Blasts Everywhere

Recently a bomb exploded in a Ludhiana movie theater and yesterday there were several bomb blasts in the convoy of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. Both these incidents and many more like these are so sad. Many people die and many lose their limbs and are rendered maimed for the rest of their lives. Just imagine going to see a movie and the next thing you know you don’t have your legs to walk back home; how scary it is. So the next time if you find yourself explaining why people become terrorists, try imagining your family members coming either dead or limbless from a movie theater or a market.

The blasts in Punjab are an indication of the return of Sikh (through my dictation software when it tried typing Sikh terrorism it typed “sick terrorism”) terrorism. And I hope it was just a freak attempt and not a well-concerted exercise. Terrorism in Punjab is mostly perpetrated by criminals, the drug mafia and shady politicians. Unlike in many Muslim countries people in Punjab don’t accept violence by their own kiln easily. They prefer to live peacefully and prosper.

Incidentally in a recent Outlook article I read that 30% of people in Punjab are living below the poverty line. I never knew there were poor people in Punjab let alone people below the poverty line. I mean we have poor relatives in our family but their condition is due to excessive greed and laziness and it has got nothing to do with the socio-economic conditions in the state. But I think considering how the Punjabis have been squandering away their wealth and prosperity on mindless and obscene materialism this should not come as a surprise. The education system in Punjab is totally rotten; it is so bad that the Punjabi youths cannot get employment in other states and there are meager employment opportunities in their own state. Even among our own relatives from Punjab I have often observed that they are more worried about showing-off instead of systematically improving their lot. Very few of my cousins in Punjab are decently educated and they are perpetually looking for easy routes to money and comfort.

Regarding the public in general I think lots of blame lies with the successive governments — rather than improving the economy and education they are always trying to please people by giving them subsidies and freebies. Although this problem of appeasement is universal in India, in Punjab farmers actually get free electricity and the economically backward actually get highly subsidized food. I’m not saying that the poor and the farmers shouldn’t be helped, but instead of doling out freebies the government should help them become self-reliant. The direct fallout of this misguided and opportunistic assistance is that people lose the habit of strategy and hard work. Many countries in Africa have been ruined because of the World Bank indiscriminately pumping money into their countries. The same tragedy is manifesting in Punjab.

With illiteracy, poverty and lax moral values terrorism is bound to raise its head again. The sad situation is compounded by the enormity of the problem. You cannot eradicate poverty and educate people in a couple of years but terrorism can resurface in no time due internal conditions and external support. I hope the cancerous organizations that promote terrorism amongst the Sikhs are not going to gain any ground this time now that people know what their true intentions are — hopefully they know.

Recently someone was comparing Bhinderwala to some of the Sikh gurus; Bhinderawala or his men “allegedly” used to rape young girls in the Golden Temple; so that person was saying that even some of the Gurus were blamed like this by the Mughals to malign their image. I think whoever compares a scumbag like Bhinderawala with the Sikh gurus gravely insults Sikhism. Even if he didn’t rape women, he lost every right the civil society gives to its citizens when he endorsed blowing up innocent people; he was no different from Osama. I think the biggest injustice is when you kill or maim people just for being different, in the name of injustice/justice. These morons don’t understand that with so much injustice around the globe, going by their logic, every neighborhood will have its own terrorist organization.