From mutiny to madness
GEORGE Patton, an American general who fought in both World Wars, explained that the object of war was not to die for one's country but to make the enemy die for his. The soldiers who died and the soldiers who killed in the mutiny of 25th February at Pilkhana weren't mutual enemies. For God's sake, neither did they come from two different countries. Yet one side so fiercely slaughtered the other, its depravity has left us gasping in pain.
On the surface, it looked like a nourishment of rage, subalterns going into a frenzy of retribution against their superiors. That's how it appeared on the first day of the mutiny when gun-totting soldiers, faces covered with red scarves, shouted grievances into television cameras. As we were to find soon, those scarves actually weren't hiding their faces but their guilty minds. They already had blood in their hands.
In retrospect, the entire tragedy hinges on a crucial question. Was it a mutiny at all? A mutiny has a professional goal, a metaphysical objective, guided by the higher principles of human existence. This mutiny was conceived in madness, aimless and mindless. Now we hear that outsiders may have pulled the strings, so much so that they even donned BDR uniform and fired the guns, which mowed down the officers. The entire thing was conducted in the manner of an ethnic cleansing. The killers wanted to systematically eliminate the entire structure of command.
In 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty, Marlon Brando famously played the role of Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, who was told by his captain:"Your mutiny hasn't succeeded." Fletcher replied:"Perhaps not. But success enough if it puts an end to you." Sooner or later, the mutineers are going to have this conversation. What have they achieved at the cost of so many lives? What was the real object of this mutiny? Was it to put an end to their miseries or simply to get rid of their officers?
Hope those who have been captured and those who are still on the lam will realize someday that both couldn't be the same thing. Hope they will also realize that this is where the mutiny lost its sense of direction and descended into madness. Perhaps this is where the instigators turned the game on the head. This where the mutiny left skidmarks of going off the road. Instead of getting their demands met, the BDR men were either inveighled into killing their officers or mentally disarmed to quietly watch while others went on killing them.
We can debate until the last star falls from the sky whether the conspiracy had fueled the mutiny or the mutiny had fired the conspiracy. But this is one reason why the mystery of this mutiny might never lift its shroud. We are looking for eveidnce of foreign involvement in the mutiny. It leaves a component of the problem outside the country. We are also talking about foreign involvement, FBI from the USA and Scotland Yard from the UK, to investigate the mutiny. Again, this is going to leave a component of the solution outside the country.
Since we are inclined to look outside the country, why not look for best practice? How did India handle the worst terrorist attack on its soil last November? It didn't seek help from FBI or Scotland Yard. Instead, politicians and officials accepted responsibility and stepped down. The first resignation came four days after the attack. They owned up the problem before they looked for a solution.
In our case, we have focused too much on the smoke and not enough on the fire. Nobody has taken responsibility, but someone must have failed to do what he should have done. Somone was obviously sleeping on the job. I am not talking about the conspirators and perpetrators of the mutiny. I am talking about those who were responsible to guard the guards. Looked from every angle, this mutiny, before, during and after, has been a huge management failure.
The country is seething with rage, and we don't know what the investigations are going to reveal. We don't know whether it was a global conspiracy on local strength or a local conspiracy on global strength. In thirty-eight years, this country went through the psychosis of loss and grief, not once but several times. In the past, we have hidden the facts as if hiding the wound was going to hide the pain.
But this time it has hit us home like never before, thanks to television. It beamed into our bedrooms the vivid images of an ongoing bloodshed. If we try to hide the truth again, it won't hide the pain. Nothing but the whole truth alone will heal this wound.
Those who forget their wounds are condemned to get hurt again and again.
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