DIALOGUE WITH THE DIABOLICAL
Even the most unspeakable of horrors start fading away from memories as new horrors gatecrash their way into news outlets. Of course, when it comes to Indians, the art of finessing memories - particularly if they have the capacity to tear open old scars and reveal festering wounds - has been perfected into ingrained habit. Denial, interspersed with intermittent bouts of faux nationalism and chauvinism, has become second nature for us. Denial has become the armour we use to shield ourselves from realities that could scorch our psyche. Worse, platitudes have become the placebo we consume in generous doses to pat ourselves on our backs and claim that the diseases that haunt and torment us have been vanquished by the platitudes and placebos.
Were it not for the ticker tape parade of scams marching through the news channels, our secular, muscular and even avuncular anchors and TV pundits would have been frothing at the mouth about the necessity and importance of continuing talks and dialogues with a diabolical establishment in Pakistan. Despite the mushrooming of scams that make this UPA government heartless and heartbroken at the same time, there have been enough stories in the media about how India and Pakistan have agreed to resume the dialogue between a blind elephant and a psychopath on a home run. Pundits have pontificated that talks must go on; even if they do not yield any results. Is that what doctors tell the cancer patient whose journey towards a funeral pyre or a graveyard is gathering momentum - medication must go on? Of course, in the case of cancer, we know that miracles have occurred even when all seemed lost.
But we must ask: is it right to transplant that kind of touching hope and faith to the vortex of Indo-Pak relations? That too when the only establishment that matters in Pakistan is utterly convinced that its policy of imposing a thousand bleeding cuts on India multiplied manifold is a geopolitical strategy of historical retribution that seems to be successful? As we-the members of the editorial team-watched the exclusive footage of the Taj Hotel on 26/11 obtained from a nodal national Intelligence agency and often cringed with horror, we relived those days of shock, horror, revulsion and rage. During some moments of the CCTV footage, we were simply transfixed by the cold bloodedly psychopathic swagger of the killers who alternated between acting like school bullies and monsters on a rampage.
These often disturbing visuals obtained for the first time from the agency are not meant to titillate; nor are they meant for the horror freaks who get their voyeuristic kicks from gore. They are meant to provoke us into asking and debating that question that we in India can never wish away? Is there any point in talking to the rulers of a nation who are bent upon haunting and tormenting us like an incurable disease? How do you hold a dialogue with a rogue state, no matter how many touching tales you hear about ordinary citizens of Pakistan welcoming Indian visitors with open arms and hearts? Is Pakistan continuing to be a rogue state because India is historically condemned with the tag of being a soft state?
Even the most unspeakable of horrors start fading away from memories as new horrors gatecrash their way into news outlets. Of course, when it comes to Indians, the art of finessing memories - particularly if they have the capacity to tear open old scars and reveal festering wounds - has been perfected into ingrained habit. Denial, interspersed with intermittent bouts of faux nationalism and chauvinism, has become second nature for us. Denial has become the armour we use to shield ourselves from realities that could scorch our psyche. Worse, platitudes have become the placebo we consume in generous doses to pat ourselves on our backs and claim that the diseases that haunt and torment us have been vanquished by the platitudes and placebos.
Were it not for the ticker tape parade of scams marching through the news channels, our secular, muscular and even avuncular anchors and TV pundits would have been frothing at the mouth about the necessity and importance of continuing talks and dialogues with a diabolical establishment in Pakistan. Despite the mushrooming of scams that make this UPA government heartless and heartbroken at the same time, there have been enough stories in the media about how India and Pakistan have agreed to resume the dialogue between a blind elephant and a psychopath on a home run. Pundits have pontificated that talks must go on; even if they do not yield any results. Is that what doctors tell the cancer patient whose journey towards a funeral pyre or a graveyard is gathering momentum - medication must go on? Of course, in the case of cancer, we know that miracles have occurred even when all seemed lost.
But we must ask: is it right to transplant that kind of touching hope and faith to the vortex of Indo-Pak relations? That too when the only establishment that matters in Pakistan is utterly convinced that its policy of imposing a thousand bleeding cuts on India multiplied manifold is a geopolitical strategy of historical retribution that seems to be successful? As we-the members of the editorial team-watched the exclusive footage of the Taj Hotel on 26/11 obtained from a nodal national Intelligence agency and often cringed with horror, we relived those days of shock, horror, revulsion and rage. During some moments of the CCTV footage, we were simply transfixed by the cold bloodedly psychopathic swagger of the killers who alternated between acting like school bullies and monsters on a rampage.
These often disturbing visuals obtained for the first time from the agency are not meant to titillate; nor are they meant for the horror freaks who get their voyeuristic kicks from gore. They are meant to provoke us into asking and debating that question that we in India can never wish away? Is there any point in talking to the rulers of a nation who are bent upon haunting and tormenting us like an incurable disease? How do you hold a dialogue with a rogue state, no matter how many touching tales you hear about ordinary citizens of Pakistan welcoming Indian visitors with open arms and hearts? Is Pakistan continuing to be a rogue state because India is historically condemned with the tag of being a soft state?
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