The Congress Regime governing India today besmirched India’s ‘National Honor’ by being singularly amiss in not paying public homage to the hundreds of Kargil War Heroes of 1999 and the nearly 200 innocent victims, predominantly Hindus, subjected to brutal bombings in the 7/11 serial blasts in Mumbai’s suburban train services last year.

It is the month of July when the nearly two months of fighting of the Kargil War ended and India’s newspapers get filled with obituary remembrances of the host of gallant Officers and Soldiers of the Indian Army remembered by their Regiments and their loved ones. It was in July last year when hundreds of innocent Indians were killed, maimed or wounded when they were subjected to vicious terrorist bombings originating from Pakistan and aided by the sleeper cells existing in the Indian Muslim community. Surely, this month India as a whole irrespective of caste or creed or political affiliation needed to pay a national homage to these souls. That is the hallmark of a proud nation and a reflection of its sensitivity to its ‘National Honor’ 

In my book ‘India’s Defence Policies and Strategic Thought: A Comparative Analysis’ I had touched on the subject of ‘India’s National Honor: The Need for Sensitivity’. Besides other points I had observed that:

‘India’s “National Honor” is “indivisible”. It cannot be divided by India’s politicians on grounds of secularism and pseudo-secularism. It cannot be divided on grounds of majority versus minority. It cannot be divided on grounds of caste and backwardness. It cannot be argued that the Hindu concept of “National Honor” has to be different from India’s Muslims concept of “National Honor. It cannot be argued that the Congress, Leftists and Samajwadi Party’s concept of “National Honor” is distinct from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s or Shiv Sena concept of “National Honor”.

The Congress Regime tasked by the people of India to lead the nation and set exemplary standards of probity and ideals failed the nation when it let past the anniversaries commemorating the sacrifices of the heroes of the Kargil War and the wanton destruction of nearly 200 innocent lives in the Mumbai 7/11 train blasts last year. In both cases the footprints of culpability led to Pakistan and in case of 7/11 the fingerprints of fringe elements of the Indian Muslim community subverted by Pakistan were clearly visible.

In all the advanced democracies of the world commemoration services are held for their war heroes and lately for the innocent civilian victims of terrorist strikes as evident in New York and London of 9/11 and 7/7. The US President and the British Prime Minister have always been present at such ceremonies and led their nations to pay solemn homage.

Such commemoration services are not annual rituals to make political statements but a projection that those who sacrificed their lives for the nation or those who got sacrificed because the nation could not pre-empt terrorist strikes against them deserved to be nationally honored . That is what all ‘National Honor’ is about. It is a bestowal of ‘National Respect’ by a grateful nation for those who sacrificed their lives or got sacrificed.

The Indian Republic had the right to expect that the Congress President who virtually leads the Congress Regime and the Congress Prime Minister should have taken the lead to ensure that commemoration services were held for both the Kargil War heroes and the 7/11 terrorist bombings victims and that both of them marked their presence at these services.

They singularly failed to do so and India has noticed it. Leaving aside all of this, not a single statement emanated from these dignitaries expressing sympathy on both the events. That too has been noticed by India.

Did they forget the dates? Rather unbelievable when all the other dates of paying homage at all the Samadhis that line the Yamuna River in Delhi are not forgotten. Then what is the reason for this amnesia when it comes to war heroes and the terrorist victims?

The reasons are singularly political and arise from the Congress Regime’s Pakistan- appeasement policies and their unrestrained policies of appeasement of Indian Muslims due to the captive Indian Muslim vote banks that provide political power to the Congress.

It were these policies that have prevented the Congress Regime not going ahead with the execution of Mohd Afzal Guru convicted in the Parliament House terrorist attack case and whose appeals stand overturned by India’s Supreme Court. Such policies have hampered bringing to book those involved in the 7/11 bombings even after a year as the police forces take their cues from the Government in power as to how serious it is in going after the terrorists .

In July 2007 nothing highlights these failings of the Congress Regime more than that India for the first time stands arraigned internationally as yet another deadly source of international terrorism that has newly emerged. The London and Glasgow terrorist bombings pre-empted by the British police appear to have been the handiwork of well educated Indian Muslim from affluent families from Bangalore.

Islamist terrorism with international contours had penetrated the Southernmost confines of India, thanks to India’s softness in its counter-terrorism policies. Such policies encouraged the subversion of the fringe elements of the Indian Muslim community by Islamist Jihadi group, secure in the belief that anti-terrorism statutes like TADA and POTA were no longer operative as effective deterrents. POTA stood abolished by the Congress Regime on coming into power.

Sadly, India’s Congress Prime Minister went to town all over the world and even phoning the British Prime Minister that a particular community should not be targeted. The answer for such hurried intervention at the highest political level has been read widely as arising once again from minority vote banks considerations of the Congress. Would the Prime Minister still persist in his assertion now that a lot of evidence has emerged of the Indian signature in international terrorism?

To make matters worse, the Congress Prime Minister went on record to state that he spent sleepless nights saddened by the plight of the mother and the families of the two Indian Muslim professionals involved in the UK terrorist cases.

Many in India have asked the question and in the media too as to why the Prime Minister did not have sleepless nights pondering as to why the terrorists involved in 7/11 have not been brought to book, or the plight of Kashmiri Hindus living as refugees in their own country, or how much national security has been made foolproof to deter another Kargil War, or as to why the Government is sitting tight in the Afzal Guru execution case?

The answer is simple. It is because the Congress Party under the leadership of the Congress President and the Prime Minister seem to have made India’s ‘National Honor” divisible. The Congress has made it clear that it has to be governed by political vote bank considerations and not by the more sublime elevated consideration of an all-inclusive spirit of Indian Nationalism and India’s “National Honor” 

July 15, 2007

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