India Declared Errorist State

The spot the errors contest is on..

Remember those pairs of pics in the funny pages of newspapers and comic books? And you had to spot 5 or 10 errors in the second pic? That was fun! Now for grown-ups the Central government sponsors this game. You have a list of wanted and in the second pic you have to hunt for the errors. Let me update the story. So far at least 2 of the 50 Most Wanted list are reported to be in India. Latest reports are that at least 3 in the list have died. Yes, died! CBI has also removed the current list of 50 wanted from its website. I like this game, except that it’s not so funny. We have now been declared an errorist state.

If this issue is currently playing second fiddle in the headlines it’s because Kanimozhi, Sharath Kumar and some have been denied bail and are in jail. I have no sympathies for these people but it’s odd terrorists and murderers get bail but economic offenders and corrupt people cannot. Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, also in Tihar,  can start planning new real estate schemes –  of the jails variety, we are going to need a lot more jails. Let’s get back to our game though.

In response to the goof ups and the embarrassment our Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, accepts the error but repeatedly points out that Kandahar was an embarrassment too. Right! So this is fine because Kandahar happened. So every time a terror related goof up happens the UPA’s pet argument is Kandahar happened. Imagine, each time a terror goof up happens in the US Obama responds by saying “didn’t 9/11 happen?”! That indeed is the approach of Chidambaram and the UPA. And our media doesn’t question him for his stupid utterances. Not one journalist in the media has ever bothered to even check on the 50-list and investigate its accuracy. Most of their romantic attention has been reserved for one person, Dawood Ibrahim.

That Kandahar happened is bad and tragic. But that happened in a hostile country with another hostile country in between. In the context of that incident and situation, exchanging a few terrorists for over a hundred innocent lives seemed sensible, even if not the best option. Let’s also not forget the media drama by people like Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt during that incident. But in the current goof ups we are in no foreign or hostile land. We are in our own errorist state. And while Chidambaram and the UPA keeps offering Kandahar as an excuse for every goof up the wiseguys in the media never ask them a simple question. What would you have done if you were handling Kandahar? I have no doubts that if the UPA (with the likes of Digvijay and Rahul) were handling Kandahar they would have gladly released ten more terrorists. Someday that might come about and we may have to release Afzal Guru as well.

Come back to the 50-list. First, I have no idea why this has to be an exact 50? Maybe some accountant was making it and wanted the figure rounded off.  Maybe 50 sounded very romantic and adult like. Why not 46 or 54? I guess I do not possess the intelligence to figure that one. Maybe we were inspired by the pack of cards with pics of wanted men handed out to every soldier by the Bush administration after 9/11. In that case one has to wonder who stole the two cards from the pack of 52!

On a serious note one has to wonder what the UPA’s approach to such issues is. Not so long ago we had the intellectual Rahul Gandhi telling the US Ambassador that Hindu right-wing extremists are more dangerous than the likes of LeT. Then you have the Digvijay Singhs at the launch of books like ‘26/11 an RSS Conspiracy’ and so too his frequent utterances on Hindu terror. Most of all we have Chidambaram educating the security forces on the threats of ‘Saffron’ terror. Such being the internal beliefs and pursuits of the Congress it is natural that there are bound to be goof ups on the wanted lists and our attention to it and continuing intelligence failures. Add to all this fact that many of our ministers and rulers were too busy looting the nation under various scams and the intelligence failure is understandable.

It may not occur to Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh or P. Chidambaram that even if there are Hindu terrorists they are not supported by the people, the state or our security forces. In contrast, most of the people on the wanted list have the support of a state machinery. That should tell us who constitute a greater threat and who should be receiving greater attention. In the meantime let us rejoice our newly acquired Errorist status.