The Jack Of Spades

There is much to criticise about the Americans, but there is much to learn as well. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma city bomber, was executed soon after he was convicted. We clamour that Pakistan should return 20 of our most wanted terrorists (half a dozen of them Khalistanis) and yet the ones within India roam free thanks to our feckless judicial process. Nineteen years after his death, Bhindranwale is anointed a "martyr" by the Akal Takht controlled by the Akali Dal. From the Indian state's perspective, this is seditious. But all theBJP, the Akali Dal's ally, does is to meekly protest about this canonisation being "unfortunate". Allowing Bhindranwale to mutate from a dreaded terrorist to a religious martyr is as much a policy of appeasement as not raiding a mosque stockpiled with weapons.

That's what happened in Kerala and eventually the spade had to berequisitioned. Islamic fundamentalism has created havoc in the beautiful coastal village of Marad. Trouble erupted in January 2002, again basically over petty rivalry between the local Araya Hindu and Muslim fishermen. The trouble-makers were arrested, but later released. Outsiders began fishing in the troubled waters and another round of brutal blood-letting stained Marad's golden sands last month. 

Reports had filtered in about agent provocateurs moving in, brewing communal tensions, stockpiling weapons in the local mosque. But the local Congress administration did nothing. And so, the Hindu fishermen were slaughtered, the mosque had to be raided, killers arrested and the communal atmosphere poisoned. As JusticeV.R. Krishna Iyer, who was part of a peace mission on both occasions, declares in his inimitable style, "Eternal vigilance is the desideratum of communal pacifism" (the dictionary says desideratum means "thing missing").

Our administrations' inability to be eternally vigilant appears to be a systemic flaw. No matter. We have a magic wand to fix all such problems: we appoint a committee. That's the surest way of diverting attention—get it off our minds, newspapers and TV screens. We actually have a Crisis Management Group headed by Sharad Pawar. They have taken two years to study this problem, but seem primarily obsessed with how to channel central funds to calamity-struck states. But then the flow of money is what politicians and bureaucrats love to swim in.

Even if there are exceptions that prove the general rule, occasionally, local people and administrations have demonstrated the capacity to take preventive steps. Like the Jats in Talhan's neighbouring village, Salempur Masanda, who quickly included Dalits in the management of their cash-rich Baba Dasa shrine. Our challenge is to convert these isolated cases of preventive action into a national ethic. After all, needles cost and hurt much less than spades.