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Martyr Politics: NETAS CAPITALZE ON DEATH, By Poonam I Kaushish, 4 May, 2013 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 4 May 2013

Martyr Politics

NETAS CAPITALZE ON DEATH

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

When you go back, remember that he gave his today for your tomorrow. Juxtapose this with the vulgar tamasha of manufactured grief displayed  over any death or calamity that strikes India. The first is an epitaph of a valiant soldier. The second the anatomy of a politician.

 

The tragedy is that while our soldiers are willing to die for their country, our political tribe is only interested in living. Nothing illustrates this better than the shenanigans by all Parties to extract political mileage read Sikh votes out of death-row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, in jail for 22 years, brutal death in Pakistan on 2 May. Especially during Delhi Assembly poll later this year and next year’s general election.

 

Starting with Prime Minster our netagan fell over each other in one-upmanship by eulogizing Sarabjit. Notwithstanding that the farmer from Punjab’s Bhikhiwind in Tarn Taran district was convicted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court for being an Indian spy who killed 14 people at Faisalabad and Lahore in 1991.

 

While Manmohan Singh called him a “brave son of India’, the BJP raised the ante against Pakistan demanding India scale down diplomatic relations, Punjab’s Akali Chief Minister Badal dubbed him a “national martyr” and announced a three-day State mourning.

 

He also offered Government jobs to Sarabjit’s two daughters along-with Rs 1crore ex gratia for his family. Not to be outdone, the Centre too appended Rs 25 lakhs, Parliament observed two-minutes silence in his memory and he was cremated with full State honours, wrapped in the national flag and given a 21-gun salute.

 

Led by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, Punjab first Family Badal’s, State PCC Chief Bajwa, BJP President, State Ministers and various Sikh leaders joined nearly 50,000 people in Sarabjit’s funeral.

 

But the moot point is: What made Sarajit into a national martyr and a cause celebre? Was he a soldier being rewarded for saving people’s lives on India’s borders with Pakistan and China? What sacrifice did he make for the country? Did the Government know Sarabjit was innocent? If so, why didn’t it take up his case in Pakistan’s Supreme Court which had convicted him for terror and espionage? What was his truth? 

 

Did the UPA rush in because it didn't want its rivals specially Punjab’s Akali-BJP Government to steal political advantage and accuse it of having failed a citizen in Pakistan? Also, what signal does New Delhi want to send Islamabad by “honouring” Sarabjit in his death?

 

Undeniably, Sarabjit Singh’s life is a heart rendering tale of vicious and deadly injuries resulting in his death. A morbid release from years rotting in jail not knowing if he would live or die. Against the backdrop of Islamabad’s refusal to release him on ‘humanitarian grounds’ Sarabjit catapulted into an emotional issue along-with a test case of India-Pakistan ties.

 

Alas, there is no gainsaying that it was politics which dictated our netas embracing Sarabjit in death while rejecting him during his life. Today it has once again opened the Pandora’s Box of who Sarabjit really was? A terrorist who killed people, an India spy arraigned on false charges, a smuggler or a simple drunk farmer who crossed the border, as alleged by his family.

 

By participating in Sarabjit's funeral it has complicated its position vis-à-vis Pakistan. Already, Islamabad has gone international over former Hizbul Mujahideen prisoner Sanuallah Ranjay by fellow prisoners in Jammu’s Kot Lakhpat jail. Unlike Sarabjit, Ranjay is undergoing life imprisonment following his arrest in 1999 for bomb blasts in Jammu city.  Pakistan Foreign Minister is demanding a UN probe on the plight of Pakistani prisoners in India.

 

Pertinently, this reported tit-for-tat only nails the thoughtlessness of confrontational jingoism over isolated cases, no matter however nasty. Given that many soldiers who have risked all and laid down their lives for the country are not given their rightful due and their valour appreciated and admired. Dismissed as a slight of a hand as an occupational hazard of discharging a soldier’s duty. Sic.

 

Indeed, the Congress is using Sarabjit’s ‘martyrdom’ to neutralize the Sikhs simmering anger and demonstrations over 1984 riot accused Sajjan Kumar’s acquittal by a Delhi court last week and the UPA’s soft handling of Sarabjit’s case with Pakistan. The Congress leader’s exoneration has revived agonizing memories of the anti-Sikh riots which killed over 3000 post Indira Gandhi’s assaination by her Sikh security guard. The victims’ families are particularly enraged as they feel that political leaders involved in the riots were allowed to go scot free.

 

In fact, the Party is worried that it could pay a heavy price first in the forthcoming Delhi and 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Especially as the Sikh community’s disillusionment with the Congress has been growing since it was dethroned by rival Akali Dal in the recent Shiromani Gurudwara Prbandhak Committee elections in Delhi. Worse, Kumar’s judgment is the last nail in the advantage it gained over the years. On the flip side, an aggressive Akali Dal is moving in to encash on the hurt feelings of the Sikhs.

 

Undoubtedly, one needs neither a bleeding heart nor blindness to see how our polity capitalizes on human tragedy to fill their vote-bank coffers. They also know what should be done to stop the daily de-humanizing and brutality of every day existence.

 

Simultaneously, unlike the brouhaha over Sarabjit New Delhi needs to put in place a policy on how to honour her sons and daughters who die serving the country. The brave hearts on the borders, the security personnel in Maoist-infested zones et al who need to know the country has confidence in its heroes. It must not dismiss those who fall by the wayside. The tragedy is that our polity uses the Defence portfolio as a means of making money by padding up costs of armaments, ships, submarine and planes to shore up the country’s security preparedness. Borne out by innumerable scams. 

 

Clearly these measures would help prevent the disgusting race by our netas to exploit popular sentiment over the passing of ordinary innocents or alleged spy’s like Sarabjit Singh.

It is now imperative for our polity to rethink its strategies and approach to the future and what should be done to stop their political jamboree. Let’s not make our hellenial fate our millennial future! Time to think of the long-term domestic and international repercussions. Political fevicol is not the binder for the nation’s oral and emotional fabric! ----- INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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