For whatever be Modi’s faults as a leader, his hands-on approach in the times of crisis needs to be commended. After Pahalgam attack, as PM, he has emerged as one who is top of one’s game so to speak. by KUMKUM CHADHA
“I love you nanna”: a son’s parting words, as he hugged his father’s coffin. Madhusudan, an information technology professional from Andhra Pradesh, was among those shot dead in the terror attack in Pahalgam in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22. The attack took place in Baisaran, a mountain top meadow, some five kilometres off Pahalgam.
Manjunath Rao was shot in the neck. He dropped dead in less than a minute. When his wife, Pallavi, confronted the terrorists with a “shoot me too”, they spared her saying: “Go tell Modi…”.
“Kalima, kalima” the assailant was telling Ramachandran, who in turn asked: “Woh kya hai”, what is that? Within seconds, he was shot dead in the presence of his wife, daughter and grandchildren.
For the uninitiated, Kalma is a sacred Islamic expression of faith. The core of Islamic belief, it is essential for Muslims to know the Kalma and recite it regularly.
Debasish Bhattacharyya, an associate professor from Assam, was spared because he started reciting the Kalma loudly as he saw a terrorist approach him: “He asked me, “what are you saying? I kept repeating La,ilahaillallah…”. It was on an instinct that he joined a group of people reciting the Kalma under a tree, as the terror attack unfolded. Bhattacharyya was on a holiday with his wife and son at the picturesque tourist spot.
That the terror attack was religion-specific is also substantiated by the fact that trousers of victims were pulled down to ascertain their faith before they were killed. The investigating team have confirmed that they found 20 of the 26 killed with their pant zippers undone exposing their private parts. This was to check for circumcision, which is done for religious reasons.
Pitch this against Karnataka minister R.B. Timmapur’s allegation of a “conspiracy” to paint the attack as a religious issue: “A man who is shooting, will he ask caste or religion? He will just shoot and go…He will not stand there, ask and then shoot”, the minister had told the media.
But this is not only about a minister of a state ruled by the Congress. Party MP, Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, Robert Vadra, said that “non-Muslims were attacked and messages were given to the Prime Minister” because “Muslims are being mistreated in our country”.
To term Vadra’s remarks, to quote the BJP, as being “the language that terrorists use to justify terrorism”, is playing down the issue. There is only one word for such statements: anti-national.
It is at this point that the self-styled peaceniks need to be called out: both in politics and those relentlessly pursuing track two diplomacy for years on end; those who don’t tire of the rant: “There is no difference between us, read Pakistani and Indian people, they are just like us, our food is the same, our culture is the same and we speak the same language” and so on and so forth. Actually, none of this is true: there is a difference between the people of Pakistan and India; they are not like us, neither is their food nor their culture. More importantly, to the Pakistanis, it is religion first; for Indians, it is country first, our respective mindsets, diametrically opposite to each other.
Therefore, when the likes of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah talk of “no need for war”, nationalists bay for his blood. Or when PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti asks the Centre to be “cautious” and distinguish between “terrorists and ordinary people” and Member of Parliament Ruhullah Mehdi writes about “Kashmir and Kashmiris being given collective punishment”, right-minded Indians squirm.
Mufti and Ruhullah’s statements were made amid reports of extensive operations by security forces wherein raids were carried out, arrests made and homes of suspected rebel supporters demolished. Ditto Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
It is a given that successful terror operations are usually aided by locals who, because they identify with the cause, willingly shelter terrorists and allow their homes to be their temporary hide-outs. Back in the nineties, militancy in the strife torn state of Punjab grew because of local support. Villagers thought nothing of opening their doors to those who had taken up arms to avenge the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sending troops inside the Golden Temple complex. Or those who were championing the cause of Khalistan. So also, in Kashmir where the promise of “azadi” has many takers including the locals who shield and help terrorists with the logistics. The fact that investigating agencies have rounded up local overground workers as facilitators in the recent attack substantiates this.
It is against this backdrop that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s war cry, if one may term it so, of India will “punish every terrorist and their backers” and “pursue them to the ends of the Earth” has majority support. His resolve of “Our enemies have dared to attack the country’s soul…they will get a punishment bigger than they can imagine”, finds resonance among those who stand united in the sentiment that Pakistan must be taught a lesson and if this means going to war so be it. Equally they reject voices of caution, Mufti’s or any others aimed at soft pedaling a heinous attack which needs to be avenged at all costs.
For whatever be Modi’s faults as a leader, his hands-on approach in the times of crisis needs to be commended. As Prime Minister, he has emerged as one who is top of one’s game so to speak.
For starters, he cut short his foreign visit and rushed back home.
Within hours, his government took tough measures against Pakistan. It suspended the 60-year-old Indus water treaty, which allowed for sharing of water between India and Pakistan; it shut the borders between the two countries; cancelled visas of Pakistani nationals and ordered that they leave the country within 48 hours; officials in the Pakistan High Commission in India were given the marching orders among other retaliatory measures.
Almost overnight Modi reaffirmed his position as a strong leader: one who would do what it takes to protect the country and its people. His statement that “attackers will be punished beyond imagination” or “the will power of 1.4 billion Indians will break their backbone” underscores his earlier threat of “ghar mein ghus kar marenge”.
For context, it was in 2019 that Modi had said that principally his government believed in killing perpetrators to avenge the Pulwama attacks when terrorists had killed as many as 40 CRPF personnel.
Originally in Hindi, the tone and tenor of ghar mein..phrase is lost in translation but the import is that no one will be spared.
Interestingly, Modi’s ghar mein ghus karmarenge statement has gone viral post Pahalgam clearly encapsulating the rage every right minded Indian is, at this point, experiencing. Under the circumstances, talk of “peace not war”, exercising restraint and suggestion of a “cautious approach” are misplaced. If anything they fit into, and rightly so, the rhetoric of anti-nationalism or the ghar mein ghus ke marenge.. sentiment.
