July-August 2006 
Year 12    No.117

Editorial


Fractured city

 

It is obvious that the objective of terrorists who blasted bombs in the ancient Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi on March 7 or inside packed suburban trains in Mumbai on July 11 is not limited to killing and maiming innocent citizens. Through such heinous acts, extremist outfits intend to widen the communal divide in India. The insidious plot failed miserably in Varanasi thanks to the sagacity of the mahant of Sankat Mochan temple and to the socio-economic interweave of the holy city’s Hindus and Muslims. While Varanasi responded to the blasts with an exemplary demonstration of communal amity and solidarity, the same alas cannot be said of post–7/11 Mumbai.

 

As we are all aware, among the Mumbaikars who rushed to the rescue and relief of the victims of the Mumbai serial train blasts, there were a disproportionately large number of Muslims. Long before the police and the fire brigade personnel could arrive, Muslim volunteers, along with others, reached the blast sites with bed sheets, saris and even lungis to rush the dead and the injured to the nearest hospitals and morgues. Others stood in long queues through the night, donating blood. Sadly, in the days to come, Muslims, even those who had helped so selflessly, were condemned to suffer vile abuses being hurled at their community by co-commuters, not only in the general but also the ladies’ compartments of Mumbai’s suburban trains. In one ugly incident a Muslim man was beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalised with two fractured ribs.

 

In next to no time the sangh parivar had splashed banners across Mumbai and other cities in the state, asking "pro-terrorist Muslims" to go to Pakistan. The provocative banners were pulled down by a seemingly indifferent police only after complaints by some citizens groups. Then there were incidents of the police rounding up scores of Muslims. Herded to police stations, most of them were let off in a few hours, but not before news channels had telecast images that recalled old "prisoners of war" scenes. Following a Muslim outcry against what seemed like the targeting of an entire community even while the identity of the perpetrators remains unknown, top police officers took corrective steps. But six weeks after the blasts, as we go to press, the first complaints have started coming in: of torture, sexual misconduct and communal abuse by the police.

 

One week after the blasts, the city stood in two minutes’ silence to pay homage to victims of the blasts and as a gesture of solidarity with their bereaved families. The next day Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray offered "a million salaams" to the city’s Muslims who joined condolence meetings in large numbers. If the terrorists had hoped to trigger a communal bloodbath in Mumbai with their serial blasts they have clearly failed in their diabolic mission. But below the surface calm it is evident that Mumbai today is a fractured city where communal attitudes have hardened on both sides. On one side are the Muslims, in a denial mode. There is a widespread feeling among them that the bomb blasts in Mumbai and elsewhere could be someone else’s doing (the sangh parivar in alliance with Mossad is the most common refrain) with the malevolent intent to corner Muslims. On the other hand, proponents of Hindutva are lamenting India’s reluctance to take lessons in tackling terror from Israel. Between them lie the police, who insist they are doing a fair job.

 

With the ongoing Ganesh visarjan processions, to be followed in quick succession by the court verdict in the 1993 serial blasts case, Navratri, Ramzan, Diwali and Id, tension in the city is palpable. No one knows what the terrorists’ next target could be but only the naďve would believe the era of bomb blasts is now behind us. We have no choice but to learn to live with terrorism in the foreseeable future. Foiling the terrorist design, refusing to demonise an entire community and maintaining communal amity are the challenges before the people and the police of Mumbai and the rest of India.

 

Terrorism today is a global concern yet, ironically, those spearheading the "War on Terror" are themselves its worst perpetrators, targeting non-combatant civilians in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. Morally and politically, the "state terrorism" of the US, UK and Israel must be considered a far bigger crime than extremist terror for it operates under the cloak of lofty principles such as democracy and the rule of law. That is why state terrorism, too, is the focus of this special anniversary issue of Communalism Combat.

– EDITORS

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