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12 August 2016

Good Terrorists and Bad Terrorists

By Amit Kushari
11 Aug , 2016

Recently our Home Minister made an interesting comment in the parliament. He said that all terrorists are bad terrorists and that no terrorist can be a good terrorist. He also said that Pakistan is not allowing the situation to improve in J&K (yeh padosi hai ki maanta nahi). That terrorism is an unfortunate development in today’s world goes without saying. The terrorism unleashed by ISIS and Al Qaeda throughout the world is well known to everyone. 

The memories of 9/11 in New York and 26/11 in Mumbai are fresh in our minds. The horrible cruelties and inhuman behaviours displayed by the ISIS in Syria, Brussels, Dhaka, Paris are really unforgettable. However, can we say that all terrorists are bad? Terrorists who fight against foreign occupation of their motherland are usually termed freedom fighters—they are not called bad terrorists by the people of that country, although others may think that they are bad terrorists.

On this occasion my mind goes back to December 1930 when a group of young Indians in the age group of 20/22 dressed themselves in European clothes and stormed the Bengal secretariat in Calcutta, which was then ruled by British ICS officers. One Mr. Simson was the Chief Secretary and there were many other British officers present in the secretariat. The young men called Binay Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta, who had the dream of liberating India from the clutches of the British, had a long battle in the corridors of the Secretariat and the corridors were drenched in blood.

The Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary were killed and a number of British ICS officers were injured. Two of these freedom fighters/ terrorists were killed and the third one was captured alive. He was put on trial by the British and in July 1931 he was hanged inside a Calcutta jail. The British judge who ordered the hanging of Dinesh Gupta was attacked and killed by a young terrorist called Kanaiya Lal and he was also hanged later. After India became independent, a grateful India acknowledged that all the four young terrorists were actually freedom fighters and great martyrs who made the supreme sacrifice for their motherland.

The park in front of the Bengal Secretariat, which was named after Lord Dalhousie of the British Raj was changed to Binay Badal Dinesh Bagh. Similar incidents happened in Punjab where Bhagat Singh and Rajguru, young terrorists/ freedom fighters were hanged by the British. The British always considered all these young Indians as bad terrorists, whereas Indians admired them as great martyrs and freedom fighters.

Who is a good terrorist and who is a bad terrorist depends on from which side of the arena you are looking at the events. What may appear bad in Indian eyes may not appear to be bad in Kashmiri eyes…we have to keep this basic fact in mind while looking at the Kashmir issue. Only blaming the “padosi” is not going to help in solving problems. We have to make the Kashmiris feel from their hearts that India is their motherland too, that Indian security forces are their own forces too.

Kashmiris should not look at us in the same way that we used to look at the British. We have to win them over with love and affection, not by pellet guns or deploying CRPF or BSF. Whatever the present government of India is doing is pushing the Kashmiris further away from India. Unfortunately, we have an uncooperative neighbour, Pakistan, which uses terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy. They have no respect for democracy and human rights and the way they are supressing the people of Balochistan is a horrendous story. Surprisingly, they shed crocodile tears for the Kashmiris.

Government of India should give top attention to the Kashmir situation. Earlier the unrest was confined to urban areas. Now hordes of people in rural areas including thousands of women and children, are trying to attack the Indian soldiers. I feel there is every apprehension that the situation will take an ugly turn unless the government takes immediate action.

The process of reconciliation should start immediately. Kashmiris should be offered as much autonomy as they want and talks should start. There are 101 shades of solutions in between ‘aazadi’ and article 370 type of autonomy. It has to be explained to the Kashmiris that they have to let go Jammu and Ladakh, otherwise their problem will never be solved. Jammu and Ladakh are parts of main stream India and cannot be granted any autonomy.

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