention ofbreaking off diplomatic relations with both Pakistan and

Bangladesh. Theborders should also be sealed and new paramilitaries raised to

enforce it. Ifthere is opposition to such a move from the Government of West

Bengal, anational emergency should be declared. No more than two divisions will

berequired to pacify the region. It took only a few months and two divisions,

ifI recall correctly, to crush the ! Leftist menace in 1972 though the

campaignwas masterminded by India's

greatest military genius since Shivaji. Asystematic and ruthless rooting out of

infiltrators and terrorists requiresthat the two officers most capable of

accomplishing it, one from the IPS andthe other the IB, who have worked

together in the Punjab and the Northeast inthe past, should be given a free

hand. The one word they should be debarredfrom uttering is mercy.Any third

country, like puny Australia or Sweden, raising human rights concerns,should

have their historical record thrust in their face and diplomaticrelations

downgraded. It may cost the country, but given India's size, theeconomy can

easily survive. Furthermore, India should be prepared to enter intoa

full-fledged alliance with Shia Iran, exchanging energy for whatever

Iranseeks.India is at war and normal rules of diplomacy no longer apply.

Finally, anybusiness house seeking to subvert national security by lobbying for

Pakistan,often the real problem in

India beneath the surface, should simply beextinguished. India's survival as a

nation is at stake and nothing less willdo. Enough is enough!

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