Why Terrorism and National Security will never be an election issue in India?

Recently we have seen current Gujarat Chief minister raising some security issues in public speeches as a part of his campaign against the incumbent congress such as issues like border incursions by China and Pakistan then the subsequent killing and beheading of Indian soldiers. We are still not sure if it will be an election issue. Can any political leader be sure that by campaigning on issues of national security and terrorism he can change the voting behavior of people in a country like India? We must admit that India is a divided house on different fronts linguistically, politically, economically not to mention the caste word though there is some kind of loose knit of cultural unity but that alone is not a reason to celebrate.

Why border incursions by Pakistan and China in one part of the country are not taken seriously in the other parts of country or when Maoists kill people why people do not react at all in front of ballot? Why ruling government, political leaders are not held responsible for their inefficiency? Why people do not punish the rulers for their inaction when elections ensue? This is a complex question. The examining of this issue is not without a danger of being caught within the dichotomy of right wing and left wing.

Off late I have been reading Max Abrahms a terrorism researcher and professor. I recommend that you too should read him. Max asserts that in most cases in west a terrorist attack generally, polarizes voters towards right and those parties stand to benefit because it is generally assumed that right wing parties are strong in their views and policies on national security. It is especially the case in Israel.

In my opinion poverty and illiteracy are the two main reasons why people really do not worry about terrorist attacks. If people have taken Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008 seriously, Congress party would not have made it to power again in 2009 for a full 5 year term. There was nothing tangible done in reaction to 2008 terrorist attacks apart from dousing victim's feelings by hanging Ajmal Kasab through judicial trial by Indian government.  It is alleged that hanging of Kasab too was timed in such a way that it will benefit ruling party. This is just to prove that government is tough on terrorism.

The real story is nearly 50% of children under 5 year age are undernourished. A significant section of Indian populace do not get food to eat three times a day. And that is why you can have governments which will remain inefficient on every front for 4 years and by fifth year they would release plethora of schemes targeting specific vote banks through freebies and concessions. People do not mind, they would simply vote for the incumbent.

Read Maslow's theory 

Maslow's hierarchy theory comes in handy for a comparison between an Indian voter and a voter in west. Our typical Indian voter is struggling to meet his physical needs, when that elementary expectation is not met he will not think about the needs of safety and self esteem which is why when Tamil fishermen are killed by Sri Lankan navy in extreme south people are hardly bothered about it in Delhi. And if some Pakistani terrorists and army kill Indian soldiers people do not react in North east.

Indian voter is poor, illiterate, has a short term memory, he forgives grave mistakes easily. For people activism literacy is important. Extreme poverty obstructs men to become literate. So political parties keep them in constant poverty. If you are illiterate you cannot question the government. Voters forget all mistakes committed by politicians with one freebie gesture say free rice per month, quota reservation etc., it is not their fault because that is their immediate priority and they are still lurching in the layer of physical needs on Maslow's table of hierarchy theory.

In west people are literate and are well aware of their rights hence politicians are compelled to go to people directly to present their case. In case of a terrorist attack, people unite and make their political rulers answer. For the citizens of west physical needs are no more a priority but for us it is.

This is not to discount the fact that we have united resolutely whenever there was a full scale aggression by enemy, but then too people never punished governments whose misdemeanor caused serious national security crises, 1962 Chinese aggression is a case in point. If people had taken it seriously congress would not have never made it to power. Let's collectively conquer the physical needs of an ordinary Indian citizen so that his voting behavior is not affected by physical needs alone and he also analyzes facts before he decides to whom he should vote.

Why Muslims of India should stop behaving like a herded lot?

In the current scenario whoever is talking (Just talking not doing) about interests of Muslims will be declared instantly as a secular mascot. Once such soft words are uttered, political parties expect Muslims to vote en masse to that specific political entity. The Brits have played this type of divisive politics through communal representation, ie., where Muslims will vote for Muslim candidates and Hindus will vote for Hindu candidates though this was never a demand of any major section of Hindus, this was understandably done to please Muslims and pit them against Hindus which actually worked out to the benefit of British.

For nearly eight centuries Muslim Invaders/rulers ruled this massive continent through force, threat and coercion, not to mention the atrocities endured by Hindus. Can you imagine this happening in a Muslim majority country? I bet you cannot.

It is true that the arrogant and egomaniac Jinnah wanted a separate land to be carved out for Muslims but significant section chose to remain in India, and they must be feeling lucky for that right now. In a country where individual dignity is constitutionally guaranteed there is going to be no benefit if they fall prey to verbal niceties of so the called secular parties which treat them as votes not humans.

For once they have realized that organizations like RSS and BJP trying to represent the unheard voices of Hindus in an organized manner, the short sighted political parties mainly the likes of congress have chosen to play the role of messiah for Muslims and started demonizing Hindus as villains, so they should vote en masse to them instead of BJP.

For a very long time Muslims have behaved like a herd which was fooled by false leaders, Jinnah is a relevant example. In late 1920's and/or in early 1930 when it fought elections it lost squarely to Congress even in Muslim majority areas. Then in the next elections Immoral Jinnah sought to use name of Allah and asked all Muslims to vote his league in the name of Allah, then everyone did. This is one distinct feature of Muslims within the context of South Asia where they can be politically mobilized without much of a trouble in the name of religion.

Muslims being the next major religious group after Hindus, it is natural for the short sighted political parties to play the secular card for their own benefits. There are encouraging signs that Muslims becoming more of a heterogeneous society now, where no one can fool them in the name of god, if that becomes more apparent than it is good for country in general and Muslims in particular. It is fore most for all the Muslims to realize that their ancestors once in the past were Hindus and their Hindu ancestry is undisputed. What is in Islam that you cannot live peacefully with people of other religions? Many say it was not the original intent of Islam but it was distorted by wahabis.

And the perpetual discussion of 2002 riots has not helped any one. The zealot leftist forces in India are doing their best to keep this alive and Muslims are just the victims of anxiety. For once we should realize that 2002 riots are repercussion of burning a train and the killing of around 60 people. The judgment of media trail is already out and they have convicted the state administration and Modi, how foolish it is? then why do we have courts? If Hindus were ever have to enumerate and perpetuate the genocides committed by Muslim league it would become an endless affair, let’s take the example of mother of all genocides, it was the violence unleashed after the call of day of direct action by Jinnah in 1946 where thousands of Hindus were killed, women were raped, men forcibly converted and women forced to marry Muslim men. After such atrocities committed mainly through instigation of Muslim league in Noakhali (famously called as Noakhali Genocide), Gandhi said:

"I would far rather see India’s women trained to wield arms than that they should feel helpless"

So therefore I would choose to blame the leadership of Muslim league, for Muslims they never had a moral leadership to guide them in a saner path.

One thing is very clear for all that Pakistan tried to achieve or is trying to achieve through religion, it has nothing to offer on the socio-economic platform and in terms of better standards of living for its citizens. And I can only hope Indian Muslims will cleverly identify who is corrupt and who is not when it comes to voting in the upcoming elections and punish the parties which treated them like a bunch of votes, and demand rights from the state as a citizen of India instead of doing it as a Muslim, thereby keeping their religious affiliation as their private affair and not allowing politics to mix with it.