Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 6, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/358899/The-Birkin-effect-Our-jawans-are-beheaded.html
Pakistan's businesswoman-turned-Foreign Minister
Hina Rabbani Khar may feign to be miffed that the media chose to focus attention
on her Birkin handbag, Roberto Cavalli sunglasses, Jimmy Choo shoes and South
Sea pearls during her recent visit to India rather than her intellectual contribution
towards peace-making between a terrorist state and its victim neighbour, but
that does not in any manner diminish the fact that a calculated gamble by
the decrepit civilian Government in Islamabad and the criminal military-jihadi
complex in Rawalpindi has served its purpose and paid rich dividends.
The feckless political class in India has
elected to be reduced to a bowl of quivering jelly in the face of Pakistan's
charm offensive, much as it was when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto brought along his
daughter Benazir and managed to extract huge concessions at Simla in 1972
without raising any hackles. As for the media of this unfortunate country,
led as it is by television channels desperate to grab eyeballs whatever it
takes and ever-so-mindful of sensitivities across the Radcliffe Line, it has
neither the time nor the inclination to look beyond the obvious. Given as
we are to self-flagellation, self-doubt and self-denigration, it is only natural
that our media, which frankly reflects our society without any distortion,
should have seized upon Ms Khar's visit to paint Pakistanis as the sub-continent's
beautiful people and Indians as the beasts. Nothing could have exemplified
this better than the running commentary by the editor of a news channel comparing
fuddy-duddies in the Government of India with the swish visiting Minister,
and how we as a nation are straggling while Pakistan is boldly marching forward.
It's a pity that our media houses continue to enjoy the untold and never-to-be
disclosed benefits of stationing their studios in Delhi and its suburbs; their
hearts and minds belong elsewhere.
And so it is that ever since Ms Khar came
to Delhi, showed off her sartorial preference for hand-made exclusive Hermes
bags which she wouldn't dare flaunt in the lanes of Karachi and conquered
our Left-liberal commentariat which controls media content, rare has been
the story or article critical of Pakistan or fair in its assessment of that
country's continued hate India, harm India policy that is implemented with
the ruthless fanaticism of jihadis who have dedicated their lives to the mass
slaughter of innocent men, women and children. Hence, it stands to reason
that our media should have purposefully glossed over the barbaric beheading
of two Indian soldiers by Pakistanis - it is unclear whether the perpetrators
were Pakistani soldiers or Pakistani terrorists being provided cover by the
former while trying to sneak into India - near the Line of Control in Kupwara
district of Jammu & Kashmir. The ghastly incident, it now transpires,
occurred late last month, around the time of Ms Khar's visit. Sketchy details
that are available suggest the Indian soldiers' bodies were "dumped"
on our side of the LoC, which would mean they were kidnapped, tortured and
then beheaded, a ritual without which jihadis believe their faith-ordained
task is incomplete.
India Today's web edition, which has a story
on the brutality, says "It is suspected that militants killed the jawans
from the 20 Kumaon Regiment, beheaded the duo and reportedly retained their
heads as war trophies." The journal says, "A senior Army official,
requesting anonymity, disclosed that the two men of Kumaon Regiment were killed
and their heads were chopped off. Their bodies were also mutilated."
Such was the mutilation that the families of the soldiers were requested not
to lift the shrouds covering their bodies. Quoting Army officials, the report
identifies the two martyrs as Havildar Jaipal Singh Adhikari and Lance Naik
Devender Singh. A third jawan, from 19 Rajput Regiment, was shot dead. His
name has not been disclosed. The fallen soldiers were cremated on Wednesday
at their native villages in Pithoragarh and Haldwani districts of Uttarakhand.
But for the report in India Today, India would have remained ignorant of this
horror story.
Unfortunately, the Army has chosen to maintain
a strange silence. According to officials who spoke to India Today, this is
because confirmation of the slaughter would 'demoralise' the soldiers on duty.
But that's balderdash: Jawans are not known to take the killing of their fellow
jawans lightly, nor do they suffer loss of morale. If anything, it hardens
their resolve and strengthens their belief that the enemy must be fought tooth
and nail, till the last man standing. The capture and subsequent horrific
torture of Lt Saurabh Kalia and five jawans whose mutilated, unrecognisable
bodies were returned by the Pakistani Army did not weaken the resolve of our
men in uniform during the Kargil war. While media is to be blamed for not
sniffing out the story and splashing it (although it spared no effort to sniff
out that Ms Khar was indeed carrying a Birkin handbag and that it could cost
up to Rs 17 lakh and then went on to inform us why those who carry this bag
are to be taken seriously) we must not overlook the role of our effete political
leadership in keeping such details of Pakistani perfidy under wraps. It would
not be unfair to presume that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, desperate to
go down in history as the friend of a country that torments India, took personal
interest in ensuring the story did not surface in the public domain; it would
have remained a secret had an intrepid reporter of India Today not put it
out.
Soon after I resumed writing for this newspaper
in 2004 after returning to India from Cairo where I was posted on a Government
assignment, I had penned a piece on a similar incident that had missed the
attention of media and fetched no protest from the Government of India, headed
then as it is now by Mr Manmohan Singh. Late in the evening on Saturday, April
16, 2005, an Assistant Commandant and a constable of the Border Security Force,
on duty at Lankamura outpost on the India-Bangladesh border, a mere eight
km from Tripura's capital, Agartala, were dragged into Bangladeshi territory.
By the time the BSF got them back, Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar was dead.
He had been shot at point blank range. Injuries on his body indicated he was
brutally knifed before being killed. Constable KK Surendran, seriously injured,
was battling for his life. I must confess I do not know whether he survived
that attack. On that occasion, in the absence of any official statement, I
had sought to reconstruct events on the basis of what local residents had
to say: The two men were rushed by a group of Bangladesh Rifles personnel
in civilian clothes, dragged across the border and then set upon by their
colleagues. All the while, the BDR's men kept firing on the Lankamura outpost.
The firing stopped around midnight, followed by a hastily arranged flag meeting
during which Kumar's lifeless body and a barely alive Surendran were handed
over to the BSF. There was not even a word of condemnation.
PS: On Kargil Diwas I tweeted about Saurabh
Kalia. There were numerous tweets in response, asking me who was Saurabh Kalia.
Those asking this question were young Indians, well-educated and from middle-class
families. A nation forgets its martyrs when it is led by those who hold martyrs
in contempt and are elected to office by those who are bowled over by Birkin
handbags, Roberto Cavalli sunglasses, Jimmy Choo shoes and South Sea pearls
- namely, our selfish, self-serving middle-classes.
--- Follow the writer on: http://twitter.com/KanchanGupta.
Blog on this and other issues at http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com. Write to
him at kanchangupta@rocketmail.com
