Opinion A Monica Lewinsky moment
There are weeks when I find myself defeated by all efforts to analyse Indian politics. This is one of them.
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There are weeks when I find myself defeated by all efforts to analyse Indian politics. This is one of them. The political events of the week gone by made little sense to me. But,since upon my humble shoulders rests the heavy burden of trying in this limited space to analyse concisely the political developments of the moment,may I say that India appears to be in the throes of a Monica Lewinsky moment. The reference is not to sexual hanky-panky in the corridors of power but to that time when the Americans were in endless thrall to their Presidents sexual escapades while Osama bin Laden was steadily preparing for 9/11. It is my considered opinion that something equally bizarre is going on in India with a tawdry sideshow taking centrestage when we should be paying close attention to the jihadi convention next door.
While we obsessed over black flags and bigots in the city that was once Bombay,a mega convention of Islamists gathered on the other side of the Kashmir border and spoke publicly of their hatred of our beloved Bharat Mata. While our news channels gave us a minute by minute account of Rahul Gandhis perambulations in Mumbai,not only was the jihadi convention almost ignored but so was the Government of Indias mysterious decision to proffer an olive branch to Pakistan even as men with wild beards and hatred in their eyes announced a new phase of the jihad. Among the bearded fanatics was the founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba,Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed,against whom the Pakistani government claims there is no evidence of jihadi activity. Before we send our Foreign Secretary off to make peace with Pakistan could we at least not ask what Sayeed was doing at this convention? Does the Government of Pakistan see a gathering of jihadis as jihadi activity?
As someone who is obliged by the constraints of column writing to pay close attention to the news all day I was fascinated by the reportage last Friday. As the jihadi convention entered its second day of Islamist deliberations,all our news channels were following Rahul Gandhi around Mumbai. Breathless young reporters told us how the future leader of India stopped to withdraw money from an ATM,how he ditched his chopper for a drive through Mumbais crowded streets and how he threw security to the winds and hopped on to a local train. No news about the jihadi convention except in passing at the end of one bulletin.
It happens that Rahul Gandhi is my hero too for daring to tell the Shiv Sena to shove their bigotry up their you-know-what,but is this the time for a Rahul travelogue? Surely,we should be trying to understand what the Government of India was thinking when it chose the day of the jihadi convention to announce that an Indian was sitting in the Lashkars control room during 26/11. This astounding information came from the Home Minister himself in an interview to Vir Sanghvi. And,I wish I could explain to you either the Home Ministers timing or his objective.
Ever since the attack on Mumbai I have been told by Pakistani friends that there is in Pakistan a widely held view that 26/11 was the work of Indian intelligence agencies. One of the few things that convinced them otherwise were the Punjabi accent of Kasab and his companions and the Punjabi accent of their handlers in the Lashkar control room. Now the Home Minister of India admits that in that control room was an Indian. The least he should now do is explain why he needed to share this information with us at this particular moment.
Whoever was behind 26/11,we can now safely say that Pakistan is off the hook. It can rightly claim in the forums of the world that it has been wrongly blamed for the attack on Mumbai. Pakistans Prime Minister has been so emboldened by Indian peace moves that on the day the jihadis met in Muzaffarbad he sent them an official message of moral support. Other Pakistani officials said they would only talk to India if it agreed to have a composite dialogue. What this means is less talk of Islamist terrorism and more of Kashmir.
Meanwhile,there is a map circulating on the Internet of India in 2020. It shows all of India as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with a small scrap of the Southern tip left as disputed territory. How ironic that the Shiv Sena should with its attacks on Shah Rukh Khan and Rahul Gandhi be distracting our attention thereby inadvertently colluding with the jihadis convening next door. If India becomes the Islamic Republic of Pakistan they will be sure to realise their dream of restricting entry to Mumbai for Marathi- speaking Muslims only.
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