The long dark tea time of the soul

Although confirmation bias, or the inability to see facts that contradict one’s preconceived ideas, is not treated as a serious defect in individual cognition, it can produce very significant errors in perception. Like the fact that many people take credence in the weekly horoscope by simply recognizing the parts that fit their case and ignoring the bits that don’t. Most people, including bloggers and editors, are not immune to confirmation bias.

Two recent examples are that of Mr. Ram of Hindu and Mr. Shekhar Gupta of Indian Express. While it is not clear whether Mr. Ram writes the way he does because of the instructions received from Alimuddin Street which he is unable to refuse, and hence any analysis of his articles needs to be postponed until it is proven beyond doubt that Mr Ram writes the way he does at his own volition, it is important to dissect Mr. Gupta’s assertion. More so because in the aftermath of the failed Glasgow bombings, a whole lot of public discourse in the indian media and the blogosphere is related to the what might be euphemistically called, coming-of-age of Indian terror and understanding the Indian muslim psyche. This becomes complicated because an Indian doctor is detained in a foreign country in apparent trumped up charges, and subjected to solitary confinement.

Shekhar Gupta believes that the UPA government’s “soft policy on terror”, revocation of such black laws like pota, its self doubt while dealing with minorities is what is fueling extremism in the country. He goes on to claim that the growth of naxalism is solely because of a lack of will at the center to dealfirmly with them. It is necessary to put the matters straight. Mohib at IndianMuslims.in posted a brilliant retort to similar rationale.

Besides the Mumbai train blasts and those in crowded places in Delhi, at least three deadly terrorist strikes were in mosques and temples in as many years. Many people including Mr Gupta, by claiming that all those who die happen to be ‘hindu’ (”only one community is victim”) , just refuse to count those deaths. No significant arrests were made in those cases. No chargesheets were filed. Despite having mutual interest in solving the Samjhauta express blasts, India refused to share intelligence with the Pakistani counterpart. Not that they made great strides in identifying the perpetrators. While Mr. Gupta feels that the reason is an excess of secularism, I feel that it is something to do with a lack of it in our investigating agencies.

For a long time, our police and IB have followed a simple three step formula in solving terror. a) Prepare a list of groups perceived to be the ‘enemies of india’. b) Blame the attack on that group and, c)Arrest someone who is remotely associated with those groups. Note that in most cases, the alleged criminals, who can also be termed as victims, were acquited by the courts. Most of them spend years in jail before being produced before a judge, in complete violation of law. They are brutally tortured by the authorities, forced to sign on blank papers, made to go through narco analysis test (againviolation the constitution that says that any individual must not be forced to testify against himself), and a whole drama is created in front of media that pronounces the victim as guilty even before the trial has begun, that parrots the lines from authorities.

This lazy attitude of the police, and the media’s inability or fear to ask tough questions and dissect the prosecution arguments is the principal reason why we see increased instances of terror every year. What the police does is it catches the most vulnerable people, who fit the social profile of a terrorist, and are able to extract confession from him. In case he refuses to confess, he is easily done away with in a staged encounter. As a result, the real perpetrators of the ghastly crime slip by, they are never targetted as investigations remain shoddy, and are free to make the next strike. After ISI and LET/JeM, it is HUJI that is the latest posterboy of Indian police. No doubt that these nihilist organizations exist for the sole purpose of killing people, still, if they are able to strike at as many places in India at their will, then there is something fundamentally flawed with our security apparatus and intelligence gathering.

In Nanded, there was a powerful blast in the house of a local rss member. Two persons, both bajrang dal members, were killed while they were making a bomb. No arrests were made in that case. Nobody was implicated. The blast conclusively proved Bajrang Dal’s intention to carry out terrorist strikes in India. What followed was a series of bomb blasts in mosques, temples, bazaars and trains. Blinded by the country’s distrust over its minorities, none of these cases remain solved. Despite a large numbers of muslims being killed, it is generally believed that Bajrang dal is out of any suspicion. In the case of the blasts at Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad, the police outdid the terrorists. More people were killed by police bullets than by the bomb on that day.

Similarly it is being said that the center doesn’t have the courage to take on the naxalites. How real is it? For last three years a campaign of isolating and hamletting of villages is going on in Chhattisgarh in the name of Salwa Judum. Despite its universal condemnation, and exposure of the killing fields by every single fact finding and media report, this campaign has got full support of the union home ministry. Similar experiments are being carried out in other parts of the country, like Orissa and Jharkhand. Are they bearing any fruit? More central committee leaders of CPI(maoist) were killed in last three years than in previous 10 years. For the first time in last 30 years, around 20% of the group’s top leaders have been put in jail. Still the ideology, and its adherents are not waning. If news reports are to go by, the naxalites have significantly increased their strength in last few years. What is it that the naxalites have realised and the center is yet to do?

The single most important reason for the growth of naxalism is the economic policies being followed by the central government since 1998. There is little space given to legitimate demands of people, and whenever conflicts arise between the interests of citizens and those of corporates, the state inevitably sided against its own people. The nation is jotted with places where the police fired on its own people, on people who were protesting against corporate parasites, on people who were trying to secure their life and livelihood, on people who were trying to uphold the principles laid down in the constitution. These, and the fact that there is no strong political left left in the country, are providing the fodder for the naxalites. So, instead of addressing these core issues, the confirmation biased individuals suggest a surge of troop, a hardline policy, bringing in the army, and killing as many naxalites as possible. This route is doomed to failure and comes with a significant cost.

Coming back to the original point of this post. The repeated terrorist attacks in all parts of the country is definitely a failure of the UPA government. However the reason is not an excess of secularism, but a lack of it in our police and intelligence agencies. Remember Mumbai blasts. Remember how the people of the city came to help the victims. How there were no policemen of civic authorities in sight at the time of the blasts, at the time when they were most needed. How nearly 400 people, all muslims, were arrested by Mumbai blasts immediately after the blasts. How more than 12000 muslim homes were searched. What makes the police cast askance entire muslim population of Mumbai after the horrific train blasts? They usually don’t stop of that. The person who was accused of carrying out the Ghatkopar blasts was murdered in a cold-blooded encounter.

This is not secularism if the largest minority in the country is made to feel unsafe. It is not secularism why we are unable to nab the culprits behind those heinous acts. It is something entirely opposite. It is the lack of secularism how the most dastardly acts by our police agencies are hailed as long as they appear to be targeting terrorists. In reality they are too busy saving their own skins by inventing culprits. One possible reason is a weak home minister. More on that later.