India for sale
madhu basetti
( There are many threads running on the issue of terrotism
and human rights in this news group. I have come across the following
article wriiten by Varsha Bhosle (D/O Asha Bhosle) , a regular
columist in www.rediffindia.com. )
"India for sale"
Last week, I caught former Punjab police chief K
P S Gill being interviewed by the anchors on
STAR News. The questions posed were as are to be
expected from the media - with a slant on
India's security forces being irresponsible and
her citizens mostly consisting of tortured
victims of police brutality. Mr Gill gave curt
and cogent replies, till Barkha Dutt asked,
"Don't you think terrorism should be handled
sensitively?"
Mr Gill looked utterly lost (in his place, I'd
have used my gun). After a long pause, he said:
"Let me put it to you, how does one handle
terrorism sensitively?" Is terrorism the
delicate act of delivering babies? Hell, no! It
delivers innocents, yes. To harp-land.
The suicide of former Tarn Taran Senior
Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh Sandhu, who
threw himself before the speeding Himalayan
Queen Express on 23 May, has raised valid
questions about the predicament of the police.
But that's only my take on things; according to
the Times of India, it has "led to a fresh
debate about the means adopted by the Punjab
police to wipe out militancy from the state."
The fact remains that Mr Sandhu is credited with
stamping out terrorism from Tarn Taran - once
known as the capital of Khalistan - and had
personally led armed encounters and ambushes
during the worst phase of terrorism in Punjab.
He was responsible for the killing of Gurbachan
Singh Manochal, chief of the dreaded
Bhindranwale Tiger Force, and several other
lynch-pin terrorists.
Naturally, the SSP had thus drawn the attention
of Punjab-based human rights groups: Mr Gill
affirmed that the state is rife with
organisations that are fronts for foreign
agencies and which have turned litigation into
an art with which to neutralise the police. At
the time of his death, Mr Sandhu had 43 cases
registered against him and was facing trial in
several lawsuits of rights violations, including
the murder of a civil liberties activist.
Last year, he was suspended from the force and
remanded to judicial custody - where he'd been
attacked by hard-core terrorist Nishan Singh
Kalanaur. After being released on bail, Mr
Sandhu sank into depression, spending all his
time at home or in the courts. The day he died,
he was scheduled to attend a hearing on an
application seeking the cancellation of his
bail... A suicide note recovered from his car
read, "Jalaalat ki zindagi nalon mar jana changa
hai" (It's better to die than to live a life of
degradation).
It has me wondering about these human rights
groups and their liberal champions. True, the
police have to be made accountable; checks are
necessary; absolute power corrupts absolutely...
But terrorism is not a problem that can be
tackled gingerly. Terrorists do not recognise
human rights. They attack not only the police
and the army, but civilians, too. And they don't
wear uniforms.
The forces which fight them need special laws
and privileges - for they face death for us: we,
who don't have the balls to do what they do to
keep the country intact. What the Punjab police
underwent, and what the security forces are
undergoing in Kashmir, is nothing less than a
low-intensity war.
Two days after Mr Sandhu killed himself, and
while senior police officers were issuing
statements decrying the propriety of the
inquiries, there was a furor among civil
libertarians (a full-page highlight by ToI) over
the government's move to bring in another
anti-terrorist law to replace the repealed
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention)
Act. You see, never mind the severe
anti-terrorist laws the liberals' masters pass,
India just cannot have one...
The US has the Antiterrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act which was rushed to passage in time
for the first anniversary of the attack on the
federal building in Oklahoma City. The
Washington Post said, "As the name of the
legislation suggests, the bill became a vehicle
for new restrictions on appeals to federal
courts by death row inmates, provisions
long-sought by some GOP leaders but not directly
related to terrorism of any sort...
Like many other laws enacted by the 104th
Congress, President Clinton signed it
reluctantly and members of both parties
expressed some satisfaction and some dismay with
what they had accomplished." No matter how
"reluctantly" (Ha!), the law *was* passed.
In Britain, The Times of April 3, 1996 reported,
"The Prevention of Terrorism (Additional Powers)
Bill took less than 11 hours to work its way
through the Commons. The Lords have made it
clear that they will not amend the Bill when
they debate it this morning and by tonight it
should be law. At Westminster, few MPs and civil
servants could remember a day like it. Emergency
Bills are used only when the country is
considered to be facing a crisis and the
Opposition and the Lords give their support."
Please note that TADA, whose low conviction rate
is a moot point for its detractors, was modelled
on the British PTB - and the conviction rate
under the latter, too, is less than one per
cent.
All this haste when Britain has just the IRA to
contend with. India has Khalistanis,
Jamait-e-Islami, Hurriyat Conference,
Jamait-Al-Quran Hadis, Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra
Kazhagam, Al-Ummah, Islamic Movement of India,
Student Islamic Movement of India, Islamic Youth
Centre, People's Democratic Party, Jihad
Committee, Muslim United Liberation Tigers of
Assam, Muslim Volunteer Force, Muslim United
Liberation Front of Assam, Muslim Liberation
Front of Assam; the Christian Mizo National
Front; the China-funded National Socialist
Council of Nagaland; ULFA, LTTE...
Tell you what, I'll do a separate piece on
terrorist groups another day. Oh, and I haven't
listed gangsters who fall in the disruptive
activities slot... BTW, these details are culled
from national newspapers: I don't make up tales,
as some dingbats in Arena suggest. Also, truth
isn't "minority-bashing."
But such is the perversity of secular Indians.
In March, the masthead story in The Bombay Times
screamed, "Zubeida will turn three years old
this July. Daughter of Rahin and Yakub Memon,
two of the 11 members of the Memon family
charged with masterminding the March 12, 1993
bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai... The chances of
Zubeida's reunion with her parents seem dim...
these *poor* people do not have the money to
pursue the case till the Supreme Court." Excuse
me while I barf, but is this a "human interest"
subject? I wonder why this dipweed didn't do a
similar story on those children who will never
reunite with their fathers - since the latter
were splattered all around Century Bazaar in
1993!
To top that, we had Samajwadi Party MP Raj
Babbar and his cohort Abu Asim Azmi - whose
bail-application for his involvement in the shoe
scam was refused by the Bombay High Court -
agitating for the release of all TADA detenues.
And guess who's real close to Babbar: Defence
Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. I feel very safe,
I'm sure. It is precisely this sort of element
that caused Mr Sandhu to take his own life -
after making Punjab habitable for them.
The police not being insulated against political
interference - as evinced by the transfers of
effective officers to appease whichever "hurt"
entity that demands it - is primarily what
renders cops frustrated and demoralised. In
January 1995, the Intelligence Bureau raided the
Muslim University in Lucknow, arrested the
suspects (including one Pakistani), and had to
release all on orders from the then chief
minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Former director general of the Border Security
Force, Prakash Singh, warned, "(the raid) has
not suited the Mulayam Singh government
politically. The message gone around is not to
take action against the enemies of the State if
it is expected to have a political fallout...
IPS and IAS officials have lost their spine and
are toeing the political line without protest."
Did any of our intellectuals protest? Why would
they? Hey, India's for sale.
If officers who have been previously thwarted at
bringing criminals to justice - checked by
politicians, advocates or human rights groups -
made the most of TADA and used fake encounters
to decimate recognised terrorists and gangsters,
why in God's name should I condemn them? I would
happily let them loose on politicians and civil
libertarians, too.
Last week, a team of human rights activists
visiting Kashmir issued a statement saying it
found the security forces "guilty of random
arrests, torture, fake encounters, rape and
molestation". Care to know what had prompted the
scrutiny? The hunger-strike by Hurriyat
Conference leader Yaseen Malik. Right, now that
we've lost Punjab thanks to the darn Ribeiros,
Gills and Sandhus, let's mess up Kashmir...
In the other corner, the J&K government (not
headed by lying Hindutvawadis, please note)
investigated 2,600 cases of alleged human rights
abuse from January 1992 to September 1996 - and
found 2,288 of them false. A spokesman said that
a large number of complaints were plainly
motivated.
History tells us that Mankind has always waged
war, that there never will be an end in sight.
We take our freedom for granted, but freedom is
won and kept at great cost. The only way we can
remain free is to be prepared to fight for it.
This requires properly trained and equipped
personnel of high morale ready to do battle. To
do less is suicide. To dishearten them is
self-destruction.
Kulbir Singh
madhu basetti (ma...@bio1.bioanalys.gu.se) wrote:
: ( There are many threads running on the issue of terrotism
: and human rights in this news group. I have come across the following
: article wriiten by Varsha Bhosle (D/O Asha Bhosle) , a regular
: columist in www.rediffindia.com. )
: "India for sale"
: History tells us that Mankind has always waged
: war, that there never will be an end in sight.
: We take our freedom for granted, but freedom is
: won and kept at great cost. The only way we can
: remain free is to be prepared to fight for it.
: This requires properly trained and equipped
: personnel of high morale ready to do battle. To
: do less is suicide. To dishearten them is
: self-destruction.
The author should be given credit for being honest. She hasn't
tried to camouflage Brahminical agenda with usual chicanery. However,
the exhortations of brahminical parasites to people who don't have
clean drinking water to fight and die for freedom may not be too
productive. What cost have these parasites themselves paid in
last 1000 years ? Sooner or later, the poor people are going to sense
the cunning and scheming of air-conditioned brand of nationalists and
then they will have to decide how to deal with them. Nuremburg
type of trials or public hanging ?
regards,
kulbir singh