26/11: RIP or Redux? Time for reflection

Eight years ago on this day160 civilians were killed in the Pakistani terror strike on Mumbai. Those injured numbered over 300. Ten highly trained terrorists from Pakistan bombed and shot people at will, specifically targeting the Chattrapati Shivaji train terminus, well-known 5 star hotels, in addition to a hospital and Jewish community centre. The rampage and mayhem went on for nearly three days.    

Today, on the eighth anniversary of the attack, the pain still persists. Many of us know survivors. One was my college classmate. She was trapped for the harrowing two nights at the Taj with her husband, the CEO of a leading company. Till the commandos rescued them, they went through a terrible, nerve-wracking ordeal.

After shooting and killing people all over South Mumbai, the terrorists had laid siege to India’s best-known hotel, the legendary Taj Mahal Palace on the seafront. They detonated RDX explosives under the central dome of the heritage towers. There were two loud blasts. The sixth floor was on fire, with billowing smoke slowly engulfing the whole building. When rescue operations began, children and women were evacuated first. My friend didn’t know if she’d see her husband again. But she’s very tough. This was the second time she was dodging death. Earlier, she’d survived cancer. She said, “I knew we’d be fine. I was proud of my husband for how he gave strength to others, how he put himself last.”

Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist taken alive revealed a Lashkar-e-Taiba plot. Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, based on investigations, was identified as the lynchpin of the operation. Arrested by the Pakistani authorities, he has been out on bail for over a year. What made 26/11 so galling was that it had occurred just over two years after the 11 July 2006 Lashkar-SIMI strike in which seven bombs exploding within eleven minutes on Mumbai suburban trains. The toll? Over 200 killed and 700 injured. Both attacks took place during the first UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.

As we ponder over 26/11 the question that arises is what is different today. Two books with the same title, The Modi Doctrine, try to answer that. Prime Minister Modi has brought a sea-change in India’s foreign policy. Behind this transformation is not only the Prime Minister’s personal charisma and the entire weight of his office, but also a totally different mind-set from the past. From a bechara nation, we have, it would appear, turned into a can-do regional power, with global aspirations.

It is not as if India has suddenly changed course, going from offering the other cheek when slapped to taking a jaw for a tooth. Rather, as Anirban Ganguly, Vijay Chauthaiwale, and Uttam Sinha, the editors of the first volume, suggest there has been a fundamental shift in the underlying paradigm. This shift is described by Sreeram Chaulia, the author of the second book, as the insistence on the 5S policy: Samman (self-respect and national honour), Samvaad (dialogue and engagement), Samriddhi (shared economic prosperity), Suraksha (national and regional security), Sanskriti-Sabhyata (cultural and civilizational links). This is what India wishes to convey to its neighbourhood and offer to the world. I would call it the doctrine of credible self-confidence and self-assertion, something that other countries in the world also expect from us.

Oddly, both books are weak on Pakistan. The Anirban Ganguly et al volume does not have an independent chapter on it. Chaulia, too, devotes only a few pages to our rogue neighbour. It is as if both books are trying to avoid any obsessing over our enemy. However, a clearly articulated Pakistan policy is fundamental to any new foreign policy doctrine.

Pakistan, which has attacked us when it could, would destroy us if we allowed it to. Each new government is tested for its mettle and retaliatory capacities. There are daily incidents on the Indo-Pak border. Our soldiers are not only being killed, but mutilated. Such dishonouring, even in death, shows both political and cultural barbarism. Will the present escalation of tensions only give Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, who is about to retire, an excuse to manoeuvre a second term or even wrest political control of Pakistan? It is not without reason that the BBC called him “The army chief who ruled without a coup.”

In this dangerous situation India should send out a clear message: never again. Inida will no longer tolerate Pakistani mischief-mongering and cross-border terror tactics. India’s open and friendly handshake, offered by Modi to Sharif on the latter’s birthday, has now turned into clenched fist.

Even former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, despite the claim in his just released Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy that “the decision not to retaliate militarily and to concentrate on diplomatic, covert, and other means was the right one” also admits that after 26/11, “some public retribution and a military response inevitable” should such an attack recur. Simply put, India must ratchet up its deterrence capabilities to such an extent that Pakistan will not risk the costs of any repetition of 26/11.

But a more positive way to avenge 26/11 is to push for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) at the United Nations. “Extradite or Prosecute,” says Asoke Mukherjee, India’s former permanent representative at the UN and architect of the World Yoga Day: this should be the civilized world’s ultimatum to habitual offenders like Pakistan. If we take a leaf out of Israel’s stricter playbook, we might add exterminate – in case the first two options don’t work. That, in any case, would be the Abrahamic law, therefore quite comprehensible to our adversary. The other foreign policy pledge to take today is to aim to join the UN Security Council.

Before closing, I want to recall the sacrifice of Tukaram Omble on 26/11. Though unarmed, Omble clung to Kasab’s AK47 while the latter pumped bullets into him. That is how the other officers finally caught the lone terrorist. Fatally wounded, Omble succumbed to his gunshot wounds. On the following Republic Day, he was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra. Another hero, Ravi Dharnidhirka, a former U.S. Marine, helped rescue more than 150 guests from Souk, Taj’s Lebanese restaurant. He was luckier. He departed unhurt.

The author is a poet, and Professor of English, JNU.