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Journalism of Courage
As we walk into the lobby of the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde looks to his left, at the front office. We have no intention of checking in. We are merely strolling in for breakfast and Shinde somehow looks more nostalgic than inquisitive. 8220;You know what,8221; he says, 8220;there was a time I used to come here every evening, to check the guests8217; register.8221;
This is when he was a sub-inspector with the Bombay Police8217;s Special Branch. His bosses were the legends of the Indian Police Service. Those were simpler days. Senior officers knew the field boys by name. They also, always, picked the best for the Special Branch.
This is also when a young Maratha politician called Sharad Pawar was beginning to make his mark in state politics. 8220;He asked me one day, arrey, you are such a bright man, and from the Scheduled Castes Dalit was probably not an expression you used too often then. You should be in politics8230; You will be useful.8221; That was the end of Sub-Inspector Shinde8217;s life as a spook. He joined politics, and has not lost an election since.
While his seven-year police career would have taught him a thing or two about intelligence gathering and its importance 8212; for the lack of which his government is being pilloried now 8212; his own personal and social background also teaches him about opportunities that exist in modern India, particularly in a city like Mumbai and what is at stake. Shinde comes from the dust-bowl of Sholapur 8212; drought-hit even in this year of plentiful rains 8212; and belongs to one of the lowest Dalit sub-castes, the leather tanners. He lost his father at six, but never left school and soon started working as a 8220;boy8221; peon in the local court. He passed his SSC with sparkling grades and was 8220;promoted8221; to full peon! He then topped the state in BA and joined a law college. 8220;I did it,8221; he says, 8220;for only one reason8230; so instead of calling witnesses to the court room I could stand in front of the judge and say 8220;Your honour..8221; From boy peon, to small-time lawyer, to sub-inspector in the special branch, to the Opposition8217;s vice-presidential candidate against Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, also a former policeman and now to chief minister of Maharashtra has obviously been one long journey for Shinde.
But now is his moment of truth. His state 8212; or rather his capital 8212; has seen a string of terrorist bombings in the past six months. The mastermind, he admits, is still at large so there may be more, and the election is scheduled next year. He has a difficult coalition to run, with just a majority of five and, unlike Vajpayee in the NDA, his authority over his coalition partners, particularly his deputy, Chhagan Bhujbal, is severely limited. But he says he draws upon one unusual source of strength, the unique character of the city of Mumbai. Within hours of the blasts earlier this week, the city was back to normal. The next morning attendance in offices was even better than usual, as if Mumbaikars were making a special point to the terrorists. Within three days of the bombings, the chief minister was strolling with me on the promenade in front of the Taj, the Ground Zero where a bomb-laden taxi exploded, with not more than a couple of plainclothesmen in the vicinity. 8220;You see how normally people are going about their business, you see how the stock market went up 148 points just the next day. Could it have happened in any other city?8221;
Given this series of mostly unsolved bombings you would have imagined Mumbai to be a city cowering in fear. But hotels are still full, so are cinema halls and discos. Most strikingly, even at the exact spots where bombs went off it8217;s been business as usual from the following morning. As a matter of fact, there is a string of banners at the site of the explosion at Gateway of India.
One of these has been put up by some of the city8217;s prominent Muslim leaders and displays the slogan that is is catching up rapidly in Mumbai: 8220;They suck, We rock.8221; Now it doesn8217;t rhyme at all, which is a shame for a city with so much creative talent, but the point is made quite effectively.
Over the week you8217;ve heard many such statements of confidence and resilience. But my own favourite is a German back-packer interviewed on one of our television channels who, when asked if he was scared and wanting to go home, said most nonchalantly:8221;Why go home? This can hit you anywhere. Even in Germany.8221; Now that is a change from times when terrorism was somehow seen to be a problem of the third world and a part of the Middle East. There had been terrorist strikes elsewhere in the world, particularly in London, but if 9/11 represented the arrival of globalised terrorism it has also given rise to a new phenomenon, a kind of globalisation of resilience to terrorism. First of all, no country now feels particularly shunned or victimised just because it is a victim of terror. After all, if it can happen in New York, it can happen anywhere. Second, no businessmen, particularly those working for MNCs, can any longer ask to be excused from visiting or doing business with any country just because it faces the same scourge that the West does. Third, people across the world are simply learning to be less scared of the terrorist. They know a terrorist strike can be dramatic and shocking but, if you refuse to be shaken, can do no lasting damage or change anything permanently. And fourth, people are simply becoming more sensitised and vigilant. They complain less about elaborate checks at airports, they call the police if they find an unidentified bag in a train and if an incident does take place, they are quick to help the victims. The response to an appeal in this newspaper for contributions to help a family hit by terrorism in Mumbai this week, for example, has already been dramatic.
Mumbai, in any case, has a DNA different from the rest of our country. Efficiency and enterprise are written in its genetic code. That is why people from all over India come to its downtown offices, suburban studios, footpaths and slums in search of a better living. Not all of them become stars, or leaders like Shinde. But almost all of them are better off here than they would have been where they came from. Certainly, almost each one works much harder here than he would have done back home. To that extent what you can say of the paradox of Indians, who are so muddled up at home but so successful abroad, can also be said of our domestic immigrants to Mumbai. That is why even in 1993 the city was so quick to bounce back from the shock of a much bloodier series of bombings and this week8217;s turnaround is therefore of a piece with its character.
What has changed now is the kind globalised sympathy and understanding that has come Mumbai8217;s way. When the bigger bombings took place in 1993, the world by and large was not so sensitised to the scourge of terrorism. Then, when World Trade Centre was attacked the first time, people refused to see the connection. But 9/11 has changed that. In a week we will be observing its second anniversary but already whoever masterminded it must be wondering what went wrong. If the idea was to create a worldwide sensation and fear by striking at the heart of not just America8217;s but the entire world8217;s financial markets, it has also had the effect of uniting the whole world against terrorism. Some of us have only recently been whining about a minor mix-up on the Arunachal Pradesh border between one of our patrols and the Chinese in an unmarked region but now we had a quick message of sympathy and condemnation from none else than Wen Jiabao on the Mumbai bombings.
From Bush, to Wen, to the Pakistan government, to Kofi Annan, the entire world has to now speak in the same language, irrespective of who the terrorists are, what they want and where they strike. Globally, now, overwhelming sympathies are with the victims, irrespective of what the terrorist8217;s cause may be. Even in Pakistan there is a demonstration to condemn the Mumbai bombings and terrorism. Also, across the world, there is no excuse any more to harbour somebody else8217;s terrorists. Col Muammar Ghadafi is now offering to pay billions in compensation for the Lockerbie bombing. Of course, a few exceptions still remain. The Palestinian half-state for one and Pakistan, most certainly, particularly when it comes to terrorists or mafiosi active in India. But this will have to change. Three years after 9/11, there is no forgiveness, or understanding, for the terrorist or his cause anywhere in the world.
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