My Opinion

An amount of 500 crore was budgeted last year for the homecoming of the Kashmiri Pandits in the valley. A place was also identified for their successful rehabilitation. There was considerable progress on this and talks were on between Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Mufti Mohammad Saeed. However with the sudden demise of Mufti, it has put a brake to this entire operation. Till a new government is formed and talks resume, it will perhaps take some time for the homecoming process to start anew.

The Jaish E Mohammad has been supported by the army in Pakistan. The outfit has received arms and weapons training. However after Jaish led by Masood Azhar made two attempts on his life, Parvez Musharraf had banned the group but the crackdown was only in paper. Not only has it regrouped itself with training centres all over Pakistan, the JeM is also believed to be responsible for the Pathankot Airbase attack. So far there were unconfirmed reports that Masood Azhar has been detained but today when the Defence Minister of Pakistan confirmed reports of his detention, there can be little doubt that Nawaz Sharif is serious about tackling terrorism in his own country. However a lot depends on how seriously the Pakistan Prime Minister is perceived is his own country.

Under no circumstances can throwing shoes or eggs or smearing ink as a means of protest be justified. It needs to be condemned strongly but the question is what triggers such assaults? One may remember that Jarnail Singh who had thrown a shoe at the then Home Minister P Chidambaram, was later given a ticket to fight the Delhi elections and made an MLA by Arvind Kejriwal thereby encouraging such a culture. What is even more interesting that it was Kejriwal who had always maintained after he became the Chief Minister that he did not require any security and wanted to be treated like an ‘aam admi’ but now his leaders have been crying hoarse over serious security lapses pertaining to the Chief Minister.

Rohit’s suicide is bound to generate political unrest, it is bound to trigger off a campaign on social media and spark off protests amongst students. However he should not be made a scapegoat in this political fight. A thorough investigation should be made into the allegations that Rohit Vemula had raised in his letter to the Vice Chancellor. It is important to find out what forced him to take such a drastic step and the strictest punishment should be given to those who are involved in his unfortunate death.

The needle of suspicion in the Pathankot terror attack has always pointed to an insider job. Without inside help, or without the help of the mafia, it would not have been possible to execute such an attack. In Ramayana one may remember it would not have been possible to overpower Ravana in Lanka without Vibhishana’s help. It is therefore imperative to nab those who facilitated the attack and they need to be dealt with in the strongest manner.

Hafiz Saeed blatantly ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally today. He even tried provoking Muslims in India. However the JUD Chief should pay heed to what leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi have been repeatedly saying. Owaisi has said that Muslims in India are far more protected. They can never be unfaithful towards their homeland and are even prepared to lay down their lives. These are not just Owaisi’s words but a reflection of what 28 crore Muslims living in India think and feel and terrorists like Hafiz Saeed should certainly make a note of it.

India has already clarified that talks would be meaningless until Pakistan takes action against those behind the Pathankot terror attack. Pakistan first promised ‘action’ and then asked for some more time to ‘act’ which India agreed to.

Pakistan has consented to India’s Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar informing his Pakistani counterpart today that it would be better to engage in talks only after Pakistan completes its investigations and likewise takes action against the conspirators.

We have learnt that talks have been deferred by 10-12 days and the two Foreign Secretaries are likely to meet in Islamabad by the end of this month.

Comedian Kiku Sharda was fortunately granted bail by evening but it was a deplorable and absurd act on part of the Haryana police to have arrested him in the very first place. After a case was lodged against him at the Kaithal police station for having allegedly mimicked a ‘popular’ god man, the police went all the way to Mumbai leaving aside everything else to arrest him. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh the self styled god man and the ‘Chief’ of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect should have been arrested instead. Not only is he a mockery in the name of religion, but he has several murder charges against him. If the Haryana Government was trying to appease the controversial god man for helping the BJP during the Assembly Polls, nothing can be more shameful than this absurd act of arresting Kiku Sharda.

If Masood Azhar, the Chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad has indeed been arrested and his offices sealed, then this will augur well for both India and Pakistan. I use the term ‘if’ because my scepticism stems from the fact that there has been no official confirmation about the arrest from the Pakistan Government or their Police. Till the time their government officially agrees to have apprehended the Jaish Chief and agrees to hand him over to India, it would be difficult to believe Pakistan. But if they have managed to arrest Masood and his brother, then this would certainly be a step forward towards peace between the two neighbouring countries.

The Pakistan government is well aware that the groups like the Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad operate on its soil in order to carry out their terror activities. Even if the government were to take action against these groups, it is unable to do so, since these groups enjoy the active support from the Army and the ISI. Despite the Jaish-e-Mohammad having twice made an attempt on Parvez Musharraf’s life, the government was unable to weed out the terror outfit. However in the aftermath of the terror attack in Pathankot, even Parvez Musharraf was forced to call for strong action after it was identified that Jaish-e-Mohammad was behind these attacks.

Malda is known for its widespread opium farming and the BSF had recently tightened the noose around those growing opium in this area. The opium mafia had used the local Muslim population inorder to escape from the BSF. The Hindu activists in the area felt that this was some kind of a Muslim protest which is why the local police station was burnt and the people were trying to assert their dominance in the name of religion. But it was the Opium Mafia that actually tried to create a religious divide and took advantage of the crowd and burnt all records in the local thana at Kaliachak in Malda.

The terror attack at the Pathankot airbase cannot be taken lightly. There are two options to deal with it – either Pakistan takes strict action or India should prepare itself to attack the perpetrators. The Pakistan Prime Minister has promised action, some of which was visible today and one would have to wait for the outcome. However if the outcome is zero, then the second option can always be resorted to. This was today hinted by Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar.