Celebrity of the Year - Ajmal Amir Kasab
Just glance at the number of pages listed by Google Search for each of the following "celebrities":
Sachin Tendulkar: 1,720,000
Shahrukh Khan: 2,980,000
Akshay Kumar: 2,270,000
Madhuri Dixit: 1,040,000
Ajmal Amir Kasab: 6,290,000
If one goes by Google's Listings, there will be no doubt who the bigger celebrity amongst them is! All thanks to our glorious Indian Judicial System and a babbling Media, Kasab has become nothing short of a famous figure. And all it to took for him to achieve this "feat" was callous killing of 200 people at random, including some of the finest officers Mumbai Police had ever seen! Almost 9 months have passed since that dreaded incident occurred, but Mr Kasab is still languishing in our jail, scoffing off our (Indian) food and is being provided a high-level security cover, all of which is paid for by the Indian taxpayer, who ironically happened to be Mr Kasab's prime target! It cannot get any outrageous than this.
One thing that distresses me the most is, why are our politicians and bureaucrats not able to distinguish between a Criminal and a Terrorist. Kasab is not some petty hoodlum who has robbed a bank or has run over a bunch of napping slum dwellers. He has waged a war against the nation! Just like Chechen rebel Movsar Barayev led gunmen did when they attacked Moscow Theater killing 129 hostages or like the Black September members did when they wiped out the entire Israeli team during Munich Summer Olympics of 1972. But, what happened eventually? The chechen terrorists were put to death while the Black September members were hunted down and bumped off. No court room dates, no witnesses required, no prolonged trial; just plain, simple and well served justice.
On the contrary, in India, it has become a ritual to harbor terrorists (which, by the way, are caught after an intense gun battle, mostly resulting in the death of one or more of our brave policemen/army man). Haven't we learnt anything from 1994 Kidnappings of Western Tourists in New Delhi? (3 Brits and 1 American tourist were kidnapped by a group of Kashmiri Separatists led by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was captured but had to be let off after the Kandahar Hijacking debacle). Are we waiting for another Kandahar to happen?
To add to the misery, the entire drama has been given a fancy name of "Fair Democratic Hearing"! Pure balderdash! How can it be a fair and democratic trial if it is unfair and unjust to the people of this very own Country? Nearly 450 people have been killed in a spate of terrorist attacks that have rocked Mumbai since 2002, but not a single captured culprit has received a capital punishment. For that matter, most of them have not even received a punishment at all (in spite of the presence of number of special courts dedicated only for terror-related cases!) What kind of example are we trying to set here? Are we saying that come to India, kill a few hundred people, get captured and involved in a web of complicated and prolonged lawsuits, meanwhile tell your chums to capture a few hostages, exchange them and get free to do the same all over again? Can it get any simpler than this?
My sincere request to all our Politicians and Bureaucrats of this country is that, you engage in as much fraudulent practices as you want, you fill your bank accounts with as much black money as possible, but do not, at any cost, jeopardize the security of this country. This lenient and languid attitude towards terrorists will only help in breeding hundreds of Kasabs, who next time may vie for the blood of your near and dear ones too!
Sachin Tendulkar: 1,720,000
Shahrukh Khan: 2,980,000
Akshay Kumar: 2,270,000
Madhuri Dixit: 1,040,000
Ajmal Amir Kasab: 6,290,000
If one goes by Google's Listings, there will be no doubt who the bigger celebrity amongst them is! All thanks to our glorious Indian Judicial System and a babbling Media, Kasab has become nothing short of a famous figure. And all it to took for him to achieve this "feat" was callous killing of 200 people at random, including some of the finest officers Mumbai Police had ever seen! Almost 9 months have passed since that dreaded incident occurred, but Mr Kasab is still languishing in our jail, scoffing off our (Indian) food and is being provided a high-level security cover, all of which is paid for by the Indian taxpayer, who ironically happened to be Mr Kasab's prime target! It cannot get any outrageous than this.
One thing that distresses me the most is, why are our politicians and bureaucrats not able to distinguish between a Criminal and a Terrorist. Kasab is not some petty hoodlum who has robbed a bank or has run over a bunch of napping slum dwellers. He has waged a war against the nation! Just like Chechen rebel Movsar Barayev led gunmen did when they attacked Moscow Theater killing 129 hostages or like the Black September members did when they wiped out the entire Israeli team during Munich Summer Olympics of 1972. But, what happened eventually? The chechen terrorists were put to death while the Black September members were hunted down and bumped off. No court room dates, no witnesses required, no prolonged trial; just plain, simple and well served justice.
On the contrary, in India, it has become a ritual to harbor terrorists (which, by the way, are caught after an intense gun battle, mostly resulting in the death of one or more of our brave policemen/army man). Haven't we learnt anything from 1994 Kidnappings of Western Tourists in New Delhi? (3 Brits and 1 American tourist were kidnapped by a group of Kashmiri Separatists led by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was captured but had to be let off after the Kandahar Hijacking debacle). Are we waiting for another Kandahar to happen?
To add to the misery, the entire drama has been given a fancy name of "Fair Democratic Hearing"! Pure balderdash! How can it be a fair and democratic trial if it is unfair and unjust to the people of this very own Country? Nearly 450 people have been killed in a spate of terrorist attacks that have rocked Mumbai since 2002, but not a single captured culprit has received a capital punishment. For that matter, most of them have not even received a punishment at all (in spite of the presence of number of special courts dedicated only for terror-related cases!) What kind of example are we trying to set here? Are we saying that come to India, kill a few hundred people, get captured and involved in a web of complicated and prolonged lawsuits, meanwhile tell your chums to capture a few hostages, exchange them and get free to do the same all over again? Can it get any simpler than this?
My sincere request to all our Politicians and Bureaucrats of this country is that, you engage in as much fraudulent practices as you want, you fill your bank accounts with as much black money as possible, but do not, at any cost, jeopardize the security of this country. This lenient and languid attitude towards terrorists will only help in breeding hundreds of Kasabs, who next time may vie for the blood of your near and dear ones too!
This article also on
