Indian Response to Terrorism after Mumbai

Guddu · Post by **Guddu** » 04 Jan 2009 10:06

B Raman...

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers31/paper3001.html

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 04 Jan 2009 10:28

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday advocated a three-pronged strategy to combat terror which included raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country.

Firstly, a vigorous national campaign, involving every citizen, should be launched to tackle the terror menace, he said interacting with students here.

Secondly, Kalam advocated carrying out raids to destroy terror hideouts both inside and outside the country.

"Terror can be be eliminated by raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country," he said.

Lastly, there was need for speedy trial of cases relating to terrorism to punish perpetrators of such crimes, he said.

John Snow · Post by **John Snow** » 04 Jan 2009 12:09

There is a joker in the cyber space who says the following and considers himself avant grade analyst ( he admits he doesnt know how he became a consultant to GOI?)

Here is his prescription and if this is the kind consultancy GOI gets then we might just just crawl and beg the terrorists for life, which MMS seems to be following.

The LeT is tip of the Jihadi spear and we need to communicate directly with them and establish where the LeT stands on India's future. thru Pavar or Doera?

The LeT routinely acts like it wants to destroy India - is this something it really wants to do? Does one need to ask this question, do they want to nurture India is a better question.

It is difficult to believe that this is what the Pakistan Army wants the LeT to do this because all the Pak Army's long term investments are ballasted against economic growth in India.

I do not wish to grudge the LeT its' profitable murder for hire business - but I feel any misunderstandings need to be cleared up.

And this guy is straight out of the Dark Night and a genius

Send Falafal to New Delhi This is not a request! Is the title.

Chandragupta · Post by **Chandragupta** » 04 Jan 2009 14:44

Is Chidambaram off to US already? Any info on what is in there in that much talked about dossier apart from a letter signed by MunMun & Rajmata begging Bushji to save us.

PS - Will anyone be kind enough to direct me to a thread about Indian Muslims & related discussions, if one exists, that is.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 04 Jan 2009 15:15

State Actors Involved: Chidambaram

Rejecting Pakistan's contention that those behind the Mumbai attacks were "non-state actors", Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said the enormity and planning of the operation clearly indicated that they were "state actors or state-assisted".

"Somebody who is familiar with intelligence and who is familiar with commando operations has directed this operation. And that cannot be a non-state actor."

"In fact, I presume they are state actors or state-assisted actors unless the contrary is proved. It was too enormous a crime and required elaborate planning, communication networks, financial backing. It was a very, very sophisticated operation," added Chidambaram.

sum · Post by **sum** » 04 Jan 2009 15:20

Rejecting Pakistan's contention that those behind the Mumbai attacks were "non-state actors", Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said the enormity and planning of the operation clearly indicated that they were "state actors or state-assisted".

100 B $ Q is: what are you doing to punish the "state actors" involved other than "hoping that good sense prevails"?

enqyoob · Post by **enqyoob** » 04 Jan 2009 17:19

This is taking an ominous turn with PC going to Dupli City.

The US happens 2 b searching desperately for a sucker nation to take the 300-odd guests remaining at the Guano Bay Resort. They can't send them back to their host nations because (supposedly) they would be killed. Australia just said

for the nth time to the suggestion that they take these "guests".

Now where is there a "strategic ally" nation that has agreed to become the glowing waste dump of the duniya? Would the Guano Bay guests be out of place, say, in Hyderabad or Malegaon?

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 04 Jan 2009 21:50

Dont know where this belongs : NDTV reports that Qasab has made some statement on the lines of "I want to stay on in your mulk, if permitted - for God probably has willed me to suffer".

possible :

(1) Qasab fears extradition
(2) Qasab was told to activate this strategy after a certain period in captivity
(3) Qasab has doubts about his handlers
(4) Qasab has a genuine change of hearts
(5) Qasab wants to stay alive in Indian hands so that he can allow himself to be used as a blackmail if Pak tries anything funny on his family

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 04 Jan 2009 22:09

What purpose would the second option serve?

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 04 Jan 2009 22:25

To lend support to those in the media/politics/academics who try to make a distinction between the so-called "common Pakistani" and the "Jihadis". This makes the face of "terror" human, and maintains the possibility that the Islamophiles within the Indian system can carry on their agenda, and prevent consolidation of opinion against TSP as a whole.

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 04 Jan 2009 22:43

Guddu wrote:B Raman...

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers31/paper3001.html

Perhaphs B.Rama's take is right, but we have endlessly analyzed US perfidy. But could the reality be as follows:

1) US may have said, we do not intend to stop you from retaliating, but rather told India that if it attacks, TSP is sure to react leading to all out war and US will be unable to stop TSP from reacting, including use of nukes.

2) US may have said, we understand your outrage, but attacking TSP will also destroy you.

3) US may have said, we understand your outrage, but we feel that the best way to prevent these acts of terror and 'help' TSPA crack down would be to offer some concessions on Kashmir to them.

I am of course being sarcastic above, but those are exactly along the lines Uneven has been counselling India on, and he is pretty close to US and TSP establishmentss. How many times has he said that no Indian leader will risk 2-3 major cities going up in a mushroom cloud.

Karkala Joishy · Post by **Karkala Joishy** » 04 Jan 2009 23:13

State Actors Involved: Chidambaram

Great. Now what are we going to do about it??

jrjrao · Post by **jrjrao** » 04 Jan 2009 23:33

Yuck. Article by Romesh Bhandari, former foreign secretaty

is full WKK type cliches, and says that a solution is for us to sit in a comfortable yoga posture, close eyes, and try to use willpower to make Pakistan behave good:

War is no solution and as such must not be waged...When India became nuclear so did Pakistan and it came on par with us. We lost the advantage of our superiority in conventional warfare.

As one young Pakistani journalist told me when I visited Pakistan as Foreign Secretary several years ago, “Pakistanis are taught in schools that India is an enemy. Books preach hatred. We have been fighting wars against each other. Why can we not set aside guns and bullets and wage a war between us as to who is able to build more cement plants and factories? Who provides more employment, more schools, more hospitals?” This was rare at that time, but today it is a sentiment shared by the majority. Further, it is not in anyone’s interest to see a splintered Pakistan. We want unity and stability in Pakistan. We want a responsible
government in Pakistan. Both want to work for providing our people a better quality of life.

The time has now come to take some bold steps with respect to Kashmir.

India deserves better foreign secretaries....

Lnk

milindc · Post by **milindc** » 04 Jan 2009 23:54

jrjrao wrote:Yuck. Article by Romesh Bhandari, former foreign secretaty is full WKK type cliches, and says that a solution is for us to sit in a comfortable yoga posture, close eyes, and try to use willpower to make Pakistan behave good:

Ah, the infamous Mulayam loving ex-Governor of UP of 1998 era. This clown is out and out WKK, born in Lahore.

Mandeep · Post by **Mandeep** » 04 Jan 2009 23:58

Being born in Lahore doesn't mean that one is an appeaser.The overwhelming majority of people from that part of the country want a tough line to be adopted on the question of Pakistan and its sponsorship of terrorism in India as well as persistent and blatant attempts to harm this country's interests in every way.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 05 Jan 2009 00:02

When India became nuclear so did Pakistan and it came on par with us. We lost the advantage of our superiority in conventional warfare.

Presumably Musharraf vigorously rubbed some part of his anatomy, like Alladin with his lamp, and some Jinn gave Pakistan nukes...

ZA Bhutto launched the Paki bomb project at the 1972 Multan meeting. It was payback for the 1971 defeat. It predates the 1974 PNE test. Even before this, no less a person than Abdus Salam advised Ayub Khan to procure Plutonium reprocessing technology for its potential military applications. Pakistan was eating grass and getting the bomb no matter what India did or did not do.

The idea that Pakistan became nuclear in 1998 and India lost conventional superiority is ludicrous. We know that Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons more than a decade earlier. The act of testing in 1998 did not magically produce a nuclear arsenal. The pre-1998 superiority would have faced the same nuclear 'red lines' response by Pakistan.

It is the takleef of the non-proliferation ayatollahs that produces such inane arguments that are lapped up by those seeking NGO grant funding in their retirement.

The time has now come to take some bold steps with respect to Kashmir

I can think of a bold step... Pakistan vacating PoK but somehow that isn't on the cards... wonder why?

John Snow · Post by **John Snow** » 05 Jan 2009 00:04

Bhandari means keepr of Bhandar{am} (treasure, wealth, chest of wealth)

With his pronouncements his Bhandar(am) is exposed ( what he treasures is all out there to see).

********************

India has become a worldd stage for Comedy of tragedies and providing comic relief to the world at large and bleeding too at the same time.

Most of the cast in this tragedy is local talent, ( Pawar, MMS, Foreign Made Indain Leader (FMIL) Sonia G, Chidambaram , host of RAW buffoons IB clowns DRI bozos) and comedians from accross the border. (just like in hollywood most comedians are Canadians,

Mike Myers, John Candy, Jim Carey, Leslie Nielsen etc)

Santosh · Post by **Santosh** » 05 Jan 2009 00:41

So Shivraj Patil was replaced by Chidambaram and the net difference is that where as patil used to appear 5 times on media after a bum blast in 5 different Kurti and matching bangles and informed the public that terrorists have escaped/have not been caught/have killed xx number of people, shri Chidambaram appears 5 times each day and says more or less the same thing. Meanwhile the official Indian response has degraded from - All options are open - to - ISI chief must be sent to India - to - 20 people need to be extradited to India to face justice - to - Dawood and Lakhvi must be extradited to India - to -

"What we now want is cast iron guarantees" that no state actors or non-state ones will be allowed to use Pakistani soil or sources to launch an attack on India, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.

"Guarantees have to come from those who control the levers of power and that means, the elected civilian government, plus the army. These are not guarantees that you can execute on a piece of paper. These are guarantees that have to be given to the international community," he told NDTV.

I am collecting donations for matching set of bangles for PC. Anyone?? This is disgusting..

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 05 Jan 2009 00:44

What exactly is Chidambaram's mission to US? I mean US already has all the evidence, so what more is he going to proivide? Besides, Pranabda has alreday said that US pressure on TSP has not delivered the required results. And India has repeatedly said that option of hitting TSP is no longer on the anvil. Finally, TSP is now bragging voctory, even admits LeT types involved and suggested dialouge (Even some demented cowards in present/past Indian establishment are suggesting the same). So thats where we are, and what part of this does Chidambaram hope to reverse?

One final point. Besides cancelling the cricket tour, India has not announced even a bare minimum boycott of anything else Paki. Why is that? Because it would have no effect? What about the water card?

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 05 Jan 2009 00:48

Santosh:

Thanks, I was asking what exactly is PC's mission and your poset provides some answers.

Chinmayanand · Post by **Chinmayanand** » 05 Jan 2009 01:01

I am collecting donations for matching set of bangles for PC. Anyone?? This is disgusting..

Donating bangles to PC is like humiliating Late Smt Gandhi,Savitri,Rani Lakshmibai.... u can give him a dholak instead where he can sing "pakistan hai hai"...i hope you get it...thats where PC,MMS,Congress clan belong...but please no insult to the brave mothers of India....

vsudhir · Post by **vsudhir** » 05 Jan 2009 01:09

All this tough talk of donating bangles and calling deserving netas names is amusing alrite.

Way I see it is that the UPA sarkar has painted itself into a corner coz of the lack of visible action against terrorism from its top echelons. The next few attacks will seriously test their credibility, already at a serious low.

This sharing evidence with the int'l community is fine if push comes to shove, wannabe tsp-supporters can be persuaded to become fence-sitters when the next showdown happens. THe jury is out on that one though. Until the world sees tsp as their problem (and tspians are doing a good job of threatening everyone nowadays), that situ won't change. So unless the 'evidence' shri PC shares with the int;l community contains details of how 26/11 is merely a dry run for attacks on foreign capitals, expect nothing to happen.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 05 Jan 2009 01:18

Karkala Joishy wrote:quote="SSridhar"State Actors Involved: Chidambaram

Great. Now what are we going to do about it??

Life cycle of a terrorist state:

state-less =>> state-full =>> state-less. the arrows are chest beats from terror camps!

If India says, Pakis have to negate it! simple dear mr. watson.

Arun_S · Post by **Arun_S** » 05 Jan 2009 01:25

Santosh wrote:So Shivraj Patil was replaced by Chidambaram and the net difference is that where as patil used to appear 5 times on media after a bum blast in 5 different Kurti and matching bangles and informed the public that terrorists have escaped/have not been caught/have killed xx number of people, shri Chidambaram appears 5 times each day and says more or less the same thing. Meanwhile the official Indian response has degraded from - All options are open - to - ISI chief must be sent to India - to - 20 people need to be extradited to India to face justice - to - Dawood and Lakhvi must be extradited to India - to -

"What we now want is cast iron guarantees" that no state actors or non-state ones will be allowed to use Pakistani soil or sources to launch an attack on India, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.

"Guarantees have to come from those who control the levers of power and that means, the elected civilian government, plus the army. These are not guarantees that you can execute on a piece of paper. These are guarantees that have to be given to the international community," he told NDTV.

I am collecting donations for matching set of bangles for PC. Anyone?? This is disgusting..

Cast iron guarantees like holding wife and children of Kiyani, the cabinet ministers of civilian goberment and one wife each of the the Amir of all jihadi outfits in Bakistan on state visit to India in house arrest in Bhagalpur Jail !!

Chidambarum needs to something substantial, not just TALK!

Guddu · Post by **Guddu** » 05 Jan 2009 01:31

CRamS wrote:Santosh:

Thanks, I was asking what exactly is PC's mission and your poset provides some answers.

I guess after PC's visit to unkil, we have explored all options and its time to act. Even Strat (weekly guidance) is clueless as to Indian plans.

"Mumbai and potential Indo-Pakistani conflict: The 30-day deadline that New Delhi gave Islamabad to prove it was taking action against the Islamist militants believed responsible for the Mumbai attacks has passed – and the Indians are not impressed. They now must decide whether to follow through on recent preparations for a military operation. Troops have already been shuffled on both sides of the border. Anything could set off a conflict."

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 05 Jan 2009 02:46

"What we now want is cast iron guarantees" that no state actors or non-state ones will be allowed to use Pakistani soil or sources to launch an attack on India, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.

"Guarantees have to come from those who control the levers of power and that means, the elected civilian government, plus the army. These are not guarantees that you can execute on a piece of paper. These are guarantees that have to be given to the international community," he told NDTV.

This is pure, delightful Chidamish - the dialect used by reverend Chidambaram.
Cast iron guarantees : you have to pour molten iron into a mold spelling out the word "guarantee", interpretation of the "guarantee" depends on who presemts it to whom and when. For example, if given too early when it is still hot, the letters may smudge. I think I read in school that such first pourings are called "porki-irons".

Under the guarantee,
(1) Indian soil can be used to launch an attack on India
(2) attacks on India can be launched from Pakistani waters, and deserts or rocks or mountains and not soil
(3) state or non-state actresses can be used to launch attacks on India
(4) sub-state and super-state actors are allowed to launch attacks

Dont send bangles to the delightful author of these words : you denigrate women by raising this author to their status, if you really want to send it in general to the electorate of his constituency, who has presented us with this wonderful originator of a new Indian dialect.

enqyoob · Post by **enqyoob** » 05 Jan 2009 02:59

Reports in the US press that at least one alleged Lashkar-i-Taiba operative currently in Pakistani custody has confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai carnage have not been denied at the highest levels in Islamabad. Foot-dragging will get us nowhere, They will kill that guy for sure. And claim justice was done.

ppl may not have read the precise report. They didn't "confess". The Paki police said: "We didn't have to use waterboarding or narco-analysis. They were happily bragging about it"

So they are in no danger. The Paki govt is also bragging about it, and these terrorists are the herrows in Terroristan. Only when their homes get turned to smoking ruins will they perhaps start to wonder if the gloating was such a great idea, but even that I doubt.

The Alabama School for Soldiers of Fortune had the right saying on their portal: Paraphrasing,

Kill them all. Let (ATM) sort them out

kshirin · Post by **kshirin** » 05 Jan 2009 05:15

I have been watching the serial "24" DVDs, I hope Bollywood comes up with a serial like that - India provides both more realistic background and credible plot scenarios, since West has managed to banish terrorism further east (towards us in fact), they do not suffer from the problem any longer. But a serial like that could help introduce some fresh ideas into the debate. For example some Baboos have seen A Wednesday after being urged and been impressed with its realism and prescience. But whereas Bollywood focuses on the disillusioned-lone vigilante-exacting-revenge-on-behalf-of-society type of solution - "24" concentrates on how the official apparatus can respond in real time to the most challenging/threatening situations and a similar serial could be really useful in the Indian context with life hopefully imitating art.

Thus in season 6, the US President threatens a nuclear strike on a terrorist sponsoring State (either SA or TSP?) and this prompts the Government to turn in a high ranking general who has all along been running Arab terrorists in the US about to detonate a N Bomb, proving the State was in on it all along. Some of the situations seem very close to real life.

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 05 Jan 2009 05:24

narayanan wrote:

ppl may not have read the precise report. They didn't "confess". The Paki police said: "We didn't have to use waterboarding or narco-analysis. They were happily bragging about it"

IMO this Paki police is the ventriloquist voice of ISI trying another con job. Message being, see, these guys didn't need any state support or motivation. They are non-state actors onlee.

Baljeet · Post by **Baljeet** » 05 Jan 2009 08:52

Mandeep wrote:Being born in Lahore doesn't mean that one is an appeaser.The overwhelming majority of people from that part of the country want a tough line to be adopted on the question of Pakistan and its sponsorship of terrorism in India as well as persistent and blatant attempts to harm this country's interests in every way.

Mandeep from the past experiences it sure lends credence to it. For example, Moron Moorakh Singh was born in Layalpur, he has appeased Pakis like no other can. After meeting with Mushy in Havana this Moron Moorakh Singh made a statement, "Pakistan is also a victim of Terror". Inder Kuhmar Goojraaaal appeased Bibi so often he made Robin Raphael look like NeoCon.

ManuT · Post by **ManuT** » 05 Jan 2009 08:56

milindc wrote:
jrjrao wrote:Yuck. Article by Romesh Bhandari, former foreign secretaty is full WKK type cliches, and says that a solution is for us to sit in a comfortable yoga posture, close eyes, and try to use willpower to make Pakistan behave good:
Ah, the infamous Mulayam loving ex-Governor of UP of 1998 era. This clown is out and out WKK, born in Lahore.

Romesh Bhandari is a big time boot licker. In all his Foreign Service years he really was, IIRC, posted outside India twice, maybe thrice. To BD, UK, I think. Most of his time was spent in Delhi.

mnag · Post by **mnag** » 05 Jan 2009 08:58

from the following site http://ibnlive.in.com/news/us-pressuris ... 945-3.html

Meanwhile, India is also expected to share with China evidence of the involvement of Lashkar and other Pakistan-based elements in the Mumbai terror attack later on Monday.

Foreign Secretary Menon will be sharing the details with the visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei.

He Yafei is also expected to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the National Security Adviser MK Naraayanan during his visit.

India wants China to pressurise Pakistan to end cross border terrorism against India

sum · Post by **sum** » 05 Jan 2009 09:13

"What we now want is cast iron guarantees" that no state actors or non-state ones will be allowed to use Pakistani soil or sources to launch an attack on India, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.

Maybe we will demand "platinum-clad assurances" after the next attack?
The impotence of the GoI is slowly coming to roost going by the alarming softening of stand each passing day.
Thank god we have elections soon else we would have had full blown Indo-Pak lovefest restarted...

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 05 Jan 2009 09:52

what else a fin guy will ask? assurance!

pradeepe · Post by **pradeepe** » 05 Jan 2009 14:48

Cast iron guarantees like holding wife and children of Kiyani, the cabinet ministers of civilian goberment and one wife each of the the Amir of all jihadi outfits in Bakistan on state visit to India in house arrest in Bhagalpur Jail !!

This is something I whole heartedly endorse. No point in being civilized with these barbarians. You have a virus attacking your body, do you work out a way to exterminate it with the utmost prejudice or do you reason with it.

Didn't the pakis give the same "Iron Clad Guarantees" to wind down their terror apparatus after the last mobilization. What value does Mr. Chidambaram see in another set of the same Iron Clad Gurantees. All they amount to is a set of iron clad blinders if one is willing to buy them.

The bigger culprits in my opinion if for no reason but that they try to don the robe of Indian strategists and history will judge them harshly are those that continue to try and sell all this "lets talk to them tamashagiri" as some kind of chanakya neeti. How much more blood do they need to see.....

Chandragupta · Post by **Chandragupta** » 05 Jan 2009 15:34

What is a matter of grave concern is not that the government has delivered absolutely nothing, zilch, as a response to Pakistan's dastardy acts, but the fact that the pressure to do is slowly getting fizzled out. After a week of hulla gulla, chai-biscuit sessions, rallies, candles, slogans & banners, people have gone back to their lives. Even the opposition seems content with letting the government make a joke of the country. There has to be constant pressure on the GoI. Even the media seems to have lost their aggression. To think that Antulay got away with that remark without resigning is astounding. See how the mood in this country has changed, from raising war cries at Gateway of India & the India gate, to begging Iran & Saudi Arabia. Absolute shame.

If this is the government's response to the biggest terrorist attack in our history, you can easily guess what lies in the future. I'll even stick my head out & say that Congress is coming back in power in the next Lok Sabha elections. That is how things go in India.

vsudhir · Post by **vsudhir** » 05 Jan 2009 16:22

Since GoI has shown remarkable penchant for 'walk-over after talk-over' rather than 'walk the talk', could the GoI kindly:

1. Claim loudly and petulantly over all available media vehicles that the next suicide vaccum burst in tsp is strongly condemned and is not authored in India?

2. label the pakhtuns freedom fighters and loudly express the pious hope that these brave warriors of pushtu nationalism will not enter islamabad anytime soon?

Don't gemme wrong on this one. Am under no illusion that goi has either willingness or ability to do what pak's tactical brilliance is doing to itself. Still, doesn't hurt to talk loud since goi has shown amazing willingness and ability in that department.

AdityaM · Post by **AdityaM** » 05 Jan 2009 16:44

Gerard wrote: I can think of a bold step... Pakistan vacating PoK but somehow that isn't on the cards... wonder why?

For reasons that are obvious... POK doesnot exist, its all Azad Kashmir.
In the HT leadership submit, an Indian muslim MP (from UP i think) referred to POK as Azad Kashmir while addressing his hollow question to Zardari. All this live on TV.
No one corrected him, no reported on him.

Chandragupta · Post by **Chandragupta** » 05 Jan 2009 17:17

The lack of response will only add to the motivation of Jehadis in TSP to inflict more pain to India. It also provides credence to TSPA's belief that Pakistan's Nuclear arsenal will deter India from launching any attacks, forever. The GoI is practically giving a green signal to Jehadis & ISI pigs to launch more attacks on India. If Pakistan can dare to attack Mumbai like this and get away, then in a few years, they will kill 500 Indians in broad daylight and get away after extraditing a few expendable terrorist leaders in an attempt to come clean.

Until & unless the Indian leadership and more importantly, Indians, do not show the will to sacrifice cities & lives, Pakistan will never stop. If tomorrow, an Indian leader comes out & makes a statement that the Government will not hesitate to wage a war with Pakistan even if it means losing our biggest cities, the pigs sitting in TSP will wet their pants. Pakistan is not as trigger friendly as they would like us to believe, they fully understand that in an event of Nuclear war with India, it's a given that Pakistan will cease to exist. They are only banking on India's fear of nukes, which the GoI makes amply clear everywhere, everytime. I understand that the GoI does'nt want a nuclear war, but is it so important to keep saying it all the time?

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 05 Jan 2009 17:31

The Hindu Holocaust,that historians never talk about!
http://www.dailypioneer.com/147753/Reme ... caust.html

Remember the Hindu Holocaust

Sandeep B

Islam’s jihad against Hindustan is a gory record of burnt temples, libraries and entire cities. Millions have been killed over the ages simply because they were Hindus

In the light of Mr Kanchan Gupta’s scathing column on the defenders of the fidayeen who attacked Mumbai (“Mumbai’s Butcher and human rights”, December 17, 2008) and Ms Sandhya Jain’s warning in her article (“Dark shadow of jihad, December 23, 2008), it is worth recalling yet again that this jihad against India is neither new nor will it stop. It is also imperative to trace what this jihad has historically cost India in general and Hindus specifically.

In general, India was forcibly split into two countries. When we examine the specifics, we can with little doubt say that Islamic jihad has carried out a virtual Hindu Holocaust.

Some years ago, French journalist Francois Gautier had posed the same question (“Where’s India’s holocaust museum?”, October 21, 2003). Mr Gautier asserted that based on available historical evidence, it is sufficient to conclude that a Hindu Holocaust has occurred.

The Holocaust evokes horrific images and is associated typically with a specific event. As we shall see, we can safely apply it to the Islamic conquest of Hindu India.

The Oxford English Dictionary first used the word to describe Hitler’s treatment of Jews in as early as 1942. With time the term has come to be equated with the Nazi genocide of Jews in conventional parlance. The Holocaust elicits horror mostly due to these important reasons:

Colossal scale of killings

Its short time span

Assembly-line like method

Ideology that motivated it

The Holocaust is a fairly recent event, and thanks to the efforts of the Jews, its memory has been kept alive. A few generations in future, it will at most evoke pity sans the intensity of experience. The chill of experiencing horror first hand doesn’t have the same shock value 100 years later.

Barring the sheer numbers of Jews exterminated in a specific historical period, the other defining features of the Holocaust apply equally to the Hindu genocide. Indeed, ‘holocaust’ is a rather apt term because the root meaning of holocaust is ‘burn’. Islam’s violent history in India is a bloody record of burnt idols, temples, libraries, and entire cities. There’s yet another crucial differentiator: Hindu genocide was at least three-fold. On the purely physical plane, millions of Hindus were killed because they were Hindus. On the socio-cultural plane, those who were not killed were spared because they agreed to convert to Islam, a good instance of cultural genocide. Finally, on the economic plane, those that were allowed to live as Hindus were subject to the unjust jizya, a tax system, forcing them into perpetual penury, an instance of economic genocide.

In his Growth of Muslim Population in India, Prof KS Lal estimates that the Hindu population decreased by 80 million between 1000 AD and 1525 AD, an extermination unparalleled in world history. This number is overwhelming but then the Hindu genocide, unlike the Jewish Holocaust, happened in painfully-regular installments.

‘Hindu Kush’ is a good example of one such instalment. The conquest of Afghanistan in 1000 AD saw the annihilation of its entire Hindu population. Even today, this region is known as the ‘Hindu Kush’, which literally means ‘Hindu slaughter’, named after that massacre. In 1399, Taimur killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day, and the Bahamani Sultans made it a sacred duty to kill 1,00,000 Hindus every year.

In our own times, we see the systematic murder of Hindus by Islamists in both Pakistan and Bangladesh after Partition. On our own soil, thanks to anarchic policies and abject neglect, an estimated 4,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits are refugees in their own country. Understandably, few voices speak out against this modern ethnic cleansing.

The unremitting flood of terror attacks against India ever since the UPA took over is thus a protraction of that centuries-old jihad. Only, in changed times, the intent of cultural genocide is manufactured in the offices of the ISI and Pakistani terror camps remain intact. Its perpetrators know how to express that intent with alarming regularity.

It is tragic that thousands of educated and intelligent Indians seek to negate the Hindu Holocaust —— mostly unwittingly. That is partly the result of reading fabricated history right from childhood, and partly of being politically correct. No nation can be built on a foundation of half truths and outright lies about its own history. It leads to mistrust within its own people, as is evident today. Our own perverse political parlance sustains these falsehoods and its attendant consequences. When our Prime Minister says Muslims have the first claim on resources, is the underlying message any different from Aurangzeb’s diktat that all Muslims were exempt from tax?

PS:So what are we doing about this centuries old "tradition", one again being played out in the beginning of this millenium? The country should hang its head in shame at our utter perversity as in sadomasochistic manner ,the GOI is allowing the crime of centuries to be played over and over again,even though we are now supposedly free of colonial shackles,but given the manner in which our current dispensation is desperately running after Uncle Sam's backside,appears to want a return to shameful servility.