We all know that when there is a bomb blast there has to be casualties. We also know who has planted those bombs. We all know prior to planting those bombs, they have already planted people sympathetic to their cause in vital places of political leadership, academia, print and visual media etc who would immediately pounce to justify these acts of terror. The act of terror which resulted in the death of so many innocent souls -- many of whom who happen to be women, children, sole bread-winners for their families -- does not mean anything either to those who perpetrated these acts or to those justifying the same.
Even those of the acts which was thought to be indefensible some time back, is defensible now. For example, we all thought tax-payers' money cannot be used to defend those accused of anti-national activities. The recent Delhi bomb blasts and those accused of planting the bombs found at Jamia Nagar, and the Jamia university's vice chancellor coming forward to defend the accused in a court of law using grants received from the UGC for running the central university, is a case in point.
The irony is this stance of the JMI vice chancellor is finding support in other central government funded universities where meetings of teachers' associations are being held, seminars conducted to support him almost on the same lines as support extended to SAR Geelani and Afzal Guru.
As of now we still believe government funds cannot be used for providing arms and ammunition to jihadi, naxalite, Maoist and other violent groups (such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bajrang Dal if it would please those inclined to think so). This job has been assigned to Dawood Ibrahim, Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, the Chinese government, or may be the CIA.
But who knows? A time may come when human rights activists, liberals, intellectual elite, eminent persons, secularists and other lumpen elements may argue that it is okay for the State to fund the activities of such violent groups who according to them mean well to "liberate" those people who vibe on the same wavelength with them!
So my question is, why waste time on reading or viewing such news reports? We might as well spend that time more fruitfully in the company of our family and friends because you never know in which nook or corner a bomb has been very kindly planted for promoting acts of "liberation"!
Sreenivasan Raju Aiyer is with the Centre for East Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University
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