Unfortunately terrorism too is an ideology. Been frequently resorted to by self righteous groups like fanatics, facists, racists and communist, oligarchic and anarchic establishments alike, it thrives on a simple principle of obstructing the democratic processes by attempting to choke the popular voices and goading the unwilling to fall in their line of thinking. It is least surprising then that people who resort to terror should have no respect whatsoever for democratic concepts as fundamental rights and freedoms. Islamic fundamentalist groups all over the world have been known to frequent this methodology and even come up with innovative techniques of terrorising civilians. However, when it comes to notoriety surprisingly it is not any fundamentalist Islamic outfit that tops the chart but it is the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), operating from Jaffna Peninsula the northern tip of Sri Lanka and infamous for plotting and executing large conspiracies as assasination of Rajiv Gandhi, ex-Prime Minister of India or President Premdasa of Sri Lanka besides scores of suicide bombings that has rocked civilian parts of Sri Lanka for more than a decade now. There are several other organisations operational in India and different parts of the world that have chosen the path of terror to realise their goals and yet terror has increasingly come to be projected as the other side of the Islamic coin. A part of the credit for this should go to biased reportage by media, especially the western media who has at times chose to call a spade a shovel by terming terrorists as acitivists. A part of it definitely goes to the activities of fundamentalist Islamic organisations as Hamas and Al Qaeda and the violence that the Israel-Palestinian conflict or Talibans orthodox regime in Aghanistan was marred with.Since terrorism is an idelogy it should be dealt with at ideological levels. Certainly, the importance of a well equipped and trained forces coupled with vigilance and surveillance cannot be ruled out in this regard but if the menace of terrorism is to be contained it must be tackled on ideological grounds. The effectiveness of this can be seen from our previous successes in containing the Jarnialsingh Bhindranwale led Khalistan Seperatist Movement which never returned in a big way thereafter and more recently the overwhelming response to the attempts of the Indian Government to restore peace and democracy in the Kashmir Valley in terms of the huge voter turnout which certainly should be a huge blow to the seperatists. The menace of terrorism cannot be only left to be dealt with by the men in uniforms lest it should amount to mere prunning of the tree that needs to be uprooted. Tackling the menace of terrorism globally would require its victims like the United Kingdom, United States Of America and India and other like minded states who have firm belief in the democratic principles to come together on a common platform keeping aside their differences and agenda's and launching a worldwide crussade against the menace in an orderly manner. At microlevels terrorism can only be dealt with by strict adherence to democratic principles and secular credentials and assimilating the minorities especially the Muslims into the social and political mainstream to evolve a national concensus on the issue by shedding our communal biases. The discriminatory approaches towards the Indian Muslims, especially in the wake of terror attacks by Islamic fundamentalist groups, have served no purpose except to alienate them from the mainstream and encouraged the formation of community specific localities only to be cleverly exploited by anti social elements and greedy politicians alike thereby posing a grave danger to the unity, integrity and more importantly the secular fabric of the country. Questioning the loyalty and patriotism of Indian Muslims would amount handing out a raw deal to someone who at the time of partition had chosen to be a part of a secular setup over a setup founded over communal idelologies and overlooking the rich contributions made by people like Dr. Salim Ali, M.F. Hussain, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Azim Premji and Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam and several others thereby bringing glory to this country. Those questioning the loyalties and patriotism of Indian Muslims must remember that Muslims have not only been a part of the uprising of 1857 but also fought India's freedom struggle both as Satyagrahi's and soldier's of Azad Hind Sena. However,the bitter truth is that today most of the terrorists are Muslisms but then let us not brood over the fact and overlook another vital fact that a vast majority of the Muslims who are not terrorists too are the direct or indirect victims of terror as the rest of us.
-Bhushan Sarmalkar (JAI).
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