Hindustan Times
Now for a war on error
If Muslim-perpetrated terror creates Islamophobia; smart counter-insurgency should be able to purge it (by eliminating terrorism). Abusive counter-terrorism on the other hand fuels more terror and, therefore, more Islamophobia. Muslims clearly have more at stake in the war on terror than others do.
When coordinated explosions ripped Delhi on September 13, 2008, people, regardless of their faith, retreated into their shells in fear. Five days later, when police shot dead two suspected terrorists — at Delhi’s Batla House on September 19 — one section of the people erupted in anger and protests, while another had fear struck even deeper. Home-grown terror had hit home. The confusion that followed made matters worse.
The war on terror looked different to some Muslims who found themselves under constant surveillance because of their religion. They grappled with a widespread sense that in the eyes of the police, if you were a Muslim, you could be a potential terrorist.
My gut reaction was not of doubt but relief. With two of those responsible killed, a chain of wanton terror acts would finally end, I hoped. Then came the voices of dissent, which were worth listening to.
There are always two sides to a story. In this case, there were three: the police, residents of the Batla House locality, who jumped to the conclusion that those killed could not have been terrorists; and civil society groups who felt there was a thing or two shady about the killings.
I was asked to write a piece for the “Beyond the News” column. My brief was to try and understand, and then analyze, why some people doubted the encounter. Fair enough for a newspaper to do so. There were many things I needed to find out. I had to be careful in making the right deductions and not get swayed one way or the other. The piece I finally wrote was headlined, ‘Why they hate us’. ‘They’ stood for the terrorists. ‘Us’ meant you and me.
Terrorists do not kill or maim, I wrote, simply because they are crazy. They are not. If some of their causes are legitimate and are not inimical to our nation and constitutional means of redressal are available, then addressing these causes should naturally be a part of the terror-prevention strategy. However, this is not to suggest that terrorists should be left alone to kill people at will.
However, in my mind, one thing was abundantly clear. If people doubted the very shootout in which a police officer got killed, then there is something wrong either about the killings or about how people viewed police forces.
It ought to be an acute lack of credibility. And this is one of the reasons: counter-terrorism efforts have largely not been respectful of human rights.
India does not have a rights-respecting police force. The Indian government should take major steps to overhaul a policing system that facilitates and even encourages human rights violations, Human Rights Watch had said in a report released in August 2009, which has been acknowledged by the government. See here. (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/29/india-overhaul-abusive-failing-police-system)
It is dangerous for the police not to respect human rights. If counter-insurgency is seen to be harassing, there is a danger of people identifying more with the insurgency than with the government.
Nobody has a greater duty to follow the law than those who make or enforce it. As a thumb rule, lack of trust in the police undermines all efforts of the police themselves. And we should naturally support all efforts of the police to keep us safe from terrorists.
On September 8, 2009, the Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate, S.P. Tamang, had found that the June 2004 killing of Ishrat Jahan, a young girl suspected to be a terrorist, was a case of ‘fake encounter’.
Tamang, in a 243-page hand-written report, concluded that the then ‘encounter specialist’ of Gujarat police, D.G. Vanzara, among others, killed the teenager in cold blood.
Privately, police officers I know by dint of my profession have occasionally admitted that most of the time, they get the wrong guys. An intelligence officer I trust once told me that some of the key people they arrested in the aftermath of Mumbai train blasts turned out be innocents. Tracking terrorists down after all is a difficult job, he said. He however said that was not the case with the young boys killed at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, who were indeed terrorists.
Incidents such as ‘fake encounters’ do not serve to enhance the image of police in the eyes of the public. The failure of the police to police itself creates impunity. This impunity erodes people’s trust in them.
Sometimes however, the police unfairly get the flak when terrorists get away because of want of evidence. As poet Robert Frost once said, a jury consists of twelve persons who decide who has a better lawyer.
However, considering there have always been more misses than hits, I for one would vouch for an independent probe every time police open fire and somebody is wounded or killed.
Defeating terror requires the cooperation of the people. They are less likely to cooperate — or may even sympathise with terrorists — if counter-terror is seen as abusive. Therefore, it is essential for any security force to be subject to the law. This has to do with not just human rights alone, but is smart counter-insurgency strategy too.
The war on terror is necessary and legitimate. But let’s have a war on errors in fighting terror too.
(7 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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(4.47 out of 5)
Zia Rikarty Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Dear Gopi Thomas,
Why No comment on Goa Bomb Blast?
[Reply]
Gopi Thomas Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 5:32 am
@Rikarty
[Reply]
K Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 5:35 am
Here’s your comment on the Goa ‘Bomb blast’ – Investigation should nail the culprits and if the culprits are found to have guns in their room when the police reach their home, there is a very good possibility that the terrorist/s could be killed by the anti-terror squad. Do you want any other comment on the Goa bomb blast ?
Now, back to Zia’s post – “considering there have always been more misses than hits” – please provide evidence. A few highly publicised crimes cannot be counted as ‘more misses’ compared to daily crime prevention undertaken by our brave anti-terrorism officers.
Before you make sweeping statements about the integrity of the entire law enforcement machinery, please make sure you have solid evidence.
I would claim that there are more hits than misses or you wouldnt be safe in your home posting such nonsense in a national newspaper blog.
[Reply]
Goopi Thomas Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 5:38 am
@Rikarty
Goa blast, at this time, does not qualify as a major (or even minor) terrorist attack. It is only a nuiscence, although any life lost is one too many. We should be glad that only two lives were lost.
However, if the investigation proves that there is an organizational connection to the entity rumored, and that entity is planning major attacks, all of the leaders should be arrested and put in jail.
[Reply]
Bobby Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:08 pm
“We should address the tribals’ problems;…”
I have to say this, nobody will address their problems. Because the media has shut its ears. What we are seeing in India especially over the last two decades, is that the space for minorities, and poor is reducing in the public discussions.
Whatever one says about the DD, it used to have good programmes about the lives of the poor people here. Nowadays thats just not the case. One can see it in the kind of films we make today, or the kind of programmes we have in TV. Its all about rich kind hearted guys who don’t have any problems in life except may be break ups!
NDTV, to take an example ahs a channel called NDTV goodtimes, where they show the life style of the rich and famous 24 hours a day….yet not one channel covering …say Poverty round the clock….say NDTV -Poverty, NDTV-Injustice, or NDTV-labour to look at the issues of these tribals, workers or minorities etc.
As P. Sainath says, to make news, the poor in India have to die in large numbers! The civil society in the western countries, in Europe and the US are more compassionate at least when compared to India, I feel. When the US was about to attack Iraq, one saw large rallies in NY and other western capitals. Here I dont recollect seeing a single big morcha or even a critical discussion about India’s role in Kashmir.
No protests when the GoI decides whether or not to use air-power against the poorest sections of its own society! If the problem of the tribals have to be solved, then educated indians from the middle class will have to go to these areas and live there, with them, when the Government attacks these people, as Gandhi would have done. Organize massive rallies showing the plight of these people and how they are being displaced from their lands for the greed of a few. Unfortunately , I don’t see any such things happening any time soon.
We need more heroes like Teesta Setalvad, Arundhati Roy, P.Sainath, Medha Patkar and so many more. We need to civilize this country more.
Having an independent media would help, not corporate media or DD. Something on the lines of “Democracy Now” in the US.