More than 48hours after War was unleashed on Mumbai, operations are still on.
In a few hours Delhi goes to polls as Delhites vote for the next State Assembly.
While this blogger and his fellow compatriots have been focused on what ought to be the Indian response, it now appears that the Indian Media that has barely covered itself in glory over its juvenile insta-pundtitry, rumor mongering and real time post mortem, is now seized not about questions of
- Is the Prime Minister right to engage the ISI ?
- What ought to be the strategic response ?
- How must India conduct its War on Terror ?
Instead this blogger was amazed at the flood of Op-Ed pieces and Opinion pieces masquerading as News Analysis all of which are obsessed over these questions instead :
- How long before the BJP plays politics ?
- Why did LK Advani not accompany the Prime Minister ?
- Why did Narendra Modi address the media at the Oberoi site while operations were still on ?
- Why did Atal Bihari Vajpayee issue a statement calling on Delhites to vote for the party that will fight terror ?
- Why did the BJP take out an Advertisement in New Delhi newspapers with a headliner
Brutal Terror Strikes At Will
Weak Government, unwilling and incapable
To get a sense of the degree to which the media is off focus and off message sample this?broadside with free references to Malegaon, Hindu Terrorism?and Pragya Thakur:
CNN -IBN -
The Hindu – BJP’s flip-flop on terror
Business Standard – Slugfest over Mumbai
Economic Times – Parivar’s Doublespeak
Economic Times – Parties should stop politicising Terror
Hindustan Times – Our Terrorising Political Failures
TN Ninan in the BS – Failures at the Top
Surjit S Bhalla in the BS – Terrorist Nationality – Terror
Live Mint – Politics over Mumbai’s Tragedy
Sunanda Datta Ray in Telegraph – No time for Politicking – but strangely brings up Babri Masjid demolition, Liberhan Commission and unchecked Hindu Wrath and calls Manmohan Singh a Statesman and Narendra Modi a small man
It is striking is that for all the moral indignation expressed by these opinion makers, their so-called “Opinions” are embarassingly lacking in strategic thinking on where the nation must head next.
The lead editorial in The Telegraph while starting on a promising note ends up as another sermon on political correctness, while The Times of India stands guilty of exactly what it is accusing the BJP of with this scathing indictment of Manmohan Singh’s selective amnesia and his designation of Pakistan as a victim of terror. The lead editorial in the same newspaper while asking probing questions of long term Security Architecture reforms is strikingly silent on the strategic response to the War thrust on us.
Also writing in the TOI in an op-ed Gautam Adhikari underlines the utter irrelevance of the Indian Establishment in his mind with this formulation calling on the messiah to save our souls
In short, the world, under the newly assertive leadership of an Obama-led United States, must devise a Marshall Plan for Pakistan. Such an effort will require the support of not only the traditional G-7 powers; it must have the cooperation of India and, most importantly, China, which is Pakistan’s all-weather friend.
Also writing in the TOI with his trademark subversive sarcasm Jug Suraiya makes little sense while lifting a phrase first applied by Offstumped without caring to attribute it.
The lone exceptions to this dismal levels of strategic analysis in the media were Praveen Swami in The Hindu and Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express. But they too stopped short with near real time post mortems.?While Praveen Swami makes a scathing indictment of the system in his factually damning post mortem, the lead editorial in the Indian Express conducts another post mortem of the lack of command and control structures and communication protocols in the conduct of counter terror operations.
While it is germane to debate if the BJP’s response has been in the “National Interest” or “partisan” the overriding question right now across the nation at large ought to be on the single question of
“What must be the strategic response of the nation ?”
Let us also not lose sight that the War on Terror is?not merely a War against Terrorism, it is also a War to protect our fundamental freedoms and our democratic polity.
Thus it is perfectly legitimate and germane to have a political debate in every State going to Polls on
- How Terror could be prevented ?
- Who has a better record of countering terrorism ?
- How the people must make their minds in light of the conduct of incumbent Governments in countering terror ?
To question the legitimacy of this public debate in the States going to Poll is tantamount to questioning the legitimacy of our democratic process of elections.
What kind of a Democracy do we want to fight and defend ?
- One which is so timid that it resorts to political correctness when faced with tough choices and inconvenient questions
OR
- One which has the strength to make tough choices, face incovenient questions while not losing perspective of the larger challenges that threaten it
Offstumped Bottomline:
As Delhi goes to polls, Delhites have an onerous responsibility of sending a message to the timid opinion makers in the media, that they will not take comfort in political correctness while exercising their franchise.
They will be bold and discriminating in asking of themselves tough questions on the War on Terror before making their choice.
The Congress’ Anti-Terrorism record is a record marked by absentee leadership, executive delinquency and criminal negligence.
While the rest of the nation remains focused on “what next in the War on Terror”, Offstumped calls upon Delhites to not cloud their discrimination faculties as they pass judgement on this record of the Congress.
Filed under: Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, War on Terror, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat
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