Opinion: Collective Indian Conscience Satisfied Again!

by Ghareebah

The ‘Collective Indian Conscience’ was satisfied on February 9th, 2013, after a long time. Afzal Guru, the supposed mastermind behind the attacks on the Indian Parliament, was hanged. But since the Collective Indian Conscience sought revenge for an attack on a symbol of its sovereignty and the loss of 9 lives, most of them security personnel, the judicial murder of a single suspect – the charges against whom were mostly fallacious – might not have been enough to satisfy it. Therefore, care was taken to make the murder as brutal as possible; his family was never informed or allowed to meet him for the last time, speed posts started getting late and stopped reaching their destination for the first time, the suspect was not allowed any last wish, he was hanged secretly and buried in the Tihar jail, his remains were never handed over to his family, and to top it all, curfew was imposed in Jammu & Kashmir.

Now this was finally enough to satisfy the Collective Indian Conscience even! The ruling party managed to get away with this great patriotic achievement, which proved to be a shut up call for the opposition, which had been planning to boycott the budget sessions of the Parliament and attack the government for its shortcomings. It also stripped the opposition off its best card in the face of the government and for the next elections – delay in the hanging of Afzal Guru. Many birds were hit with a single stone, and the collective as well as individual consciences were fully satisfied all over India.

But this conscience could only rest for a few months before it received a fatal blow. The Indian spy-cum-terrorist Sarabjit Singh, imprisoned in a Pakistani jail, was attacked by a few Pakistani jail inmates. This Indian hero-cum-martyr has been a burden on the said collective conscience for long. Pakistani police arrested him decades ago, within the Pakistani border, for carrying out a few blasts that took 14 innocent lives. And though the death sentence kept getting delayed, all attempts at declaring it a case of mistaken identities failed, even the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence, all pleas for mercy were rejected by successive Pakistani Presidents, and all the collective campaigns by big Indian names as well as a few Pakistani ones proved fruitless.

And then, a few days back, some Pakistani jail inmates attacked him fatally, causing him to be transferred to the ICU in Jinnah Hospital in a critical condition. And though the Pakistani government did not make Sarabjit pay for Afzal Guru – his family was issued Pakistani visas in record time and they were allowed to visit him in the hospital – it did not agree to free him on ‘humanitarian grounds’ and let him be treated in India. The Pakistani authorities went on to suspend 7 jail officers, who were on duty in the prison where the attack took place, but the said Indian conscience was greatly troubled; it finally started remembering the ideals of Humanity and Charity, not only forgotten but outrightly rejected in the case of Afzal Guru or other Pakistani prisoners.

To set this finally awakened – or rather newly discovered – conscience on fire, Sarabjit Singh breathed his last in the Jinnah Hospital. Again, Humanity was honoured even in the case of a confirmed terrorist; and though the Indian government still refuses to hand the remains of Afzal Guru over to his family, to the extent that Yasin Malik has declared a hunger strike for such an obvious and basic human right, the Pakistani authorities handed Sarabjit Singh’s remains over to his family with respect. The said remains have already arrived in Amritsar on a Pakistani plane. The ‘Indian Hero’ will be given the honour due to all Indian soldiers, perhaps to erase any doubt that might still linger in the minds regarding his identity as an Indian agent, officially sent to Pakistan under a mission, with the specific goal of spying and carrying out terrorist attacks. His remains will be cremated with full state honours, and the government has announced Rs 1 crore compensation for his family and a three-day state mourning.

The Collective Indian Conscience, along with Charity, Humanity, Love for Fellow Beings, Compassion; all were on fire. Sarabjit Singh was declared a Hero and a Martyr, leaders of all the political parties condemned the attack and offered condolences to his family, public vigils were held in many places, the saffronic militant organisations threatened to attack Pakistanis staying in Mumbai with Indian visas, and the victim’s family appealed to the government to cancel all Pakistani visas, and even went on to suggest war against Pakistan. And for whose sake? For the sake of an Indian terrorist, who not only crossed the borders, but also carried out several blasts and took many lives! The hostility against Pakistan made a Hero and a Martyr out of a terrorist, in a country where many innocents die extremely painful deaths, sometimes at the hands of their own Army and Police, without a single crocodile tear being shed!

But then again, Indian Conscience managed to prove its unshakability. Sarabjit was avenged on Sanaullah, a Pakistani prisoner in the Jammu & Kashmir jail. Unsurprisingly, the Superintendent of the said jail already has a history of torturing Kashmiri prisoners, and in spite of 7 FIRs, still remains in office. Moreover, the said wounded conscience could not even wait till a few of the saffron-minded jail inmates could be trained for the attack; instead, it satisfied itself through a former soldier in the Indian Army!
And finally, today, the Collective Indian Conscience is satisfied again. It ‘Rests In Peace’ now!