vyakta

The article is a collation of the careful observation over the past few years. The situation is “how do the various components of our society, media, politics etc. react when there is a terror attack at a place X by a jihadi outfit”

Media: Extensive coverage of the terror attack news for the next 2 days. Clichés keeps resurfacing – “Intelligent sources had warned the state police, but the state police failed to prevent the attack”. Muslim victims will invariably interviewed; if not someone who condemns the attack will surely be talked to. Then follows the next set of Clichés – “Some fringe elements have committed the attack & It is wrong to blame the whole Muslim community for that”. “The city is resilient to such attacks; it will not be bogged down by such incidents”. Within a week media conducts few sting operation in the attacked area & claim that as a big achievement. “Our media person could go the place without any hindrance; no security personnel questioned him….”

Prime Minister: “My heart goes to those people who were affected by the attack”. (He would never say “I had sleepless nights after seeing the attacks”, mind you!!) He condemns the attack. He would shout “India will not surrender to terrorism (but we are ever ready to pander to the Muslims!!!) & we out rightly condemn this attack”.

Opposition party: “This is a clear lapse of security. Ever since this Govt. has come to power terrorism has shot up. Mr. X should step down from his ministry”.

West: Condemns the attack, but bothers a least for what happened here. Though they themselves are suffering from this problem, their concentration lies only within their country, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc.

Common man: Blames the attack, blames the Govt. for not taking enough security measures. Never openly condemns the Muslims for not doing enough to stop their fellow communal from committing such a heinous act. Does not think of what is his responsibility as a citizen, what could he do to prevent such incidents.

And what is this?? A perfect recipe for the next terror attack.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO PREVENT IT

As stated before, this is a loop and the loop can be broken at various stages. For example, instead of blaming the Govt. only for the security lapse, we need to think a step below. The terror attack is only the manifestation. The source is elsewhere. The source is in the inflammatory speech of a radical mullah which happens almost every day across the country. If the source is cut off, then the problem subsides on its own.

Media should own the responsibility of bringing the social awareness. It should educate Muslims to stay off from extremism. At the same time, it should educate everyone to prevent terrorism by any & all means. It could be reporting a suspicious activity, protesting the usage of inflammatory speech, …. Only when each part understands its responsibility the problem could be tackled. Else, the cycle of terror keeps rolling…..

# posted by ananda k s @ 7:29 AM