While India has suffered another treachery from its “long derailed from the righteous” neighbour, Pakistan, ahead of the to be held foreign talks, it has become an interesting battle for the orators of both the country to play the much hyped blame game that begins to automatically get itself played when anything like the Pathankot Incident happens. Facts remain unattended, and questions remain unanswered. I am not even going to the Pakistani side, because of the simple fact, even the Indians, have to answer a lot many questions, before we finally go out all throttling with guns blazing on our “religious” neighbour (PUN is very much intended).
The first point of my article, as I have been repeatedly going through, with meticulous efforts to trim the fact from the fiction from the numerous accounts of the SP Salwinder, and the cook and the jeweller, who accompanied him to the Pir Baba’s shrine (a Sufi place of religiosity, to put roughly), which change from channel to channel and from time to time and from person to person (phew…its tiring really!) and have been already, by various journalists found to be non-confirming to statistics and common sense. The funniest part is that according to the SP, the time he said he had taken to cover the alleged distance, puts his car to be speeding around Pathankot at a mere 5-6 km/hr which in itself, is a mechanical engineering impossibility. The facts about the SP and the chain of events that he has been repeatedly gonging on the national media, have been found to be shocking, that he is close to the Akali Dal, also presents itself as a sense of concern before us.
Now, my question here is, for how long has “The golden Bird” been the victims of political blue eyed boys’ incompetency. Nobody dares to question the SP because of his political connections, while a senior leader from the Akali Dal goes out on National Media saying that it was the State Government, which has so long, retained an absolute silence on the whole incident, and called the NSG, which in fact, is a force completely at the discretion of the Central Government.
This very statement proves that the people we have voted (in this case, the people of Punjab), are not even clear about who issues what, forget about the nuances of running a province or a state or a country. That the state government , under whose disposal the police works (except in Delhi, where it’s the Central Government) , has decided not to issue any statement after the SP’s remark that he did not court any sort of resistance to the terrorist while they were abducting him because (as he says) ‘mere akele…se kya hoga?’ (Pardon me, I forgot the exact words, but could not help including this laughable remark, remember that we are not talking about a havaldar or an inspector, we are talking about the Superintendent of Police).
If such is the behaviour and bravery of our police officials in Punjab, well known as one of the bravest states of the country, I am very much in awe regarding what sort of policemen are being paid with our tax money in other states. If a senior SP in Punjab, a bordering state to Pakistan does not carry his gun even after being issued a warning that insurgents have been reported to have entered the territory, it’s really a matter of concern as to who have been manning our lives and assets elsewhere in the country.
For Indians, who keep track of the events of the country, it was more shocking because as we all know, this air base at Pathankot was a very important one from all points of view, for the Indian army in case of the Battle fronts. Even in the earlier wars, this was one of the first air bases to be attacked by the Pakistani forces. So, the very fact that even this air base can be attacked by the insurgents, who by the way, have entered through a very regular insurgency path, which for some heavenly manner, was unguarded that day, and they were successful in trotting 26 kms in the country, without any sort of problems surely raises much concern for hue and cry. Adding another fact, this by the way, is one of the most heavily guarded air bases of the whole country.
The SP even said that the terrorists (5 or 6, he does not remember or does not want to?) drove their entire 50 kilos of bullets and mortars in his service car, which again is an SUV, so I am having immense difficulty in gauging how so many guns, bullets, ammunitions along with the 5 (or 6) terrorists and the 3 hostages could indeed fit inside an SUV (anybody has any idea), and that too, inside the car, without using the top carriage. And new facts still are coming every minute, dislodging the statement from the SP and his counterparts.
While the SP’s remarks were found non-trustworthy and the Akali Dal’s behaviour has been found unworthy, the lapses in the protection and security of the air base are even more shocking. I question, how can the Indian authorities still remain silent on such an event of dumbness, inaccuracy, and incompetency? Perhaps, the authorities, are waiting for the air to clear down, perhaps the authorities are waiting for the public anger to die down. But they do not know that the memories of the 7 martyrs, who laid down their lives in the more than 80 hours op, will have a long lasting impact, an impact which will rattle their ears and perhaps, bring some sense to the political bigwigs in the centre and the state.
The incident strikes deep in the Indian mind, because the memories are still fresh of the Khalistani Movement and the Operation Blue Star. If the SP along with any other officials from Punjab, is or are found guilty of treachery or of being an inside man for the terrorist outfits, it will strike something, which has long been forgotten. And in the present political scenario of the country, it will, in fact, wreck havoc on the dynamic political structure of India.
