I have every reason to believe that if any government wants to truly get rid of terrorism, it can. The question is does it? Not apparently. If it did, it would have cut off the blood supply that feeds terrorist outfits. It would have destroyed their financial nervous system. That is the only real way to go about it.
But it hasn’t. Why? It’s not as if the intelligence and the government are not aware of this financial network that feeds and breeds the terrorist outfits. It would be naïve, almost stupid to assume that a whole lot of money would change hands and the intelligence wouldn’t come to know of it, if it wanted to, that is. If they don’t, maybe they should ask the Americans, who I’m sure have long charted out the flow of terrorist money within India and to and from India. So, what’s keeping the intelligence and more importantly the government from attacking the nerve centre of terrorism?
Self-preservation? Utter chaos, perhaps? Chaos that would result from acknowledging that many of the nerves carrying this money do wind up into political coffers? I say acknowledging because the knowledge is already there. It just needs to be acknowledged and acted upon. But that is exactly the difficult part, isn’t it?
Here’s Gieve Patel’s poem that most of us must have read way back in school. An apt reminder now:
On Killing A Tree
It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out if it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
So hack and chop
But this alone won't do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
No,
The root is to be pulled out –
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
But it hasn’t. Why? It’s not as if the intelligence and the government are not aware of this financial network that feeds and breeds the terrorist outfits. It would be naïve, almost stupid to assume that a whole lot of money would change hands and the intelligence wouldn’t come to know of it, if it wanted to, that is. If they don’t, maybe they should ask the Americans, who I’m sure have long charted out the flow of terrorist money within India and to and from India. So, what’s keeping the intelligence and more importantly the government from attacking the nerve centre of terrorism?
Self-preservation? Utter chaos, perhaps? Chaos that would result from acknowledging that many of the nerves carrying this money do wind up into political coffers? I say acknowledging because the knowledge is already there. It just needs to be acknowledged and acted upon. But that is exactly the difficult part, isn’t it?
Here’s Gieve Patel’s poem that most of us must have read way back in school. An apt reminder now:
On Killing A Tree
It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out if it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
So hack and chop
But this alone won't do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
No,
The root is to be pulled out –
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
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