Blasts : there when I am here..Delhi and Ahmedabad
The IM strikes again.. interestingly after claims of Ahmedabad police of capturing masterminds of serial blasts. This time it is the national capital Delhi. The Ahmedabad blasts occurred when I was in Delhi and the Delhi blasts have happened when I have moved to Ahmedabad..Terror knows no boundary and definitely doesn't recognise any fear and that is precisely why the argument of stringent acts to fights terrorism doesn't hold any logical validity. But I am not writing here to discuss this... This posting is to share what I wrote on the morning of 27th July..while reading the newspaper articles on Ahmedabad blasts of 26th!! Below is the article that I wrote then... many things that I wrote then doesn't hold true anymore now and few actually does...Here it is for you to read it and share your views..
Gujarat is in news again; 16 serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday the 26th. The images of the blast sites, charred bodies and veiling relatives of the deceases or injured bring back memories of 2002. Same black smokes… body and body parts strewn around.. Men and women wailing, in tears… Children lying injured in hospital beds... The images of 2001 earthquake were also similar except that the black colour was brown then with rubbles… Whether it is natural calamities, systemic planned violence or terror attack, it is the poor and marginalized that bears the brunt. While riots and blasts were largely happened in densely populated, poor-dominated eastern Ahmedabad, the earthquake affected the upward urbane western Ahmedabad.
The Indian Mujahideen – a less known terror outfit – claimed the responsibility of the blasts and termed it as an act of revenge of 2002 riots. The 2008 saw three instances of serial blasts - all in the capital cities of states ruled by the Hindu nationalist party – BJP, a party which is known for its anti-minority stance and one that favors harder laws to fight terrorism and alleges that the central government ruled by the moderates United Progressive Alliance and led by Congress party is softer on terrorism. The pattern of these three blasts is interesting; the Jaipur blast (during may 2008) happened just before the final phase of Karnataka assembly election, in which BJP won, and the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts occurred immediately after the vote of trust in parliament, wherein UPA could manage to sustain its government. Are there any political linkages between these blasts???
While reading newspaper today (second day reports), my eyes were moist… I have been seeing photos of terror struck individuals, families, children and women, but all of them till date were non-Gujarati.. The pallu of the sari of those women were not coming over from right shoulder!!! But then, it also triggered another stream of thoughts… comparisons of the two veils…tears of 2002 and that of 2008!!!
We saw many - mainly Muslim – faces, including the famous one of Mr Abdul – the man without beard - folding his hands with tears and fears seeking for peace and probably for life. I have seen faces crying over loss of life or property or both and also over the loss of ijjat of their women folk. That was in the 2002. I have been discussing the 2002 since then with my folks who have been there during the riots and have invariably heard views like, it was justified or they needed a lesson or why get so much hyper, riots to hote rehte hain. Yes, there was no remorse then because the loss was not ‘ours’, it was ‘theirs’. ‘We’ didn’t lose a brother or son, and so it was ‘ok’. ‘My’ mother or sister or wife was not raped many a times, and thus, the retaliatory attacks on Muslims were justified. And, with the deluge of messages of Gujarati pride – asmita – and talks of exceptional development, we all learnt to live happily and preached that ‘they’ should also learn to live like us and ‘with’ us.
And then comes Black Saturday on July 26th, 2008 that shakes Ahmedabad again, this time a little longer than the earthquake and much shorter than the riots; 16 serial blasts in just 3-4 hours!!! A city that hasn’t seen anything like serial blasts and a commercial capital of a state where security and prosperity was assured over last few years, shuddered. A grown-up media again provided us with images of similar kind, as they show every time something of this kind occurs. The faces behind the tears have no particular religion this time… it is both burqa and a sari whose pallu comes over from right shoulder..
The reaction too is different this time.. The serial blasts reminded us of humanities and we seem to feel the pain. We now can understand the loss much more than what we did in 2002 because this time, ‘our’ son has died too!! The chief minister Mr Modi too is different this time; from statements like ‘every action has equal and opposite reaction’ in 2002, his clear instruction this time was ‘there should be no reaction’. Not frequently we see Army marching in a city within few hours of bomb blasts; Gujarat called in army within half an hour of the first blast as compared to more than 48 hours after the train carnage in 2002. Sadly, the Muslims do fear for their safety amidst any such sensitive situation and need yet again proclaim that they are abiding by India, and thus, we see a few thousand Muslims gathering around to condemn the terrorist attack and affirm that these blasts would not affect Hindu - Muslim unity!! Is that, in Gujarat, the obligation of maintaining unity lies with Muslims only?
But again, we-they phenomenon percolates further down from religion to geography. I heard people from western Ahmedabad reacting that everything is ok, the blasts are only in other side of the city. Or even worse that came from a relative of mine residing outside Gujarat; she consoled me saying, “Why are you so upset, after all they were low intensity blasts. There is nothing here and Delhi is also calm!!!”
After six weeks since I heard those words, Delhi was no more calm !!!
Gujarat is in news again; 16 serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday the 26th. The images of the blast sites, charred bodies and veiling relatives of the deceases or injured bring back memories of 2002. Same black smokes… body and body parts strewn around.. Men and women wailing, in tears… Children lying injured in hospital beds... The images of 2001 earthquake were also similar except that the black colour was brown then with rubbles… Whether it is natural calamities, systemic planned violence or terror attack, it is the poor and marginalized that bears the brunt. While riots and blasts were largely happened in densely populated, poor-dominated eastern Ahmedabad, the earthquake affected the upward urbane western Ahmedabad.
The Indian Mujahideen – a less known terror outfit – claimed the responsibility of the blasts and termed it as an act of revenge of 2002 riots. The 2008 saw three instances of serial blasts - all in the capital cities of states ruled by the Hindu nationalist party – BJP, a party which is known for its anti-minority stance and one that favors harder laws to fight terrorism and alleges that the central government ruled by the moderates United Progressive Alliance and led by Congress party is softer on terrorism. The pattern of these three blasts is interesting; the Jaipur blast (during may 2008) happened just before the final phase of Karnataka assembly election, in which BJP won, and the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts occurred immediately after the vote of trust in parliament, wherein UPA could manage to sustain its government. Are there any political linkages between these blasts???
While reading newspaper today (second day reports), my eyes were moist… I have been seeing photos of terror struck individuals, families, children and women, but all of them till date were non-Gujarati.. The pallu of the sari of those women were not coming over from right shoulder!!! But then, it also triggered another stream of thoughts… comparisons of the two veils…tears of 2002 and that of 2008!!!
We saw many - mainly Muslim – faces, including the famous one of Mr Abdul – the man without beard - folding his hands with tears and fears seeking for peace and probably for life. I have seen faces crying over loss of life or property or both and also over the loss of ijjat of their women folk. That was in the 2002. I have been discussing the 2002 since then with my folks who have been there during the riots and have invariably heard views like, it was justified or they needed a lesson or why get so much hyper, riots to hote rehte hain. Yes, there was no remorse then because the loss was not ‘ours’, it was ‘theirs’. ‘We’ didn’t lose a brother or son, and so it was ‘ok’. ‘My’ mother or sister or wife was not raped many a times, and thus, the retaliatory attacks on Muslims were justified. And, with the deluge of messages of Gujarati pride – asmita – and talks of exceptional development, we all learnt to live happily and preached that ‘they’ should also learn to live like us and ‘with’ us.
And then comes Black Saturday on July 26th, 2008 that shakes Ahmedabad again, this time a little longer than the earthquake and much shorter than the riots; 16 serial blasts in just 3-4 hours!!! A city that hasn’t seen anything like serial blasts and a commercial capital of a state where security and prosperity was assured over last few years, shuddered. A grown-up media again provided us with images of similar kind, as they show every time something of this kind occurs. The faces behind the tears have no particular religion this time… it is both burqa and a sari whose pallu comes over from right shoulder..
The reaction too is different this time.. The serial blasts reminded us of humanities and we seem to feel the pain. We now can understand the loss much more than what we did in 2002 because this time, ‘our’ son has died too!! The chief minister Mr Modi too is different this time; from statements like ‘every action has equal and opposite reaction’ in 2002, his clear instruction this time was ‘there should be no reaction’. Not frequently we see Army marching in a city within few hours of bomb blasts; Gujarat called in army within half an hour of the first blast as compared to more than 48 hours after the train carnage in 2002. Sadly, the Muslims do fear for their safety amidst any such sensitive situation and need yet again proclaim that they are abiding by India, and thus, we see a few thousand Muslims gathering around to condemn the terrorist attack and affirm that these blasts would not affect Hindu - Muslim unity!! Is that, in Gujarat, the obligation of maintaining unity lies with Muslims only?
But again, we-they phenomenon percolates further down from religion to geography. I heard people from western Ahmedabad reacting that everything is ok, the blasts are only in other side of the city. Or even worse that came from a relative of mine residing outside Gujarat; she consoled me saying, “Why are you so upset, after all they were low intensity blasts. There is nothing here and Delhi is also calm!!!”
After six weeks since I heard those words, Delhi was no more calm !!!
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