Dear Rahul Gandhi,
In this season of open-letter writing, this one is written with the full knowledge that you might not read it. But as a self-proclaimed enlightened citizen, I felt a great sense of duty to indicate to you what was wrong in what you said about Hindu terror. But before doing that let me make it clear that I am no votary of any of the lunatic fringe groups that have unfortunately mushroomed on the periphery of the Indian right. Neither am I an admirer of one dynasty monopolizing democracy in this country. But I might be willing to cast my vote in your favour if you prove that you are worthy of my one vote. So therein lies the incentive(maybe not much, huh?) in reading what follows.
Dear Rahul, the English media’s youth icon, you telling the American ambassador that ‘Hindu terror’ was more dangerous than ‘Islamic terror’ was absolutely not in the interest of either your UPA Government or that of the nation. When your Government gives out dossier after dossier to Pakistan and goes out in the international community holding Pakistan responsible for the so many terrorist acts unleashed on India, what sense does it make for you to tell the US Ambassador that you didn’t feel Lashkar-e-Taiyaba was a threat as big as ‘Hindu terror’? Agreed that you didn’t tell it in an official forum but unfortunately for you – the perceived future Prime Minister – whatever you say will go beyond being a private opinion and be the opinion of one of the powerful influencers of the Government your party runs at the centre.
It is also baffling to me how one form of terror could be worse than another form. Put conversely, this would mean ‘Islamic terror’ is better than ‘Hindu terror’. This would then mean ‘Islamic terror’ is not terror and would have to be renamed to something like ‘Islamic something-better-than-terror’. (Imagine newspaper headline saying, ‘Bomb blast was a case of ‘Islamic something-better-than-terror”).
But people might say, in your favour, that majority communalism is a bigger threat to the country than minority-communalism. They quote international history to augment their argument. While it is a no brainer that when a majority of the majority community becomes vindictive and filled with hate towards another community it would probably be nothing short of a civil war, today’s reality makes that a remote possibility. One should also consider that the Hindu community has been by and large peaceful and accommodative for many centuries now. But then it might turn into that disastrous situation if the fringe groups aren’t curtailed and are allowed to vitiate the atmosphere. But to curtail them would mean to stop giving them the fodder to carry on with their victimhood propaganda. And that responsibility rests absolutely with your party and Government.
Your statement is an example of such fodder considering there is no real data to suggest that any of the few radical Hindu groups have attained the proportion of an LeT or SIMI or comparable terror outfits or big enough for them to be as grave as you make them out to be especially when they have allegedly killed themselves in making bombs. Considering all that, your statement appears to be purely political albeit made inexplicably infront of a foreign diplomat. Statements by your partymen like Digvijaya Singh almost hinting at a conspiracy theory in the Mumbai attacks aren’t something even your fan following in the English media has taken well. Imagine the kind of animosity it could create in the minds of the radical Hindu groups.
What might provoke even otherwise saner rational minds is the delay in meting out justice to people like Kasab and Afzal. And in the Afzal case, the blame entirely lies with your party’s Government. A strong deterrent to people taking to terror would be prompt and perceptible delivery of justice. And this undoubtedly includes punishing those involved in communal riots wherever and whenever those happened. Even on that front your secular party’s credentials are nothing to boast of.
Another way, in my opinion, to prevent people from taking to terror is having them get busy with making money without doing a Raja or a Raju. For that they would need some education. So instead of celebrating poverty, which your party is proficient at, use the Government at the centre to educate people, give them the ability to find a decent way of earning money. And stop giving free money which your party mistakes to be ‘inclusive’ growth.
To sum it up, dear Rahul Gandhi, if you are genuinely interested in tackling all forms of terror, all you need to do is change the way your party administers this nation. If you can do so, you can be rest assured of not just my vote but many like me who aren’t your fans.
Thanks,
Aam aadmi
