America’s Operation Blue Star?

The manner in which junior cleric Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi militia has occupied the shrine is not dissimilar to Sant Bhindranwale’s occupation of the Golden Temple. Defeat him by all means but not in a way that he becomes a martyr. Are the Americans now embarked on their own version of Operation Blue Star? And all before live cameras? What is the project? To swell the ranks of militants on a scale unknown so far?

There is irony in the way Americans have turned upon Muqtada al Sadr. After Saddam Hussein was ousted from Baghdad, three sets of Shia clergy surfaced in Najaf in leadership roles. The most respected of these has been Grand Ayatullah Sistani. During Saddam Hussein’s crackdown on the Shias, (65 per cent of Iraq’s population), Sistani continued to do what he has been best at — teaching in Najaf’s premier seminaries, away from politics.

The second category were clerics who had fled Saddam Hussein’s persecution and lived in exile — Ayatullah Baqar al Hakim in Iran and Majid Khoi (from a renowned family of Ayatullahs) in Britain. After Saddam Hussein’s ouster, they returned to participate in what only a year ago seemed promising political life. Muqtada al Sadr comes from another line of distinguished Ayatullahs who challenged Saddam Hussein and were martyred in the process. So he carries the aura of one who stayed on and suffered.

The situation was custom made for vicious intra Shia rivalries. Since Sistani refrained from politics and Muqtada al Sadr, at 32, was too junior, Hakim and Khoi acquired a political profile after Saddam. Both were murdered in Najaf. The needle of suspicion pointed to Sadr.

But Sadr, meanwhile, had played a crucial role for the Americans on April 9, 2003 when Saddam Hussein’s statue was pulled down in Baghdad. The statue was actually pulled down by an American crane but the Pentagon and the media portrayed it as the handiwork of a mob, delirious with joy at Saddam’s fall. To be credible, Americans needed footage of delirious crowds in Baghdad.

US Vice President Dick Cheney made a speech, tailored to be a commentary on the day’s event. He said, ‘‘In downtown Baghdad this morning (read Firdous square), we are seeing evidence of the collapse of any central regime authority’’ (pulling down of the statue). He added: ‘‘Streets are full of people celebrating’’.

To manufacture images of ‘‘people celebrating’’ in Baghdad, cameramen were advised to proceed to ‘‘Saddam City’’, a million strong ghetto where Shias from Karbala were resettled in large numbers after Saddam crushed their uprising in 1992. Muqtada Sadr (some believe even Baqar al Hakim) sent out word through the mosques that Saddam was gone. That is when people came out beating Saddam’s photographs with sandals. ‘‘Saddam City’’ was immediately renamed ‘‘Sadr City’’. Cheney’s ‘‘victory’’ speech would not have been possible without Sadr (even Hakim, say some) having committed himself to mobilising the Shias of what is now ‘‘Sadr City’’.

That is why it is ironical that Sadr and the US forces have had a running battle since June. One shudders to speculate on the casualties after the fierce bombing of Najaf and now ‘‘Sadr City’’. In human suffering, Najaf and ‘‘Sadr City’’ do not measure upto what the Sunnis of Fallujah have undergone. But the televised bombing of Najaf has a huge symbolic reach.

Operation Blue Star was in 1984, before live TV. It has taken decades for the wound to heal. The bombing of Najaf has been televised live, embedded journalists, flak jackets et al. It is, of course, a professional shame that no Indian journalist has materialised in Iraq to cover even our very own three truck drivers. There was probably not enough advertising to sustain the story. There would have been continuous, unbroken interest had the three belonged to the dazzling new middle class, representatives of shining India.

Yes, the return of Sistani to a shattered Najaf after three weeks of fierce bombing introduces a new element. He has given a call to the people of Iraq to converge on Najaf ‘‘to protect it’’, from both Sadr and the Americans.

If Allawi ordered the bombing, he will probably have to go. If bombings took place despite him, he has no power — and must therefore go. The quarrel between him and US Ambassador John Negroponte is on one issue: does the interim government have any say on the use of US forces?