The horrific details of the terrorist massacres in Mumbai left a deep sense of shock and sheer disbelief among the people of India and indeed around the entire world. Together with all this there is also great sorrow and even despair among those everywhere who understand the value of life and what the loss of each individual being really means.
We, unanimously condemn the attacks on the city of Mumbai and its people that perpetrated mass terror with its brutal intentions of maiming, torturing and killing innocent people. Whatever be the identity, religion, caste, creed, incentives or motivation of the terrorists, there should be no hesitation in condemning outright, their abuse of human lives and disruption of every aspect of civil society.
In the days that have followed, we have witnessed unprecedented, a nation united in its outrage and anguish against the Mumbai terror attack. We are aware however that this was not an isolated incident. Time and again, people of this country have fallen prey to senseless killings and violence. So, let us not forget in our commemoration, those who have lost their lives in previous such incidents, victims of the same terror and to whom justice has not yet been delivered.
Terror has no precise definition and is not restricted to an ideology, polity, or form and scale through which it is conducted. Every form of conflict where violence is used as a resolution is a crime and an act of terror. Let us not dismiss so easily, just because a long time has passed since their occurrence, the haunting echoes and injustice of the atrocities committed during and after the communal attacks in Gujarat, Kandhamal, and the blasts that took place in many cities including Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Malegaon, Nanded, and Delhi.
We must remember and demand justice for these unresolved crimes, because overlooking them will imply victory for those who resort to terror. At the end of the day in all these incidents it was the innocent who suffered and were made victims. As citizens it is incumbent upon us, and not just governments and politicians who act merely as our representation, to engage in the process of finding resolutions to exterminate this evil. We will not let any act of terror pass, we cannot stand silenced, and we cannot let our voices of resistance fall. We demand from our government, continued investigations in a transparent manner until the guilty have been sent to trial and punished.
As the fourth pillar of democracy, the media has time and again been direct, cut-throat, severely critical, preciously instrumental in setting the agenda of debate on many important issues in the country. A good representation of nationwide consensus has often been to their credit. Yet, from the recent coverage that we have witnessed after the Mumbai terror attacks, the distinction between reporting facts and presenting opinion seems to have become blurred. Creating a war like situation, aggravating terror through live telecasts, appears to be commercially a profitable enterprise.
War and Terrorism are not for sale and we reject outright any attempts that collude to do the same. We will not let a handful of armchair warmongers convert all of South Asia into a permanent battleground of suicide bombers and homicidal hawks or turn us against each other in the name of country or religion. We will not let the artificial borders of our nation-states, inherited from colonial history, become the tripping-wires of genocide, holocaust and the apocalypse.
We also would like to salute all those who suffered in the various terror attacks and yet kept their cool and maintained communal harmony when they could have been easily led to violence, instigated by self-serving politicians.
We would also like to point out that the answer to terrorism does not lie in the paranoid snatching away of the basic rights of ordinary citizens in the name of national security. The passage of draconian, anti-democratic laws is not a panacea of any kind and is in fact a victory to the logic of terror that anyway seeks to rob us of our fundamental freedoms and way of life.
Let us remind ourselves once again, in these tenuous times, that as citizens it is our responsibility to ask the questions that sometimes we are afraid to ask. Having an opinion and raising the right questions is not against national interest, it is our right. Let no one deny us that. It is only by deepening our democracies, strengthening its institutions and promoting a culture of diversity and tolerance that terrorism can be ultimately defeated.
We Demand
1. In the context of the Sangh Parivar’s attacks on Christian minorities in Orissa we demand:
Creation of conditions so that all Christians can return to their homes;
Removal of fear—which means adequate and more CRPF personnel;
Punishment for those guilty of violence against Christian minorities;
Immediate ban on the bandh call of various Sangh Parivar groups on Christmas day.
Ban on entry of Praveen Togadia and Bajrang Dal and VHP leaders into Kandhamal;
End to hate campaign all over Orissa and the special targeting of Christian churches;
Press Council of India should monitor Oriya language print and TV media and its role in fomenting and aggravating violence;
Government and respective departments and commissions must take proactive action in Kandhamal where every child is being deprived of his or her fundamental rights including to nutrition and education.
2. A fitting tribute to Shri Hemant Karkare by carrying on his investigation into terrorist activities of Hindutva extremists to their logical culmination;
3. Specifically, continuation of investigations into the Malegan, other blast cases identified by Shri Karkare and the Maharashtra ATS and the terror network of the Sangh Parivar;
4. Reopening of the Nanded bomb blast case;
5. An immediate judicial enquiry into Batla House ’encounter
(Released via: Anhad,23, Canning Lane, New Delhi-110001, Tel: 23070722/ 40)
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