Who is a Terrorist?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary a terrorist is a “person who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”. So is someone like Subhash Chandra Bose a terrorist? He supported violent resistance against the British rule in India. During World War II he was the leader of the Indian National Army and fought the Allies in Burma. His political goal was to end the British rule in India. I think that many in Britain during the 30’s and 40’s would have considered him a terrorist although very few in India would have looked at him that way. As the saying goes “one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter”.
India’s Home Minister Chidambaram has mentioned recently that the Maoists operating in many parts of India are not terrorists and that they should be treated differently. He conveniently forgot that in June 2009 India officially declared that the Maoist movements are terrorist movements. In fact on June 22, 2009 Chidambaram said “It was always a terrorist organization. Today any ambiguity has been removed. It is a terrorist organization”. But based on his statements today it looks like the Indian government has changed its mind again. The Maoists have killed several people, burnt busses and trains. They recently even beheaded a police officer and admitted doing so to the media. But they control large tracts of land and have strong support from the locals who live in these areas. The Maoists claim that they are fighting a war against corrupt police and government officials who are not able to provide basic services to the poor. This is a powerful message. Most Indians would have to agree that there is a grain of truth in this statement. We are all very familiar with the living conditions of the poor in India. We all know how corrupt the country is. But the question still remains. Are the Maoists also terrorists?
At what point does an ally become a terrorist? Al Qaeda is partly an outcome of decades of American policy in the Middle East. Islamic fundamentalism was whipped up (by countries like United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) to contain the growth of communist Soviet Union and their allies in the region (like India). Once the Soviet Union left Afghanistan the students started turning on their mentors. The rest as they say is history. Now billions are dollars are spent yearly every year by many different countries to protect us from our once allies (the tactics used by Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union are similar to the ones used by Al Qaeda and the likes against America and its Allies now). Was it terrorism then as it is now?
India has a similar record. India for a long time offered political, economic and military aid to the Tamil freedom fighters in Sri Lanka. About 8000 members of the Indian army lost their lives in Sri Lanka keeping peace between the Sri Lankan forces and the Tamil militants. Tamil people all over the world (particularly in Tamil Nadu) were very sympathetic to the cause of the Tamils who lived in Sri Lanka. However, all this changed after the unfortunate assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Suddenly the LTTE (who enjoyed unprecedented access to senior level politicians and cabinet ministers in Tamil Nadu and the central government) went from a friend to a terrorist organization.
I think that we are trying to oversimplify things when we try to attach labels to individuals or organizations that we do not want to deal with at the present moment. Consistency in beliefs or policies is not one of the strong points of human beings or nations. At any given moment we tend to gravitate towards what is in our best interests. But this might create problems for us and our society in the long term.
Related posts:
- India is Providing a Platform to the Communists?
- India’s War Within (Naxallites and Maoists)
- Saffron Terrorism is Real
- India Reacts Differently To Terrorist & Maoist Attacks
- Tamils in India Should Stop Batting For Sri Lankan Tamils
Category: News & Government