K. B. Kale’s letter on Nov. 26 reminds us of the tragedy that befell Mumbai a couple of years ago.

Whatever we have heard from both sides, i.e. Pakistan and India, it is believed that non-state actors were involved in the incident. Whoever was responsible for the attack and whatever the underlying truth, the fact remains that it was a thoroughly condemnable act.

But Kale has missed out on the most interesting part of the whole episode. Remember when senior congress leaders were all engaged in taunting Pakistan for the Nov. 26 attacks, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Singh Modi, a staunch supporter of Hindu nationalism, hinted at an internal hand in the terror strikes.

“If we single out that one incident [of the Mumbai attacks] and ask any person in this country, even with basic information and knowledge they will say that such a big terror attack on India cannot take place without any internal help from the nation itself.”

This is what Modi told a national meeting of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Nagpur in early 2009. This was nothing short of bursting the bubble of conviction among the top Indian leaders that the attacks were orchestrated from abroad.

Were those elements “from the nation itself” ever brought to book, well never! Why, nobody knows. It may be that it would have shifted the blame from Pakistan and placed much of the onus on India in sorting out the matter.

The abolition of Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) senior officer Hemant Karkare and two of his colleagues in the Mumbai attacks is also a big question mark. The ATS had interrogated the infamous Col Purohit who had confessed to bombing the Samjhota express, something the Indian government had earlier contributed to Pakistan’s premiere intelligence agency. Reportedly the ones who shot Karkare and his aides were speaking fluent Marathi, just a co-incidence perhaps.

India is no doubt a great democratic nation, the people there unlike any other in the world have the courage to ask questions about their own government and leaders. The people must have asked: Who was the internal hand in the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attack; how come Karkare was the first one to die in the Mumbai attacks?

It is democracy in India that has allowed a person like Arundhati Roy to make utterances such as that Kashmir has “never been an integral part of India” and that India should get out of Kashmir. But questions are 50 percent of democracy, answers make up the other half, so the answers should also see the light of the day. The Mumbai attacks is a big question, Pakistan is not the answer, the answer lies within India.

Farhan Qutab
Islamabad

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