Standing up to terrorism

It is an easy thing to say but a difficult thing to do. It is walking a tightrope. For years Kashmir, the northeast and several other parts of the country have faced the killing of the innocent and the demolition of all that is decent. The bomb blasts in Mumbai only underscores the point. Still there is no other way except the one which upholds the law and stays within the precincts of democracy. Terrorists would like our country to snuff out the norms of a free society. Take, for example, the idea of different communities, with different value systems and religions, living together in amity. The methods of terrorists are a constant challenge to our values and our commitment to pluralism.

They attacked the Gujarati-majority areas, apparently to avenge the killings in Gujarat. But they failed in their intent. Despite fundamentalists, the communities are beginning to appreciate the gains of living in harmony. In fact, for the first time in many years, the Hindu and Muslim divide disappeared after the bomb blasts. Muslims from their localities rushed to rescue Hindus from one of the places of blasts, near the temple. Here the terroriststhree men and one womanhad put powerful bombs in the boot of a taxi which blew and smashed everything around to smithereens, killing and injuring scores of people. Muslims rushed the injured to the nearby hospitals.

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Ordinary people became heroes. Kadir Ghare, a car park attendant, had noticed some school children alighting from a bus earlier. He ran and took them to safety. His colleague, Ismail Attarwala, had seen the 1993 blasts. This time when he saw how scared people were, he tried to give them courage and confidence. And he was successful. For many people were able to take the blasts in their stride.

In contrast, the voluble Pramod Mahajan, the BJP's secretary-general, ranted on a TV network that the President should take over the administration of Maharashtra. This was his prescription to overcome the hatred that the terrorists spread. Instead of appealing to his party-led government at the centre for stepping up the fight against terrorism, he made a political speech to exploit the situation. His associates in the Shiv Sena were not far behind.

I cannot understand why Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's visit to Mumbai was announced when the blasts were not even one hour old and when the TV networks were showing hospitals and the injured. He is mistaken if he thinks that his presence evokes confidence. People still remember his rath yatra which left in its wake a trail of blood and communal hatred in the north Indian states.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi also flew to Mumbai lest it should be said that she was not there at the hour of need. The state government had to put in extra efforts for her security. She probably thought it was worth her while to stand by her party's government.

Advani, more than Mahajan, should realise that President's rule does not change things in any way. The same policemen of the same thana take up the case as has happened in the blast case. The same security apparatus comes into the picture. The same intelligence men try to find out why they did not come to know about the plot beforehand, and where they went wrong. Yes, one change does take place. The New Delhi-appointed governor assumes the charge of the administration. The people's representatives are ousted under the pretext that the constitutional machinery had failed. The BJP and the Shiv Sena, demanding the imposition of President's rule, must have had that point in view.

Maharashtra governor Fazal was a BJP member. He was first appointed the governor of Goa where the BJP tried to form its government despite being in a minority. If such a thinking was at the back of the demand for President's rule in Maharashtra, it would be a crude, undemocratic method to have BJP's rule in the state.

The problem the country faces is bigger than the charges traded by the BJP with the Congress. It is how to deal with terrorism which is spreading in India and taking a parochial shape. America has complicated the process by occupying Iraq on the one hand and standing openly with Israel against the Palestinians on the other. The killings by the Hamas are murders of the worst type. But what Israel is doing to avenge them is not a lesser crime. India is being sucked into what the West considers a war against militant Islam.

Nearer home, Islamabad has condemned the Mumbai blasts. Yet, it would have gone down well if it had initiated fresh action against the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the suspect, which has its headquarters in Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami condemned violence when some of us met its representatives at Karachi in June. They should speak out against the killing of the innocent at Mumbai if they had not done so already. Fazlur Rehman, head of six religious parties (MMA), who had left a lot of goodwill in India, should have been the first to criticise the Lashkar. His representative has in fact criticised New Delhi.

Terrorism is now a fact of life. We have to live with it. And we have to think of ways to eliminate it. This cannot be done by accommodating differences, nor by the centre taking over the state where it rears its head. The BJP has a penchant for President's rule. After having appointed the RSS-BJP men as governors, practically in all states, the first thing that the party thinks of is the imposition of President's rule after any incident because that allows the governor to run the administration. The same formula is being suggested for the UP imbroglio. That the BJP will sit in the opposition is understandable because it does not have the number. In any case, it came to power through questionable methods. But to suggest President's rule when Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav can prove his majority on the floor of the house is to throw all norms to the wind.

In fact, when the history of the past few years of Uttar Pradesh politics is written, the BJP would be held responsible for flouting every rule, with the help of the Speaker, to stay in power. The BJP has broken every democratic norm. It has ruined the state politically, economically and socially.

Here is a party which speaks of values. Some were taken in by its pious slogans. But power is all that it requires. By shutting eyes to corruption and criminalisation which Mayawati, who became chief minister with the BJP's help, was indulging in the party has set a precedent which will be difficult to efface.

Power is no answer to the problems that the country faces. But the BJP seems to believe in the theory of gaining power by hook or by crook.and sustaining it through dubious ways.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.