| Defining Terror
The attack on the American Center in Kolkata yesterday in which five policemen were killed and many more injured, certainly points at one vital point. Terrorism is not just about to disappear, regardless of what name, derogatory or otherwise the world chose to give it. It will remain, and it will strike where it is least expected. Although we must be one among the minority voices at this very moment, we still are of the same opinion that we have been advocating all this while. A pervading sense of justice must precede any lasting peace around the world as much as in the localized conflict situations as in Manipur.
The truth in this proposition, even the United States, in its moment of triumph, must acknowledge, else its seeming triumph now can easily turn into its nemesis. It may very well be, there can be no direct major threat to a country, post particularly the United State's, by terrorism anymore, but the fact also will remain that no individual can feel safe even while doing the most normal of things anymore unless this whole issue has been put to rest.
For a lasting solution to any problem, we are of the opinion; the solution will have to be by a two-way discourse. America's anger at the atrocious attack on the World Trade Center towers as well as the Pentagon is understandable, but it must also try and understand the anger of many others against it and what it stands. It will perhaps be noteworthy to recall the voice of a very well known (Black) American, Martin Luther Jr., that ridiculed the fact that everything Hitler did, was from the point of view of the law, legal, while everything that the freedom fighters of Hungary did, was from the point of view of the world, illegal.
A lot of waters have flowed down the many rivers of the world ever since Martin Luther Jr, the Black Gandhi walked the earth, but his words continue to ring an uncannily familiar tone. And if we are able to heed the message in the voice, let us not be too hasty to blacken every legitimate protest and uprisings. Otherwise, there will never be an end to the cycle of violence that is making everybody's life miserable.
In the context of Manipur too, the same logic must apply. The hunt for peace must necessarily be synonymous with a genuine and honest hunt for a just order of things. For this, honest retrospection is what is essential. We need to widen the vision of the past, present and the future considerably, and see things with a consensual and democratic eye. One man's delicacy can very well be another's sacrilege. A middle ground where even these directly opposing points of view can meet must be what is sought for. This should not be impossible, considering regardless of whatever religion or beliefs each holds, at the very core, all human values remain the same as they are built from the same building blocks.
Let us again reiterate, for all the violence in the world to end, we are convinced that the residual sense of anger and outrage amongst all communities, big or small, must be first put to rest. This does not however mean that the onus of settling these disputes rest solely on the shoulders of only those on one side of these dispute. The receiving ends as well as the giving ends must agree to give as much as take. Only such a solution can be honorable to all. Only such a solution can be just and lasting too.
(Courtesy: The
Imphal Free Press) |
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