Business Standard, February 25, 2013
Reflections on terror and secularism
Shaikh Zoaib Saleem
It was with a few friends in a hostel of a journalism institute when I first watched Neeraj Pandey’s remarkable A Wednesday (released in 2008). All of them were overwhelmed with its storyline, concept and presentation, something that was never ever so clearly conveyed in the history of Indian Cinema. The award-winning movie appealed people’s sentiments and tried to awaken the “citizen” under the wake of rising terrorism. My friends sought my reaction too. I agreed that it was a great movie but wished to question the director, “Why were the terrorists whom the protagonist successfully plans to eliminate were those with Muslim names?”
In my view, the answer to it is pretty clear. The movie (or Popular Culture) reflects the mindset of the society. In this case, the movie clearly indicates what most of Indians think. The outstanding movie also reinforced a disturbing stereotype – All Muslims are Not Terrorists but all Terrorists are Muslims.
This morning, the first reaction of a senior journalist, in a casual talk on the recent Hyderabad Blasts, was that Indian Mujahideen (IM) could be responsible for the attacks. He was full of confidence until I asked him a couple of questions.
It is beyond comprehension when journalists lap up the inputs from ‘sources’ on terror issues and represent them verbatim, most of the times. Despite numerous newsroom lessons on ‘ethics’ and reminders by Editors that we need to cross verify whatever we get to know, my fellow professionals fail to adhere to this basic rule when it comes to terror issues.
After almost every terror attack in the country, common people are informed by the ‘sources’, through the media that the initial probe is pointing towards involvement of IM or Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) or some other ‘Islamist’
organization. The same was the case with Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008, the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts, Mecca Masjid blasts and the Ajmer Sharif blasts. However, later on, the investigations pointed to involvement of Right Wing Extremists (who dislike associating themselves with a colour!) in these attacks.
Meanwhile, a section of the media has shown some courage of being the misfits. According to a probe by Tehelka Swami Aseemanand’s 42-page confessional statement duly signed by him proves the involvement of Right Wings groups in all these blasts. Also, the Samjhauta Express case has an officer of the Indian Army as the alleged mastermind.
Moreover, there is no credible evidence to even prove the existence of IM. Shockingly and sadly, in this age of new media and technology, our intelligence fails to even completely track the E-mails that are claimed to the best pieces of evidence on the existence of IM. In this modern era, where one can be zeroed down for cybercrimes pretty quickly, it is shameful that our security agencies have not been able to detect the senders of these mails. Shall we blindly believe some ‘sources’ then?
In another example of the non-serious attitude of our security agencies, a US national Kenneth Haywood, from whose IP address emails were sent to media organizations minutes before the Ahmedabad blasts in July 2008, managed to escape from the country.
Many people rubbish these references as conspiracy theories, while many others will claim to be neutral being a part of a secular country. Secular enough not to associate any terror act with any religion. Fair enough. But again and again, whenever one initiates the discussion on terrorism with learned, secular Indians, most of them will talk about IM, HUJI only.
Another test of this Secularism. Everyone must ask himself or herself if s/he has written an essay in schooldays on Diwali. The answer would definitely be positive. However, the reality of our secularism is reflected in the next question. Have you written similar essays on any of the Eids?
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