The hijacking of IC-814 on 24th December 1999 was a shameful thing for the country to face, to end a horrible year that was 1999. But equally shameful and hurtful was the behavior of the relatives of the IC-814 hostages. 24 hours after the plane was hijacked , the relatives started raising hell to pressurize the then NDA government to release all 36 terrorists demanded by the five hijackers of Harkat ul Mujahideen. These people were all from privileged backgrounds with the best education. We must remember that back in 1999, air travel in India was accessible for only the affluent.
In words of Kanchan Gupta, who was the PMO’s representative on the National Security Advisory Board at that time:-
“No senior Minister in the CCS was willing to meet the families. Mr Jaswant Singh volunteered to do so. Jaswant Singh asked me to accompany him to the canopy under which the families had gathered. Once there, we were literally mobbed. He tried to explain the situation but was shouted down. “We want our relatives back. What difference does it make to us what you have to give to the hijackers? A man shouted. We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir, A woman screamed and others took up the refrain, chanting: Kashmir de do, kuchh bhi de do, hamare logon ko ghar wapas lao (Give away Kashmir, give away anything, but bring our people back). Another woman sobbed, Mera beta hai mera beta, and made a great show of fainting of grief. To his credit, Mr Jaswant Singh made bold to suggest that the Government had to keep the nation’s interest in mind, that we could not be seen to be giving in to the hijackers, or words to that effect, in chaste Hindi. That fetched him abuse and rebuke. Bhaand me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and national interest), many in the crowd shouted back. Stumped by the response, Mr Jaswant Singh could merely promise that the Government would do everything possible.”
“While the briefing was on at the Press Information Bureau hall in Shastri Bhavan, some families of the hostages barged in and started shouting slogans. They were led by one Sanjiv Chibber, who, I was later told, was a noted surgeon. He claimed six of his relatives were among the hostages. Chibber wanted all 36 terrorists named by the hijackers to be released immediately. He reminded everybody in the hall that in the past terrorists had been released from prison to secure the freedom of Ms Rubayya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, while he was Home Minister in VP Singh’s Government. Why can’t you release the terrorists now when our relatives are being held hostage? he demanded. And then we heard the familiar refrain: Give away Kashmir, give them anything they want, we don’t give a damn.”
(PS: This Dr Chibber was the part of Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement a decade later. What hypocrites our middle and upper middle classes have become is very evident from this very example).
These highly educated people had lost all decency and didn’t even care to treat Kargil war martyr Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja’s widow with respect, who had insisted that she should be taken to meet the relatives of the hostages. As she spoke to them as to why India must not be seen giving in to the hijackers, that it was a question of national honour, quoting her own example as a young widow with a very young son, the crowd started heckling her and shouting things like “She has become a widow, now she wants others to become widows. Who is she to lecture us? Yeh kahan se aayi?”. The young widow displayed great dignity while facing all of this (what did my husband die for, she couldn’t have helped think at some point of time) . Similar appeals that were made by others who had lost their sons, husbands and fathers in the Kargil war that summer fell on deaf ears.
Now let us see another end of the spectrum, the parents and relatives of the slain soldiers who are in far flung areas of the country which the macaulite Indian who prides himself on knowing the capitals of various countries doesn’t care to look up. It breaks one’s heart to see how these parents, wives, brothers, sisters grieve over their beloved sons/husbands/siblings, and humbly declare that they are proud of them. Never once will they ever speak things like “to hell with the country” or make a ruckus like the privileged have alls make. On being asked what do they expect the government to do, the answer is always “Severe retaliation should be given” and not “We want govt help”.
To quote an example:- Nitish Kumar, who found lakhs of rupees to shower on Ishrat Jahan and Akhlaq, could spare only Rs 5 lakh each for the four soldiers hailing from Bihar who were killed in Uri (none of his ministers couldn’t care to be at the airport to receive the bodies).
One of the widows spurned this offer by saying “My husband did not die by drinking, he died for the country. I do not want any alms of the beggar state govt.”
If education was the main factor in making a person a model human being as conventional view loves to say all the time, why is the situation exactly opposite? Why are the people who are a paid agents of Breaking India forces, or those deranged leftist students always from educated background? Mug up syllabus, get a good degree and get a good job is raison d’être. All the education system promotes is lack of critical thinking ability, short sightedness, getting swayed by emotions, and above all, cowardice and hypocrisy. And this has to change.
We as a nation are really in a bad shape if the educated class is a deracinated selfish tourist in its own country. It is these people who give taglines like “fighting terrorism with solidarity” or “supreme sacrifice” but will make sure that none of their children will ever follow the footsteps of those who they make a great show of lionizing.
Why is it that the privileged and the educated have absolutely no sense of love towards the country? Why is it that its always the have alls who are the most ungrateful And can we expect India to be anything in the world when the class from which its intelligentsia, policy makers, diplomats, professionals are derived have absolutely no guts to stand up to terrorism and will capitulate to it, just so that it can maintain the status quo of its privileged existence?
If an Indian aircraft is hijacked today, will the result be any different? Sadly not. There will be a similar chaos, similar chest beating, similar pressure put on the government to concede to any demands made by the terrorist and hijackers We have already seen how the handler for the terrorists during 26/11 Mumbai attacks told them “Try to get hold of a few VIPs. You can ask for anything from the Indian govt after that”. Because it is known that the class from which all VIPs and intelligentsia comes has no stomach for violence and have no qualms in go to let the sacrifices of the soldiers go to waste for their own profit. Their education has given them prosperity, but not a spine.
The truth is that education does not give decency, morality, valour, common sense or integrity. It merely gives employability. Young men who have passed barely their matriculation protect the borders in conditions from -50 deg C to 50 deg C, and the so called men and women with fancy degrees and doctorates call for aman ki asha and India to be partitioned.
