For days nay weeks I have been thinking to write something on this. However my preoccupation with my television job has kept me from it. However not any more. Tonight when I logged on to the CNN site I saw CNN IBN’s breaking news pointer on Mumbai terror attacks. Horrified I am still watching sufferings of the citizens of Mumbai on NDTV and CNN IBN. One remarkable thing that I have noticed is that quite unlike the past the Indian media has been very restrained and careful in blaming the names which India has been obssessed with like Pakistan’s ISI or international priah Al Qaeda. India and Pakistan traditionally have been in the habit of blaming each other whenever anything dramatic happens. And as far as Al Qaeda is concerned it has been a huge grudge of the Pakistani radicals, against Osama bin Laden that he has seldom shown antipathy towards the Indian state.  Yet ever since the war on terror started Indian government has been acting like a Don Quixote. Consider this. When Tsunami hit Asia, Indian Ambassador to the US was found preaching the US President and former Presidents, visiting the embassy in order to condole with the Indian people, how big was India and how it was appropriate to consider it the master of the regional oceans. Recently when a Saudi Oil Tanker was hijacked by the pirates, Indian news sources claimed that Indian ship had destroyed the pirate mother ship. Some sections of the Indian press considered this as a sign of Indian ascendency as global power. Yet shortly later the hijacked ship could only rescued by paying ransom. How very interesting. If the pirates were destroyed the ship would have sailed back without any trouble but that clearly was not the case.Let me please put here that I am not a traditional India basher. Far from it I believe that India deserves to become a world leader. And it will become a power in due course. But what disturbs me is this premature hubris and desperation to be recognized a power over night. Why? Because it makes the country prone to exploitation by imperial agenda. Indians are a conscientious people but they after all are human beings like you and us. Need an example of this exploitation? Here it is:Sometime back a serving Lt Col Purohit was apprehended with his involvement in Malegaon bomb blast which had earlier been blamed on Islamic terrorists. Later it was found out by the Anti Terrorism Squad that a terror assault on Samjhota Express was also made possible due to Purohit’s involvement. Why would he do that? I believe to give the Indian establishment an opportunity to draw international attention to India’s desire to participate in the war on terror or then give Indian right wing extremists an opportunity to terrorize India’s loyal Muslim citizens. Just see the current situation in that context.But I do not essentially imply that the current situation is a conspiracy by such elements. There could be real terrorists doing and it is a condemnable crime against humanity. But just see the symbolism of the entire episode. It was ATS which apprehended Purohit and now among others the ATS chief Hemant Karkare is also dead. At a time when the change of guards in Washington is in order and unlike anywhere else in the conservative segments of India, Bush and his regime have been quite popular. Indian establishment has been petrified by the election of Obama, the fact that he talked of resolving the Kashmir issue and that Obama took time in calling the Indian Prime Minister. So miraculously such an incident can provide India’s stand on various matters a new lease on life. Believe me had I written this article a couple of weeks ago as I actually intended I would have expressed absolutely similar fears. India is a great country and like the people of the United States it also has to make a clear choice between retrogression and progress, reductionism or holism. Of course Pakistani ISI could have been blamed for such a crime had we not known that owing to the country’s vulnerable situation the directorate and the government are under severe pressure and in its current condition it is in no position to mount such attacks on India. Again since the start of the war on terror, the agency has been repeatedly cleansed of the fundamentalist elements and whatever remains is considerably different in nature. I know this situation is considerably volatile and hence can be easily manipulated to suit the radicalist agenda, I know that the Indian media and the Indian people are very decent and conscientious. Decency hence will prevail and all the negative conservative elements will be finally defeated. If there was one way to become world power exploiting this sorry tragedy is not the one. Meanwhile our hearts go out to the Indian people who are going through this living hell. Let us pray for their safety and the immediate resolution of this crisis.(The author is a Pakistani television journalist, columnist and commentator on security, political and media affairs. He can be reached through his website www.pitafi.com) 

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