dailyO
Politics

Was Prabhakaran any less of a terrorist than Kasab?

Advertisement
Aditya Menon
Aditya MenonNov 27, 2014 | 13:30

Was Prabhakaran any less of a terrorist than Kasab?

No Indian can forget the horrific terror attacks that took place in Mumbai six years ago.

Today many of us would remember those who were killed in that ghastly attack, even if it is by small symbolic gestures such as lighting a candle, saying a short prayer or even posting a little something on Twitter or Facebook.

Speaking at the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Today, as we remember the horror of the terror attack in Mumbai in 2008, we feel the endless pain of lost lives."

Advertisement

But one of Modi's allies during the Lok Sabha elections, MDMK chief Vaiko, chose to remember the day differently. Instead of paying tribute to the victims of the 26/11 attack, Vaiko celebrated the birthday of another terrorist: the late chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Velupillai Prabhakaran. He urged the people of Tamil Nadu and Tamils anywhere in the world to celebrate the day by bursting crackers and offering special prayers.

"The celebrations should take place wherever Tamils live around the world... It should echo the cause of Tamil Eelam." he said in a statement.

vaiko--and-prabhakar_112614072815.jpg
Picture of Vaiko and Prabhakaran released by the Sri Lankan defence ministry

A political party, which still remains an NDA ally on paper, chooses to burst crackers and distribute sweets on 26/11 and there is absolutely no outrage.

Is Prabhakaran any less of a terrorist than Ajmal Kasab?

Let us remember here that Prabhakaran wasn't a foot soldier like Kasab. He was the leader of one of the world's most dreaded terror organisations which is responsible for the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the deaths of around 1,200 soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. This was an outfit that carried out suicide bombings much before Jihadis discovered the technique.

Advertisement

Despite this, no eyebrows are raised when the leader of a mainstream political party ---- I say mainstream because both the BJP and Congress have aligned with MDMK at different points of time --- celebrates Prabhakaran's birthday. Imagine the outrage if the PDP in Kashmir or MIM in Hyderabad decides to throw a bash in Osama bin Laden's honour on the anniversary of a major terror attack in India. More recently, had the stand-off in Hisar been with a private army operating out of a madrassa, it would be the army and paramilitary forces and not the police that would be in action.

Does terror indeed have no religion, as everyone loves to point out, or is our outrage restricted only to terror of a particular hue?

Take another NDA ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal which dragged its feet in removing a plaque glorifying Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale at the newly constructed Operation Blue Star Memorial in Amritsar.

The Akali Dal also appealed to the Centre against the death penalty for Balwant Singh Rajoana  --- a Babbar Khalsa International terrorist sentenced to death for assassinating former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh --- and Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar --- who was sentenced to the gallows for plotting attacks on SSP Sumedh Singh and Youth Congress leader MS Bitta which caused the death of several people in Delhi. The reason given by the Akali Dal was that this is an emotive issue for the Sikh community and clemency for these two individuals was in the "national interest".

Advertisement

The Tamil Nadu Assembly didn't even care to cite "national interest" when it passed a resolution in August 2011 recommending commutation of the death sentence of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. And earlier this year, then chief minister J Jayalalithaa was only too happy to set them free in February this year, to win a few brownie points ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Of course, they were never released because of a Supreme Court stay, instead Jayalalithaa found herself in jail in a few months time in a disproportionate assets case.

Now compare the Punjab and Tamil Nadu examples with what happened in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly after the execution of Afzal Guru last year. The demand of the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party that Afzal Guru's body be returned to his family --- a legitimate demand by most standards of humanity --- was termed "anti-national" by the BJP.

So Vaiko can glorify a terrorist like Prabhakaran but PDP and NC can't even ask for the body of an executed terrorist to be returned to his family? Is our collective outrage against terror restricted only to Jihadi terror and at the most Maoist terror?

One explanation for our collective hypocrisy on terror could be the fact that unlike Jihadis or Maoists, Tamil and Khalistani terrorists represent an extreme form of regional majoritarianism. Therefore, the not-so-extreme regional majoritarian parties like the Akalis and the Dravidian parties are forced to go soft on them.

Another explanation, an even more worrying one, is the possibility that what we call national interest often ends up being reduced to the interest of the dominant caste and religion.

Buttressing this argument, activist Yug Mohit Chaudhry narrates that during the caste violence in Bihar, Dalit cadres of the MCC would be booked under  tough anti-terror laws but Upper Caste cadres of the Ranvir Sena would be arrested under the relatively milder Indian Penal Code. Different laws for the same crime.

So it seems, terrorism does have a religion, a caste and a colour. And being on the right side of all three, Vaiko will still find friends in Delhi.

Last updated: November 27, 2014 | 13:30
IN THIS STORY
Please log in
I agree with DailyO's privacy policy