Terror Is Not The Enemy, Wilful Blindness Is

I suppose it will take something really terrible, something even worse than 26/11 to wake up our government. Maybe something as dramatic as 9/11 attack with thousands dying might stand a better chance, although I can’t be so sure anymore. Nothing else can explain the pussyfooting on terrorism by the Congress. Let me first warn you – those who say “don’t politicise terror, terror has no religion, nation must unite, we will not succumb” are the ones most misleading the nation. The worst of these has to be “bombs don’t know who they kill”. These pearls of wisdom have been so drilled into our minds that people in charge and in the media have even stopped asking the right questions. A larger war is being confused for terrorism. A larger master-plan is being cleverly cloaked by frequently invoking Hindu terror by politicians and the media. The term ‘Islamic Jihad’ has even disappeared from the lexicon of the media and government. Instead, the media wilfully sings the same song as the Congress to spread a fear of Saffron terror. Rahul Gandhi even sets the agenda by suggesting Hindu Terror is more dangerous than LeT. His mentor, Digvijay Singh, takes many steps forward by clouding every terror incident by pointing fingers at Hindu terrorists.

War on terror? Even the media keeps harping - War on terror! Hmmm! You cannot win or wage a war if you don’t even know who your enemy is or refuse to acknowledge the reality of the enemy. And that is Jihad.

In response to the 7/9 Delhi blast the PM stated “it’s a cowardly act”! Seriously, it’s not the jihadis who are cowards anymore. The cowards are those who are wilfully blind to Jihad.  The jihadis are willing to die for their cause just as a soldier in uniform is willing to die for the nation. The Jihadis go back and report to their masters another successful battle. What do our ministers report? They send out messages to the people that are becoming increasingly unbearable to tolerate for us as their bosses. The people, unfortunately, have to tolerate both – the jihadis and an incompetent govt. It’s a lose-lose proposition for all citizens.

For the sake of argument let’s assume Hindu terror is a bigger threat as Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and P. Chidambaram would have the nation believe. What exactly is the objective of Hindu terrorists? Do they want to conquer India? Do they want to over throw a democratically elected government? At worst, these could be revenge-thirsty elements of the Hindu fringe. In contrast the Jihadis have a long term plan. And terrorism is just one part of their entire plan of action. I repeat, terrorism is just one part of their overall plan.

There are pockets in India like Deganga (Bengal) where Hindus and their temples are being repeatedly attacked and they are being forced out of town. There are places like Miraj (Maha) and Adoni (AP) where Ganesh pandals are frequently attacked. There are places like Ahmedabad where Rath Yatras are frequently stoned. Sure, let’s dismiss all this as mere communal incidents. There is a news item today which reports the Muthoot group, a finance company, which has ordered dress codes and banned wearing of ‘bindis’. How do you explain that? There are pockets in Kerala which administer Sharia justice by chopping off arms. In response to the Batla house encounter some years back there were those who smeared brave police officers. One prominent media favourite even went to suggest muslims are like jews under the Nazis. So on hand you have the politician-media nexus which covers up the jihadi truth and then you have pockets where you have creeping sharia. Why? The motivation is vote bank politics.

It is weird and even absolutely idiotic to think that every nook and corner of a vast country like India can be secured by policing and technology. It is impossible. Security at strategic locations is a must but you don’t win wars by defending. You win wars by taking the offensive to the enemy. It’s as simple as that. So who is the enemy? Terror is a strategy, it is not the enemy by itself. Col. Allen West of the US army (now a Congressman) put it brilliantly when he asked – “How intelligent would it be during second world war if we identified Blitzkreig as the enemy”? Blitzkreig was a strategy, the enemy was Hitler’s Nazi. Similarly, terror is a strategy. You cannot wage a silly war on terror, you have to wage it against the enemy. The enemy here is the Jihadi. And this is where the govt is wilfully blind and repeatedly fools the nation.

Strangely the PM again made a silly statement: “Terrorists are using loopholes in our security”. What the hell is that supposed to mean? That one day you will eliminate all loopholes? Is that even possible? And the media can’t stop screaming that every terror attack is a wake up call that we need ‘fool-proof’ security. Is there really anything like fool-proof security? The dunderheads that the media assembles after every terror attack do more damage to the morale of the nation than reassuring it. “The objective of terrorists is to strike fear” says HM P.Chidambaram. And you didn’t get that in over 20 years of terrorism?

The truth of the matter is that the seeds of the Jihad were sown when the 1971 war ended. Bhutto had then declared a 1000-year holy war against India. What you’re seeing now is that war being prosecuted by the Jihadists. Terror is one of their tools. The jihad started 40 years ago. The one person who has correctly identified this enemy in the media is prominent journalist M.J. Akbar. In July 2010 he wrote an article titled “Only 960 years left”. That’s right, of the 1000-year holy Jihad 960 are left to go. That is when terror will end. When the Jihadists might manage to finally overthrow India’s democracy and establish India as an Islamic Republic. The PM did say “it will be a long war”! It is just that he doesn’t know who the war is against. Terror is not the enemy. Jihadists are.

At the foundation of the 1000 year jihad is Pakistan. One of the finer security experts in the media, Maroof Raza, has correctly analysed our dealings with Pakistan as the cause of the mayhem that is continuing and will continue. There cannot be any peace, any aman (As TOI preaches) with a country that is hell bent on destroying India. You have the violent strategy of terror executed by some warriors. The non-violent warriors are executing things like ‘Love-Jihad’ in Kerala. The govt fears revealing or even dealing with the truth due to electoral concerns. So is terrorism going away soon? Forget it. Someday it might be your turn and mine.

It is a strange irony that the first major security response to the Delhi blast has been to enhance the security of P. Chidambaram. The pussyfooting of the govt over issues of security and terror is best brought out by former CBI Director, Joginder Singh. In his article “The silent invasion of India” he states “Illegal immigration from Pakistan and Bangladesh poses a serious threat to our internal security. Thanks to vote-bank politics, our politicians are indifferent.” That illegal population may have many enemies within. The multiple strategy of the Jihadis – terror, demographics, cultural terror, electoral badgering and playing victim. Before you know  it, these illegals may well be regularised by the UID scheme of the govt. Brilliant strategy! Of these, terror gets the most attention because it is violent, causes death and is dramatic for the media. The other not so visible parts of this Jihad is not so visible on your screens all the time. That is a war that is being prosecuted covertly.

The govt appoints NIA and other such outlets which have been used more to spread the canard of saffron terror. We are yet to see at least 3 visible and result-oriented actions by the govt. It can start by conducting a massive combing to flush out illegals, cutting off all dialogue with Pakistan no matter what the compulsion and declaring an official war against the Jihadis. The war against terror is as much bullshit entertainer as your usual saas-bahu soaps on TV. And most of all, Congress should get rid of a monumental nation-divider like Digvijay Singh. It takes patriots to fight wars, not communal nation-dividers like Digvijay.

If all that is not enough you have a bunch of specially appointed interlocutors for Kashmir who want to restore the state to pre-1953 status. Well, that is precisely what the Jihadis want too, don’t they? They want to restore India centuries back to Islamic rule. Many citizens have woken up to this reality. It is our govt and the compliant media that continues to suppress the reality of the war.

The first step to winning a war is identifying the enemy. The govt and the media will repeatedly carry us through the maze of nonsense like more CCTVs, more beat cops, police reforms, technology … all of that can only be of moderate defence. You don’t need “intelligence” anymore to tell you Islamic Jihadists are your enemy. They have been so for over two decades. Going after them is the only answer. Will the govt do so? I doubt, and so many more will die and acts of terrorism will continue.

The Congress and the govt seem to exist not to serve the nation but the care-taking of the dynasty and to concote election-winning populist measures and vote-banks. The secrecy of Sonia Gandhi’s illness, protecting her from any criticism, protecting Rahul Gandhi from every failure. If that is the chosen agenda where will the govt find the time to even start to fight the terrorists. Tavleen Singh writes: “Dynastic democracy has so derailed democratic processes that we have been ruled by an unelected prime minister since 2004. He was appointed by a lady whose own entry into public life was based wholly on marrying into the right dynasty. In recent weeks, it became blindingly clear that what India needed most was a real prime minister…”.

Strategy expert Brahma Chellaney  tweets: "When a nation fails to execute for years a man sentenced to death for attacking its Parliament, it will only make its courts a terror target." Those are targets they managed to hit. Many others may very well be on their table.

Terror is not the enemy. It’s a strategic tactic, the Jihadists are the enemies. Will the govt have the courage to acknowledge that and begin the real war? If they don’t, we will just have to grow up or die! 

Fai-re Fighting - Padgaonkar Must Go

The names of many people who attended various conferences of ISI backed Ghulam Nabi Fai are now coming out in bits and pieces. Frankly, it is not a crime or sin to have attended Fai’s conferences. We have been having conferences with seditious speeches right in the heart of Delhi. Most of these prominent personalities have claimed not to have known Fai’s ISI links when they accepted his invitations on sponsored trips to these conferences. However, the writings and statements of some of the participants in the public domain will now come under scrutiny. If, for some reason, the FBI has managed to nail him only now it is obvious Fai wouldn’t go around advertising his real sponsors. At the same time it is just as hard to believe that these participants were naïve enough to not know Fai’s anti-India position on the Kashmir issue. Fai had also selected Indians whose views matched or supported his agenda in some ways. It is also strange that seasoned journalists and others who were in the Fai network never ever wondered how he got his funding and never bothered to ask. There is one particular journalist who was a participant and is currently playing an important role in the Kashmir issue: Dileep Padgaonkar.

"We are here to look for a permanent solution to the Kashmir issue...but a permanent solution is not possible without the involvement of Pakistan." That was the statement Dileep Padgaonkar made immediately after being appointed interlocutor for Kashmir. That statement had created quite some controversy but it will now be viewed in the light of the Fai revelations. From reports it also appears that his Fai connection has created some unease among other interlocutors.

It is worth reading the excerpt below from a news article:

“Fai, by contrast, was quiet, conservative, but well-heeled, which was bit of a mystery because he was not technically employed by the Pakistani government or its embassy (we know only now from the FBI that he was bankrolled by ISI through phony Pakistani-American donations)…….. He was a pleasant man, but he had shady written all over him.

I had a just one encounter with Fai early on, and it did not go well. He lectured me on Kashmiri history and hectored me on the atrocities by Indian forces. With collegiate insouciance, I told him I've much to learn about the history of Kashmir, but he could start by telling me origin of the name Kashmir and Srinagar. He got the point, turned red in the face, changed the subject, and collared me on the plebiscite issue. I asked if he thought Pakistan would abide by the terms of the UN Resolution (which required withdrawal of its forces from PoK and allowed India to keep minimum number of troops to maintain order). And would Pakistan be able to get back the areas of Kashmir it had ceded to China? And how about restoring the demographics of that time (ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri pundits was already underway), not to speak of the relative harmony that existed at that time? I was never invited to another Fai event…….I don't particularly share the current lynch mob perspective in India over the dozen or so eminence grise from India who attended Fai's gigs, and perhaps enjoyed his hospitality. You had to be daft not to realize that he peddled the Pakistani line on the Kashmir issue but it would have required extraordinary acuity to discern he was an ISI stooge.”

That was Chidanand Rajghattawriting in the Times of India. Rajghatta writes for the same journal that DP once headed as editor. Now, if he could sense something shady about Fai in one single encounter surely people like Padgaonkar aren’t so dumb as to not see something fishy about the guy.

There are other reports that the Indian foreign office was aware of Fai’s ISI connections for two decades now. Strange that many of the Indians who participated in his programs would have never spoken to the foreign office or the Indian embassy in the US. Prior to his emails it seems he used to send out hate-filled faxes and the Indian embassy in Washington had coined the term ‘fax-terrorism’ for him. Sounds funnier when you learn he was arrested in Fairfax, Virginia.

There are others like Rajinder Sachar, former judge and ‘Sachar Committee’ author of the ‘minority muslims’ report. Clearly, that report will now be suspect and for good reasons too. One of the best defences of the Fai connections came from Gautam Navlakha. On being asked about the junkets sponsored by Fai, Navlakha clarified that the travel was not by ‘business’ class but by ‘economy’ class. A long term enemy without cannot succeed much if we do not have enemies within. It is often referred to as ‘The fifth column’. Knowingly or unknowingly some Indians have indeed played the role of the fifth column. Some of Fai’s Indians may also have been paid for their speeches. Time will tell.

Padgaonkar’s utterances immediately on taking over as Kashmir interlocutor were already suspect. The Fai revelations have only added fuel to speculation about his “usefulness”! Given these events his position as an interlocutor in Kashmir is untenable. Padgaonkar must quit that post immediately.

The Good Neighbour

The good neighbours

Putting the nation first is the last thing that is on the minds of some of our media and celebrities. Following the disclosures of David Headley in the current trial of Tawahur Rana CNN-IBN was the first to scroll through the day ‘CNN-IBN was the first to expose the ISI links to 26/11 in July 2010’! Sure, we all remember that. We also remember Rajdeep Sardesai was the first man on the moon, don’t we? The race to claim being the first to break something or being the one to reveal some story even where it concerns national interests is the most shameful part of our media. Not to be left behind NDTV pulls out Mahesh Bhatt for his comments on Headley’s testimony. Hmmm wait! Mahesh Bhatt? The guy whose son was linked to this same Headley?

As the worst terrorist attack on Pakistani soil, at PNS Mehran, concluded the Tawahur Rana trial was under way. A message to CNN-IBN : any idiot in India knew the ISI and Pakistan are connected to the 26/11 attacks and many previous terrorist attacks. We don’t need the wisdom of CNN-IBN to educate us on this. These events follow the discovery and killing of Osama Bin Laden in a mansion near Islamabad. I suppose CNN-IBN knew Osama’s hideout too but for reasons of security must have suppressed the info. They are very conscientious. After all CNN-IBN showed the same concern in suppressing the cash-for-votes tapes in 2008. Remember that?

Anyway, now that Pakistan stands thoroughly and undeniably exposed some of our people need to hang their heads in shame. Shahrukh Khan, Mahesh Bhatt, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Barkha Dutt, Salman Khan, Mani Shankar Aiyar and, of course, Times Of India. Collectively these entities form the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ club in India. I am quite certain Shahrukh Khan would love to have Pakis around his house and as his neighbours. It would bring him great joy to see bombs falling all around or on his house every second day. That must be a thrill. What about Times of India? The earliest media outlet to back out on its promise “we will never forget” about 26/11. In just a year since 26/11 they came out with that crap called ‘Aman Ki Asha’. Song and dance with Pakistanis, a few awards here and there, a few matrimonial ads in their columns from across the border and TOI has proved it has strong memories of the 26/11 atrocities.

One of the worst mistakes Atal Behari Vajpayee ever made was to invite that war criminal Musharraf to a summit in July 2001. This was after Kargil. Few months after the failed summit, our parliament was attacked by terrorists. Since then our media has a great fascination for frequently having this war criminal lecturing on every issue concerning Pakistan and India. He is in exile from his own country and there is a warrant against him. NDTV alone has a long history of nurturing this war criminal as if he was some spiritual leader. (Read the post ‘Tainted? Have a chat with Barkha’)  India does not need anymore nonsense from this has-been who should still be treated as a war criminal. There are others like India Today and Hindustan Times who have hosted this war criminal in various seminars.

Another favourite of our media is Hamid Gul. He is a former head of the ISI and is known to have links with Al Qaeeda and the Taliban. The USA has even declared him wanted for terrorist links. Yet our media frequently hosts this man as if there are no other sensible voices in Pakistan at all. It is time our media, if any concern for the nation is left, stopped hosting such crooks and anti-India people.

I am in no way suggesting voices from Pakistan must be censored. Not at all. Democracy must allow all kinds of views to be aired, even those that hurt us. But democracy also means putting the country first. The media has the responsibility of not allowing known criminals to air their views and indirectly be used for some agenda setting. The Musharrafs and Hamid Guls are criminals who should not be allowed any airtime now that Pakistan has been proved to be what it is beyond the slightest doubt. There are journalists and other officials in Pakistan who can be allowed that freedom. Let me add that in many respects the Pak media is at least is a lot more independent than its Indian counterpart. We have more poodles.

There is this man called Shuja Pasha, the head of ISI. Following the killing of Osama he disappeared for a while. Then he surfaces to shoot out threatening messages to India. That any misadventure by India will have serious consequences and so on. There is a saying for fools like him. “Mian giraa magar tangdi oonchi hai” ! (Miyan has fallen but still has his feet up!) Bravo! Maybe PNS Mehran will remind him that India is not the threat.

As for the Mahesh Bhatts, Shahrukh Khans and some of their Bollywood clan, they would do well to embrace this new Pakistan. Pakistan may be our enemy but cleansing our own country would do us no harm. On most of those that firmly believe in the ‘Good Neighbour’ philosophy, you can rest assured it doesn’t come from any reason or reality other than religion or business considerations. 

India Declared Errorist State

The spot the errors contest is on..

Remember those pairs of pics in the funny pages of newspapers and comic books? And you had to spot 5 or 10 errors in the second pic? That was fun! Now for grown-ups the Central government sponsors this game. You have a list of wanted and in the second pic you have to hunt for the errors. Let me update the story. So far at least 2 of the 50 Most Wanted list are reported to be in India. Latest reports are that at least 3 in the list have died. Yes, died! CBI has also removed the current list of 50 wanted from its website. I like this game, except that it’s not so funny. We have now been declared an errorist state.

If this issue is currently playing second fiddle in the headlines it’s because Kanimozhi, Sharath Kumar and some have been denied bail and are in jail. I have no sympathies for these people but it’s odd terrorists and murderers get bail but economic offenders and corrupt people cannot. Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, also in Tihar,  can start planning new real estate schemes –  of the jails variety, we are going to need a lot more jails. Let’s get back to our game though.

In response to the goof ups and the embarrassment our Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, accepts the error but repeatedly points out that Kandahar was an embarrassment too. Right! So this is fine because Kandahar happened. So every time a terror related goof up happens the UPA’s pet argument is Kandahar happened. Imagine, each time a terror goof up happens in the US Obama responds by saying “didn’t 9/11 happen?”! That indeed is the approach of Chidambaram and the UPA. And our media doesn’t question him for his stupid utterances. Not one journalist in the media has ever bothered to even check on the 50-list and investigate its accuracy. Most of their romantic attention has been reserved for one person, Dawood Ibrahim.

That Kandahar happened is bad and tragic. But that happened in a hostile country with another hostile country in between. In the context of that incident and situation, exchanging a few terrorists for over a hundred innocent lives seemed sensible, even if not the best option. Let’s also not forget the media drama by people like Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt during that incident. But in the current goof ups we are in no foreign or hostile land. We are in our own errorist state. And while Chidambaram and the UPA keeps offering Kandahar as an excuse for every goof up the wiseguys in the media never ask them a simple question. What would you have done if you were handling Kandahar? I have no doubts that if the UPA (with the likes of Digvijay and Rahul) were handling Kandahar they would have gladly released ten more terrorists. Someday that might come about and we may have to release Afzal Guru as well.

Come back to the 50-list. First, I have no idea why this has to be an exact 50? Maybe some accountant was making it and wanted the figure rounded off.  Maybe 50 sounded very romantic and adult like. Why not 46 or 54? I guess I do not possess the intelligence to figure that one. Maybe we were inspired by the pack of cards with pics of wanted men handed out to every soldier by the Bush administration after 9/11. In that case one has to wonder who stole the two cards from the pack of 52!

On a serious note one has to wonder what the UPA’s approach to such issues is. Not so long ago we had the intellectual Rahul Gandhi telling the US Ambassador that Hindu right-wing extremists are more dangerous than the likes of LeT. Then you have the Digvijay Singhs at the launch of books like ‘26/11 an RSS Conspiracy’ and so too his frequent utterances on Hindu terror. Most of all we have Chidambaram educating the security forces on the threats of ‘Saffron’ terror. Such being the internal beliefs and pursuits of the Congress it is natural that there are bound to be goof ups on the wanted lists and our attention to it and continuing intelligence failures. Add to all this fact that many of our ministers and rulers were too busy looting the nation under various scams and the intelligence failure is understandable.

It may not occur to Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh or P. Chidambaram that even if there are Hindu terrorists they are not supported by the people, the state or our security forces. In contrast, most of the people on the wanted list have the support of a state machinery. That should tell us who constitute a greater threat and who should be receiving greater attention. In the meantime let us rejoice our newly acquired Errorist status.

My Sore Pak

I once again took a break, this time a longer one and was happy to get back on the day Osama Bin Laden was taken down. I have lost count of the number of posts where I have mentioned that Pakistan is a failed state with nothing to offer to anyone and surviving on misdirected aid. The only ones who think Pak is a great neighbour are the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Mahesh Bhatt. A few weeks ago our PM even wanted cricket to be played between India and Pak. Manmohan Singh cares two hoots about realities as events as shown over and over again. Friendship with Pakistan is not only impossible but not even desirable.

The idiots who have coined the term ‘people to people’ contact as an excuse to seek peace are the greatest enemies of India. You cannot have peace with a nation that has an army and outfits partly involved in terrorism. It took nearly a decade but the US finally got Osama. His hole just outside Islamabad proves what the Pak establishment was and is really up to. It might take a decade to get the perpetrators of 26/11 and other terrorists but instead our stupid government wants us to play cricket with those assholes.

We need not hate Pakistanis. Ordinary Pakistanis are not evil. But the way our media keeps promoting Pakistan and campaigning for relations with that country is sickening. The worst crimes on this count come from Bollywood itself. With an abundance of talent in India they still need singers and dancers from Pakistan and cite such cultural imports as a way of improving relations. Moron-in-chief of this theory has to be Mahesh Bhatt. And he is now in the Congress. Is that any surprise? And then there is still that Slime of India, with its ‘Aman Ki Asha’ crap. Do we need traitors?

What is the best question that Rajdeep Sardesai and others ask P.Chidambaram when Osama was killed? Hmmmm, when are we going to go after the Dawoods and the Saeeds!!! It takes spine to go after criminals. Do our politicians have any? In the tragedy of the 1999 Kandahar hijack the media turned it into an emotional drama and soap with the families of those hijacked to force the government to barter terrorists for hostages. And then Chidambarm tells the world India and US are the not the same when it comes to Pakistan. Well that is some comfort. Time to learn from tiny Israel on how to survive with cutthroat criminal rulers surrounding you all the time.

It didn’t take the Osama killing to expose Pak. Everyone knew it, everyone knew the Pak ISI and army are crooks and everyone knew Pak was playing host to Osama. The US finally decided not to be led up the garden path. But will our Manmohan Singhs, Mahesh Bhatts, Barkha Dutts and Shahrukh Khans learn? No they will not! The government still maintains talks will go on. Talks on what? To discover that Pak is a safe haven for another hundred criminals for crimes against India?

Right now Pak is sore. It is scab infested. Forget Pakistan, it’s good riddance.  Let’s get on with moving India on.  Pak should also learn a lesson from it’s friend Osama. You can run but you can’t hide forever. Pak will one day meet the same fate that Osama met. Hopefully, it will be at the hands of India.