Bye-Bye Mr. Kasab
We Indians in general are known to be soft people. We are very unlike the Israelis (who obviously do not take kindly to being attacked and don’t mind bombing a country to oblivion ) , or the Americans (who don’t mind starting a full-fledged global war just because some building got bombed in their country). Despite of having the second largest standing army in the world we have never left our shores to attack another country and the only wars we’ve fought were the ones that were brought to our doorstep.
We are known to be indecisive and soft when it comes to our own security and country! This may partially stem from the fact that India as a land always attracted varied people and races who started of by attacking us and then decided to settle down here when they realized that this was the Shangri-la they were searching for. We simply got used to being attacked in our own land and learned to live with the invaders as fellow countrymen. It may also have been perpetuated by the fact that India is a very old civilization and unlike other countries in the western hemisphere, we had seen and experience it all , hence did not react as abrasively as them to provocation. More recently this attitude was certainly (and rightly so) influenced by the founding fathers of our country who fought an extremely ruthless and almost tyrannical ruler with total non-violence , and won!
While our non-violent and all-embracing legacy is something to be proud of , it certainly should not be the reason for us to be over soft and sensitive to all and sundry. Especially, in today’s day and time when the world looks to us with hope & anticipation as we rise to be a global strategic power.
Kasab was one such person who probably decided that it was a good idea to land up in one our key cities along with his friends and shoot up innocent people and blow up buildings. While quick justice was meted out to his friends by our security forces, Kasab somehow managed to survive this. While he certainly had to be kept alive to extract intelligence, and go through the legal procedures, I wonder what the world would have thought of us during and after the Mumbai attacks. Here was a potential world superpower that got attacked in their own cities and lost thousands of its citizens, and yet we took only muted steps to retaliate. One need not have been Einstein to know who was behind this attacks and the reasons for the same. We had more than enough evidence to send elite special forces in and take out these terrorist training establishments, but we decided to suspend cricket matches and stop singers from traveling. If we want to be considered as equals among the world superpowers, we need to learn from the way they handle terrorism. While I am no war monger, and I fully comprehend the tricky nature of our Geo-political situation, I certainly believe that peace and friendship can only exist between countries and people who respect each other. They need not agree on everything, but understand that there are no win-loss situations in diplomacy.
Kasab, while just a pawn, was certainly sane enough to understand the repercussions of his action. I was overjoyed today, that finally a terrorist who waged war against our country had been brought to justice and we would no longer be known as a country who are indecisive when attacked. While dispatching Kasab is minimal justice for the victims, it at least send a strong message to other countries that, when push comes to shove, we can unite together and rise above petty politics and diversity of people, religions, and cultures to give back in full measure to anyone who dares to think of us as weak. While we Indians proud ourselves of being a race who are sensitive to all religions, truly multi-cultured and the product of one of the oldest civilizations known to mankind, we are more than up to mark if people like Kasab come knocking at our door like unwelcome visitors . So long Mr. Kasab; bye bye! You will not be missed in our home.
