The hijacking of IC-814 on 24th Dec 1999 was a
shameful thing for the country to face, to end a horrible year that was 1999.
But equally shameful and hurtful was the behavior of the relatives of the
IC-814 hostages. 24 hours after the plane was hijacked , the relatives started
raising hell to pressurize the then NDA government to release all 36 terrorists
demanded by the five hijackers of Harkat ul Mujahideen. These people were all
from privileged backgrounds with the best education. We must remember that back
in 1999, air travel in India was accessible for only the affluent.
In words of Kanchan Gupta, who was the
PMO’s representative on the National Security Advisory Board at that
time:-
“No senior Minister
in the CCS was willing to meet the families. Mr Jaswant Singh volunteered to do
so. He asked me to accompany him to the canopy under which the families had
gathered. Once there, we were literally mobbed. He tried to explain the
situation but was shouted down. “We want our relatives back.
What difference does it make to us what you have to give the hijackers? A man
shouted. We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir,A woman screamed
and others took up the refrain, chanting: Kashmir de do, kuchh bhi de do,
hamare logon ko ghar wapas lao (Give away Kashmir, give away anything,
but bring our people back). Another woman sobbed, Mera beta hai mera beta,
and made a great show of fainting of grief. To his credit, Mr Jaswant
Singh made bold to suggest that the Government had to keep the nation’s
interest in mind, that we could not be seen to be giving in to the hijackers,
or words to that effect, in chaste Hindi. That fetched him abuse and rebuke. Bhaand
me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and
national interest), many in the crowd shouted back. Stumped by the
response, Mr Jaswant Singh could merely promise that the Government would do
everything possible.”
“While the briefing was on at the Press Information Bureau hall in Shastri
Bhavan, some families of the hostages barged in and started shouting slogans. They
were led by one Sanjiv Chibber, who, I was later told, was a noted surgeon. He
claimed six of his relatives were among the hostages. Chibber
wanted all 36 terrorists named by the hijackers to be released immediately. He
reminded everybody in the hall that in the past terrorists had been released
from prison to secure the freedom of Ms Rubayya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti
Mohammed Sayeed, while he was Home Minister in VP Singh’s Government. Why cant
you release the terrorists now when our relatives are being held hostage? he
demanded. And then we heard the familiar refrain: Give away Kashmir, give
them anything they want, we don’t give a damn.”
(PS: This Dr Chibber was the part of Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement a
decade later. What hypocrites our middle and upper middle classes have become
is very evident from just this example).
These highly educated people had lost all decency and didn’t even care to treat
Kargil war martyr Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja’s widow with respect, who had
insisted that she should be taken to meet the relatives of the hostages.
As she spoke to them as to why India must not be seen giving in to the hijackers,
that it was a question of national honour, quoting her own example as a young
widow with a very young son, the crowd started heckling her and shouting things
like “She has become a widow, now she wants others to become widows. Who is
she to lecture us? Yeh kahan se aayi?”. The young widow displayed great
dignity while facing all of this (what did my husband die for, she couldn’t
have helped think at some point of time) .Similar appeals that were made by
others who had lost their sons, husbands and fathers in the Kargil war that
summer fell on deaf ears.
Now let us see another end of the spectrum, the parents and relatives of
the slain soldiers who are in far flung areas of the country which the
macaulite Indian who prides himself on knowing the capitals of various
countries doesn’t care to look up. It breaks one’s heart to see how these
parents, wives, brothers, sisters grieve over their beloved
sons/husbands/siblings, and humbly declare that they are proud of them. Never
once will they ever speak things like “to hell with the country” or make a
ruckus like the privileged have alls make. On being asked what do they expect the
government to do, the answer is always “Severe retaliation should be given” and
not “We want govt help”.
To quote an
example:- Nitish Kumar, who found lakhs of rupees to shower on Ishrat Jahan and
Aklakh, could spare only Rs 5 lakh each for the four soldiers hailing from
Bihar who were killed in Uri (none of his ministers couldn’t care to be at the
airport to receive the bodies). One of the widows spurned this offer by saying
“My husband did not die by drinking, he died for the country. I do not want any
alms of the beggar state govt.”
If education was
the main factor in making a person a model human being as conventional view
loves to say all the time, why is the situation exactly opposite? Why are the
people who are a paid agents of Breaking India forces, or those deranged
leftist students always from educated background? Mug up syllabus, get a good
degree and get a good job is raison d’être. All the education system promotes
is lack of critical thinking ability, short sightedness, getting swayed by
emotions, and above all, cowardice and hypocrisy. And this has to change.
We as a nation are
really in a bad shape if the educated class is a deracinated selfish tourist in
its own country. It is these people who give taglines like “fighting terrorism
with solidarity” or “supreme sacrifice” but will make sure that none of their
children will ever follow the footsteps of those who they make a great show of
lionizing.
Why is it that the
privileged and the educated have absolutely no sense of love towards the
country? Why is it that its always the have alls who are the most ungrateful And
can we expect India to be anything in the world when the class from which its
intelligentsia, policy makers, diplomats, professionals are derived have
absolutely no guts to stand up to terrorism and will capitulate to it, just so
that it can maintain the status quo of its privileged existence? If an Indian
aircraft is hijacked today, will the result be any different? Sadly not. There
will be a similar chaos, similar chest beating, similar pressure put on the
government to concede to any demands made by the terrorist and hijackers We
have already seen how the handler for the terrorists during 26/11 Mumbai
attacks told them “Try to get hold of a few VIPs. You can ask for anything from
the Indian govt after that”. Because it is known that the class from which all
VIPs and intelligentsia comes has no stomach for violence and have no qualms in
go to let the sacrifices of the soldiers go to waste for their own profit.
Their education has given them prosperity, but not a spine.
The truth is
that education does not give decency, morality, valour, common sense or
integrity. It merely gives employability. Young men who have passed barely
their matriculation protect the borders in conditions from -50 deg C to 50 deg
C, and the so called men and women with fancy degrees and doctorates call for
Aman ki Asha and India to be partitioned.
