When savagery explodes
July 7, 2013, 8:08 pm
Yesterday’s multiple explosions at Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya have left the civilised world in a state of shock and dismay. They must be condemned unreservedly and bracketed with the barbaric attacks on Sri Dalada Maligawa (1998) and the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues (2001). Two Buddhist monks have been injured in the nine low intensity serial blasts. The much-venerated shrine standing on the place where Prince Siddhartha attained Enlightenment 2,550 years ago and the sacred Bo tree have not suffered damage, according to media reports.
Those responsible for the blasts have not been identified yet, though it is patently clear that they are a bunch of fanatics who must be brought to justice forthwith. The motive for the serial blasts is not yet known but they will inevitably be seen as part of a sustained campaign by anti-Sri Lankan groups hell bent on ruining Indo-Lanka relations in a bid to mine a rich seam of tension and hostility between the two countries. For, there have been systematic attacks on Sri Lankans and Buddhist shrines elsewhere in India to provoke a backlash in Sri Lanka; in Chennai mobs stormed the Mahabodhi Temple in 2011 and assaulted Buddhist monks and pilgrims besides several other instances of violence against Sri Lankans in Tamil Nadu on their way to Bodh Gaya for the last three years or so.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi has flayed the state government as well as the Centre for their failure to provide adequate security to Mahabodhi Temple in spite of intelligence warnings that the shrine was likely to be attacked. India has ordered a high level probe into Sunday’s blasts and taken steps to protect the temple; there is no reason to doubt its promise to do everything possible to nab the perpetrators. However, it should not consider such action a favour done to Sri Lanka or Sri Lankan Buddhists; it is duty bound to protect Bodh Gaya, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It may not be fair to expect India to prevent all bomb attacks on its soil, given the sheer number of terrorist outfits it has to contend with, the vastness of its territory and the attendant practical difficulties. Bihar has become a hotbed of terrorism owing to abject poverty and the resultant high unemployment rate as evident from the 13/7 triple blasts. Terrorists and other criminals are preying on the unemployed, frustrated youth in that state.
What with these seemingly intractable problems, India has its work cut out where dealing with terrorists and other anti-social elements responsible for ethno-religious violence is concerned. However, it ought to realise the need for making a serious attempt to put its own house in order before trying to meddle with the internal affairs of other countries and prescribing its devolution remedy as it were, which has failed to solve secessionist problems in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab etc. Its self-assigned task of intervening to solve Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem could be likened to a failed medic’s attempt to perform a delicate operation on an unwilling patient!
Emotions are naturally running high in this country following Sunday’s blasts. However, those who are girding up for mass demonstrations in Colombo against those cowardly attacks will do well to act with restraint and be mindful of the sinister attempts relentlessly being made in some quarters to strain Indo-Lanka relations further.
It is hoped that India, which makes diplomatic R2P interventions, claiming to protect the rights of the citizens of Indian origin in other countries will do everything in its power to protect the rights of Indian Buddhists who account for about one percent of its population by providing better security to the places of Buddhist worship while ensuring the safety of Sri Lankan pilgrims who visit them. Charity, as they say, begins at home.
