Insurgency on Osama’s death
By Raju Athokpam (raju.athokpam AT gmail.com)
It was September 11 2001, popularly known as 9-11, when I came to know a person name Osama Bin Laden. His name had carried such bad impression that after few years when I heard of a person called Obama, campaigning the US presentational election, I thought Obama must not be a good guy. That was my first instinct and it is not intended to judge or compare the two persons.
As soon as Osama’s death is confirmed, Barack Obama gave a ten minutes inspirational speech and broadcast on internet. He proudly said that he gave the authority to execute Osama. The West are not saint states too. The proclaimed new world order for peace and human dignity is being processed only half-heartily. Their national interest and national security are always on priority. However, there is no wrong in supporting the counter-terrorism measures being conducted.
The definition of terrorism is still a debatable thing, but an obvious attributable fact is, its symbolic target and non-distinction between target and audience. In our own soil, the insurgency groups of Manipur, are gradually embracing terrorism. Theoretically, an insurgent should not display a terror image publicly. The insurgents emerges in the hope of improving a prevailing condition. It should compromise its target for the audience (the common people). In other words, the armed rebellion against the constituted authority should not be conducted at the cost of civilians, notwithstanding the intensity of crisis. In practice, the word ‘audience’ has become obsolete from its dictionary and the ‘target’ becomes more and more symbolic.
Some say, when fundamentalism practices obscurantism, terrorism is born. Luckily, there isn’t much acclaimed fundamentalist but very unluckily there is enough obscurantism. The knowledgeable and the educated insurgents are sitting on the high post, radicalizing the young bloods based on ethnicity difference with the Indian race, narrate about the corruptions and favoritism of government officials etc, all of which could also to be told in a tolerable tone and not racially (read obscurely). They also obscure the very idea that it is merely a business and percentage negotiation of the government funds with the government authority.
Fascism can be remembered in relation to the present scenario. Numerous unrelated and fanatic thoughts are put in to contain the organizations with time. For instance, ‘social equality’ will be put forth and projects a Marxist class-struggle; at the same time, its authoritative and coercive ideology will also be seen in action. Worse, it ignores the difference between ‘private’ and ‘public’ and tries to put everything under its ambit. This is a very totalitarian view and the growing despotism needs a constant check. In a nutshell, prediction is near to impossible and therefore, trust is zero.
The question, whether or not insurgency is necessary in Manipur, has to be taken up elaborately. The article is about the insurgency vis-a-vis terrorism. In relation to the event of Osama’s demise, the head of one of the most dreaded terrorist network, Al Qaeda, may God bless the humankind and give the strength to wave goodbye to terrorism forever.