Pray, but never on bended knee

Pray, but never on bended knee
Shekhar Gupta

The lousiest thing about knowing you've bungled is that you tend to compound the sin under panic and pressure. That is not the way responsible governments should act. Even if their sorry plight is largely because of their own ineptitude.

This advice, obviously, goes to the Vajpayee Government which must now keep its cool, work towards the release of the hostages but must never let the big picture blur, no matter how much the moral pressure, how heart-rending the usual humanitarianist argument: Let's give in, for once, and sort this one out.

One disastrous government took that easy way out a decade ago, when its home minister's daughter was kidnapped, and we are paying for that pusillanimity until now. Running a government is tough business and certainly, though bungling is not new to this one, it has so far shown itself to possess a bit of steel in its spine. After all the same Prime Minister and essentially the same Cabinet refused to give into international pressure to accept Nawaz Sharif's offer ofceasefire rather than insist on the withdrawal of the invaders from Kargil first. The soft-logic was the same then as now: Buy peace, time and save some of your own lives.

Unfortunately, easy solutions like these are not recommended for nations facing such serious terrorist threats as ours. The late Mrs Gandhi, in 1983, preferred to let the Kashmiri terrorists kill a senior Indian diplomat they had kidnapped in Birmingham rather than release Maqbool Butt who was duly hanged a few days later. Any capitulation, no matter what the humanitarian pressures, and India will never be able to look hostage-holding terrorists in the eye. Yes, this is a cruel argument to make to the families of those on board IC 814, those whose anger and anxiety is entirely justified.

But someone responsible, and convincing, in the government has to counsel them to be patient. Our hearts go out to them and they must be convinced that the nationwide concern for the safe return of their kin is of a piece with the kind of nationalspirit that built up for those fighting at Kargil.

The hijacking has brought the terror of Kashmir into our very homes. But this is the very challenge lakhs of Indian soldiers brave every day and night in and around the Valley. They fight against incredible odds and it is at great risk of life that they arrest people like the Maulana Azhar. Or fight those who swear by him. Any surrender now, under pressure or panic, would negate their sacrifices.

It is vital now that we leave the government alone to handle this grave crisis. As over the Kargil issue, the world is solidly behind India on this. So let's hope and pray that this crisis will be over soon. But let it be known, in the strongest possible terms, that should some harm come to any of the hostages, retribution should be telling, massive and certain. And some of it has to be directed back home, at those who bungled. This is far too serious a national humiliation to be treated in the usual, Indian, it's-all-over-so-let's-forget-it manner. Once this isover, some heads must roll. That, some basic accountability, is the least the traumatised families of the hostages would expect.