When Terror Strikes

An ugly truth for this great nation is that terrorism has become part of our times. Most of us live our lives with the knowledge that something somewhere can always go wrong. But this is a different kind of war; the enemy is not on the other side but is probably among us. The forces who want to destroy us may be in another country but the great tragedy is that on every occasion when they have struck, we have had local collaborators. Until these traitorous local collaborators are not eliminated the threat will be the sword that hangs over our head.

When terror strikes, the least that the media and the powers that be can do is act and speak appropriately, in a fashion that is responsible and sensitive. The primary concern should be tending for the victims and helping the relatives of the victims. The secondary concern is to act fast so that if possible the perpetrators can be apprehended.

The final concern is the dissemination of information in a fashion that is objective and devoid of any speculations or conjecture. Great precautions need to be taken not to hamper the investigation or aid the perpetrators by revealing locations or identities. For the leader irrespective of his or her political proclivity it is essential that politics is forgotten and solidarity is shown, it is important for all parties to come together and send a clear message to the perpetrators that we stand together against the war on terror. 

Also as an intellectual exercise, it is important to investigate the reason why the terrorists did what they did; this will also prove a useful tool in the war on terror. But the determination of cause is not instantaneous, it is a painstaking hour or days or months or even years investigation to re-trace the footsteps of the terrorists to determine the motivation. In many cases, it may be impossible to do so without indulging in conjecture. It is also essential that if terror has no religion than terror victims have no religion either but here we see the exact opposite happening.

So now let’s take the recent example of the Assam terror attack. The media was busy with the flavor of the week Priyanka Gandhi going ballistic on the campaign trail. Hence the reporting was fairly low key which is perhaps a blessing in disguise. But then something happened, a few journalists who took to Twitter to blame the attack on Mr. Modi. Now it is no secret that many in the media despise Mr. Modi and would blame him for everything from their toothache to the diabolical heatwave in Mumbai. These media persons (perhaps funded by vested interests) go about spreading a vicious lie about Mr. Modi. We the people and  Mr. Modi himself have learned to ignore them. Then there was Union Minister Kapil Sibal to joined the bandwagon and blamed Mr. Modi for the violence , the following day Omar Abdullah did the same.

Thus shamefully, politics were played on the corpse of the victims of this horrendous attack without any compunction. There was a time when we the people looked up to leaders to be role models sadly in an attempt to score petty political points that reputation is fast eroding. We also looked up to journalists as the propagators of truth, alas in some case for ideological and in other cases for pecuniary reasons, that reputation is corroding as well.

These irresponsible statements are also serious since the investigations have just begun and that there is no conclusive evidence to establish the identities of the perpetrators or their motivations, although the ground reports seem to suggest that the acts bear all the hallmarks of a Bodo separatist attack. The responsibility for the violence must only be blamed on the terrorists and nobody else. Blaming anybody else for giving a speech is supporting making excuses for the terrorists and supporting their cause and justifying the violence and loss of life. In this war on terror, there are no positions of neutrality, if you make excuses for terrorists you have chosen their side.

Also, Mr. Sibal seems to forget that Assam is under the leadership of a Congress-ruled government and if he is suggesting that a speech by Mr.Modi can cause such a devastating effect, he is also suggesting the gross incompetence of the Congress government.

So let’s take several steps back and understand once again that this was a terrorist attack, innocent lives were lost, we need to pay tributes to the victims, stand by, and rehabilitate the survivors. We need to hunt down the perpetrators and create systems that prevent this from ever happening again.

Heartless politicians have never felt any compunction in baking their bread over the funeral pyres of the victims, but the victims should know that these are a minority and the rest of India feels their pain. Hopefully, a change is on its way that will curb such petty and divisive attitudes and propagate a tone of unity and positivity.