Indian catharsis
Mumbai terror attack has created a awakening among masses; whether it becomes a turning point remains to be seen

How does one make sense of the whirlwind of events in the year gone by? Particularly the ghastly attack on Mumbai? It fails our understanding, as to what can drive a human being to take resort to such a genocide? Last one month has seen debate and dialogue in India shift to a totally new level. No more are Indians satisfied with the lame, standard political reaction: “We will give them a befitting reply”. The common man’s anger against apathy is unprecedented. On the second day of attack, I was moved when Shobhaa De, nearly in tears, expressed what Indians now feel across the geographical spread. After every attack, politicians appeal to the public to maintain calm, she said, and cried, “No, we will not remain calm!”. The tragedy saw some unexpected Muslim faces come out to express their pain at this terror being perpetrated on their behalf. The least political Shah Rukh Khan has risen to the occasion to utter what to me is the most sensible advise: We need a new religion, work. Aamir Khan is relentlessly writing to bring sanity to the chaos. Give full support to the state, by continuing to pay taxes, he emphasises. And can you imagine Dia Mirza categorically stating every single Indian should express solidarity by getting an identity card and coming out to vote to defeat the evil forces! While I pray that we never have to see a repeat of November 26 ‘08 ever again, I also pray that the solidarity it has generated, the awakening that it has created across the society, only gathers further mass and momentum, to lead to a great churning.

Is there similar catharsis to be witnessed in the ruling class? Beyond replacing Shivraj Patil, a long overdue action, and chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the ruling class seems to be caught in a bind. There are international compulsions, we agree, but no vision, no path-breaking ideas seem to be emanating from them. Rather, in a shameful 'strike while the iron is hot’ act, our minister for minority affairs AR Antulay claimed that the killing of Hemant Karkare could have been carried out by RSS. Nothing could belittle the sacrifice of that slain officer more than this comment. In fact when the Mumbai crisis had started, the common man had firmly shunned any such advances of vote-mongering politician. But Antulay got his chance once the first bout of anger subsided. For a minister to attempt to politicise this occasion by this vulgar suggestion calls for outright ouster from the party, but the Congress, far from showing him the door, is trying to placate him and the Muslim support base, whom Antulay dreams of cultivating through this one reckless remark. In such times, when civil society is showing that there are newer ways of doing things, and in fact when the ‘vote bank’ would prefer a departure from past for its own betterment, the politicial establishment still clings on to old dogmas and lives in a make-belief world that these gestures can secure political power for them.

In the absence of a political vision, it’s the civil society that has taken lead. The only silver lining to this tragic turn of events. Individual thoughts and actions have mattered, and counted this time. If Major Unnikrishnan has become a household name for his bravery, Ramgopal Verma has been castigised for his frivolous gesture on the occasion and the nanny of young Moshe has become a star for saving a life. Away from any limelight, unknown to public, individuals are, through their gestures, sending out message to damn terrorism. At a recent ISB-Hyderabad event, Anna Lamin of Northeastern University, US, said the prime objective of terrorists is to terrorise people so that dialogue between countries stops. “But I have come, because it is our duty to foil their plans,” she says.