The Audacity of Terrorism: Mumbai Attack

Even after the terror strike, still we appreciate the beauty of this heritage hotel The Taj. The ruthless terrorists were so blind in their wild ideology that they couldn’t see the beauty of life. Those who can’t see the beauty of life, they don’t have any right to take a savior’s role by proclaiming the so called Jihad.

How long we live amidst the perils of terrorism? Just removing debris from each terror strike spots doesn’t solve the problem. We must think about strong actions against the culprits.

Every time we gather at the terror struck sites to get a glimpse of sorrows and sufferings, but this time we came closer to take action ourselves. It’s really high time to take action against the spoilers.

A spirit called Patriotism

Scene-I
The cloudy Monday morning suddenly turned into sunny when the news from Beijing broke out stating, “India wins first individual Olympic gold medal”. Indian ace shooter and world champion Abhinav Bindra achieved a rare milestone in the sports history of India by winning a gold medal in the 10 meter air rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Then the wave of greetings sprung out from every walk of life, revealing the spirit, we call patriotism. Without loosing a single moment, Indian news channels went on entire day coverage, leaving behind other happenings back, as if all are waiting this special day to come.

India, a billion plus nation have always been criticized for its poor performance in the field of sports. After a long gap of 28 years India won a gold medal in the Olympics. Isn’t this the most jubilant moment for every Indian to celebrate? Being a proud Indian no one doesn’t really wanted to miss the opportunity to showcase the spirit of togetherness and solidarity. No matter whether one loves sports or not, but sharing the glorious moments are spontaneous as like revealing the untamed spirit of nationalism. The repeating picture of unfurling Tri-colored national flag with the sound of national anthem in background on every Indian news channel made every Indian to feel the emoted spirit of patriotism as like of any national day. As the news spread across the country the voice of oneness started echoing on television screens. With the progress of day, voices from each and every parts of the country swell into a mainstream tone- we are proud of you Abhivav, ham honge kamiyab ek din (We will successful one day) and Jai Hind (Long live India) etc.

On the same day, news from the trouble-torn Jammu & Kashmir remained unheard to many. Have you ever heard any public comment on J & K situation since the Amarnath land row erupted? In such crucial cases, we prefer to stay silence and let our decision makers to speak on behalf of us out of their dirty minds and hidden agendas. We never dare to share our own voices; however we dance with the politician’s rhythmic vote bank tunes. Yes, we practice fanaticism as true spirit of patriotism and chauvinism. When it comes as the saga of sport success we celebrate in high spirit saying united we stand. But in reality we stand divided by the name of region, religion and caste, don’t we?

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The Far Reached Naxal Menace
On last Sunday, one of my neighbours, who is a native of naxalite affected Koraput district of Orissa, came to my place to say about his plan to leave Delhi for the time being. I got astonished to hear his plan and suddenly wanted to know the possible reasons. While I am pondering with so many questions in mind, he said, “I am in serious financial problem, then how can I float my dream to become an IAS”. His distressed statement made me speechless a while, I remain silent and kept on searching the ways, how to console him, because I am not in a position to help him out of financial crisis.

Further he said: -

"As told earlier that my family is regularly getting threats from the naxals, that’s why they had fled from village to an undisclosed place to save their life. My parents were engaged in village grocery business and with their insufficient income from both business and agriculture; they supported me and my brother to scale a record height in higher education. Being from a poor schedule caste family of Koraput bordering Andhra Pradesh, I and my brother become the first one to be graduated in a tribal dominated block of Koraput. I have obtained a master degree from a central university, while my brother has a post graduate professional degree from a university in Orissa. Yet we are unemployed and depend on family support. How can we pursue our targets in such a crisis? The naxalites are demanding money from my parents assuming that my father is earning a handsome amount from the village shop. Even they are also targeting educated youth like us. Thus my parents are in an undisclosed place and advised me to come back to Orissa because now they can't afford our study expenses. Therefore I am going to my uncle’s place in Orissa to avoid this financial crisis and once the situation gets simpler, I will back to Delhi".

I remained silent and felt ashamed being supporting the maoist cause sometimes in past. Why should I support such a cause which has been completely diverted from its sole objectives? Was Naxalbari movement aimed at mass killing and harassment of innocent peoples? Can true naxals act immediately to check fake naxalism? Can they stop exploitation against the marginalized one? No, they can’t stop exploitation against innocent peoples. However they justify themselves as exploiters rather than saviors. Likewise the sad story of my friend as described above, there are lots of sorrowful stories, one can find, if visit to any naxal affected areas.