The Unholy War

They did it again. The murderers, whatever fancy name they like to call themselves by, are actually nothing more than that. Bloody murderers. They strike again and again and we do nothing at all. Politicians give their customary ‘khed hai’ and ‘kadi ninda’ and ‘compensation’ for the dead and injured number. The ruling party and the opposition will dig their nails deeper, roll their tongues and relish the moment they got yet again to settle personal scores. And we do ‘tut-tut’ and get back to our daily business, happy and content that it didn’t happen to us or those close to us. The so called spirit of Delhi (Ahmedabad, Bombay or any other city) will be back and rolling. Let’s not romanticise a serious problem like this. It’s not spirit, its indifference at best. Tomorrow, we will go back to our offices and try to meet our deadlines for a soap or a dessert ad, as if nothing happened. But for how long? And why?

Sure the root of discontent is too deep and convoluted to be discussed in one single post. It goes deeper and is steeped in bloody history which started much before our independence and has been hounding us for the last 61 years. Different clans of people have fought between themselves for long. Our history is full of shameful and unfortunate incidences of communal riots before the independence and after it. But this organized attacks against people is more shameful and heinous. Why should innocent people die? Why should people be bumped off just as numbers? Oh, we got 25 of yours! How was that?!! Wait till we get 30 of yours. How long will this go on? What is most chilling is the apathy and aloofness we have about the blasts that happen in our city. People are so distant when they talk about it. One will typically hear things like ‘abki baar toh sirf 5 dhamaake hue, peechhli baar toh 14 hue the’, ‘ab dekho kahaan hota hai’. It has become a way of life for us. Yesterday, after the blasts, Barkha Dutt was on TV, reporting from GK. She kept talking about the people who must have come to the market to grab a bite or to buy a pair of jeans. Hell, that guy could have been me. I would have been there in GK buying a much needed pair of jeans, had I not felt too lazy to walk around after lunch. It’s chilling. Its shit scary and but more than that it makes me angry as hell.

What exactly will it take for us, as a society and a nation, to wake up and do something concrete about fighting terrorism and suppression. Nobody has the right to take the lives of common folk, be it hindu extremists or islamic radicals. They are fooling themselves with their ideas of jihad and ramrajya. Why should we pay the price? Its time we did something, its time our government shed its cowardly please-all-and-keep-ruling policy and sock the extremists right where it hurts the most.