I am writing to express my deep shock and regret at the loss of lives in the Delhi serial bomb blasts of October 29, 2005. There have been reports in the media of ‘needle of suspicion’ pointing to Lakshker-e-Taiba, needless to say, without a shred of evidence. The Government has been quick to say that there are those who are interested in promoting disquiet, and disharmony among ‘communities’. The Government has also put out a ‘red alert’ in Delhi and elsewhere and security forces will now have a free hand to maintain ‘security’ in the upcoming weeks and months.
These events have come at a time when the Congress led UPA Government has in a short year and half become completely discredited in the sense of offering any sort of ‘alternative’ to the erstwhile BJP led NDA Government. The economic policies of the UPA are no more than a logical continuation of those of the NDA, the foreign policy is is an even worse caricature of the previous one with the Government openly turning India into a junior partner of the USA in the present world order, with the countryside becoming more devastated than ever before. Indeed there has been general dissatisfaction across broad sections of the society. It may therefore be concluded that the wanton acts of terror have succeeded in creating some thing of a distraction and diversion from the burning issues of the day. Whether or not the perpetrators of the atrocity are hand maidens of the Government, or whether they are external agents interested in ‘destablizing’ the country, or whether they are this or that set of disgruntled elements, etc., is something that will never be known. On the other what is certain is that the Government will arm itelf with more powers in its fight against ‘terror’.
It would be worthwhile recalling here that various political parties of the Indian state, state organs themselves had certainly been very active in organizing all sorts of terror and counter-terror operations in the troubled times in Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s. It is known today that the security operations bill incurred by the Punjab Government in this period runs into astronomical sums and the issue made an appearance in the recent past. The use of terror and state apparatus both for and against is a time tested one, coming from the European schools of statecraft of the last several centuries. Ruling circles in Europe have deployed violence on a massive scale against various sections of the population in order to prevent any kind of a united plank against their divine Royal Prerogative or rule. There is much evidence in the form of centuries of massacres at times against Protestants, at times against Catholics depending on the region, in the form of pogroms against Jewish peoples all across Europe, not counting the massacres engineered by colonial powers against the peoples of enslaved colonies. The Indian statecraft of today is one that bears a continuity to the colonial rule of the British. It is of great importance that progressive forces in India today be ever watchful of the Machiavellian tactics of the Indian ruling classes to consolidate their rule during the current period of anti-social offensive.
by A. Narayan
