Tags:
Journalism of Courage
India is today both outraged and angry over the brutal killing of Ramankutty Maniyappan. The death of one Indian national in these circumstances, is one death too many. It is now the responsibility of the Indian government to convey this outrage and anger to his assassins in the most direct and unequivocal terms possible.
The Taliban are no amateurs in the politics of hostage-taking and murder. That they have been able to target foreign nationals with impunity in south and southwest Afghanistan should have alerted us to the possibility of precisely such an incident. But that was not to be. Predictably enough, Maniyappan8217;s abduction found us both astounded and ill-prepared, as we scrambled to save him. Why, for instance, did it need this tragedy for the Karzai government to send some security forces to secure the lives of the 290 workers of the Border Roads Organisation, who are working in vulnerable situations on a extremely politically fraught project? The significance of that 218-kilometre road between Delaram and Zaranj is lost on nobody, least of all on the Taliban 8212; and their Pakistani sponsors. Not only will it help to end Kabul8217;s geographic isolation by allowing it access to Iran, it will greatly expedite India-Afghan relations. When even protein biscuits from India for Afghan children have been refused transit facilities through Pakistan, a road of this kind can expand the options considerably.
