The Nice Bloodbath: A Wake-Up Call To France And India
Jay
Bhattacharjee - July
18, 2016, 5:03 pm
TWO COUNTRIES WITH COMMON VALUES AND WORLD-VIEWS ARE ALSO TARGETS OF ISLAMIST TERROR
MY ESSAY ON THE OUTRAGE IN NICE ON BASTILLE DAY
Islamist
terror groups find the common values that unite France and India to be
abhorrent. Nothing affronts them more than the fact that the two countries share
the values of freedom, consensus, tolerance of divergences and democratic
decision-making The
two countries must now take requisite steps to eliminate the scourge that
confronts both of them. The time for niceties is over.
Terror
can leave a person numb — with sorrow, anger, regret, and above all with the
accumulated weight of memories and nostalgia.
That
is how I landed up in Nice. I still remember marveling at the blue Mediterranean
– no wonder it is called the Cote d’Azur.
Our
group comprised four young men of different nationalities, in addition to yours
truly, with different worldviews, tastes, politics and preferences. The common
factor was a limited budget and a willingness to absorb the endless nuances of
France.
All
of us admired the egalitarianism of the vacationing crowd on the beach. There
were many people from North Africa and the Arab world; among them, the most
affluent was the Lebanese-Arab contingents. As the sun set, many vacationers
like us went off to their humble tourist camps or hostels, others to
small pensions(budget hotels) and a few to the opulent grandeur of the
Negresco and other five-star hostelries that had housed royalty and millionaires
for ages.
All
five of us agreed that one could not improve on the democracy of this splendid
country as manifested in their public facilities and the deportment of the
people. I had also heard at length from my father, who had arrived almost
penniless in France in the mid-1920s to study at the Sorbonne. He had related to
me stories about his low-budget (almost abstemious) vacations in many corners of
this beautiful country. After my visit, I vowed that one day I would bring my
family to this part of the globe when I had the resources. Thanks to the cosmic
forces, this did happen, more often through the hospitality of my French friends
and professional associates, rather than through my own
efforts.
The
holiday crowd in the Riviera and the South of France continues to be as mixed
and eclectic as always. There are visitors from all over the world, and French
nationals of all colours and creeds. The evening of 14th July (Bastille Day) is
a particularly joyous one for all French citizens, as they gather with their
families and friends to watch the fireworks that all cities large and small put
up. This is thefête républicaine or the fête nationale, a happy
combination of our Republic Day and Deepavali. On this day, the French Republic
pays tribute to its national ethos and reaffirms its core
values.
Earlier
in the day, there was a spectacular military parade in the Champs-Élysées in
Paris, arguably one of the most beautiful and majestic avenues anywhere in the
world. In 2009, France accorded a rare honour to India by inviting the Indian
armed forces to take the lead role in the 14 July ceremony. In the evening’s
events the average citizen takes centre stage.
In
Nice, on 14 July 2016, the perpetrator of the outrage chose a symbolic moment to
carry out his abominable act of terror. His barbaric deed proclaimed to the
victims and to the world at large that he was chastising the people of France
and challenging the French Republic.
In
the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the killers wanted to show that any criticism of
their faith was a capital offence, punishable by death. In this case, their
message is even more ominous – any nation or state that tries to combat Islamist
terror in any part of the world is a legitimate target for attack in the most
bestial manner.
A
few months earlier, I had attempted in this journal to analyse why both India and
France are such convenient targets of Islamist terror. I don’t want to revisit
all the points but it is necessary to supplement the analytical framework to
some extent.
The
first issue is that the French security apparatus is not as efficient and
streamlined as its image suggests. There are shades of the Indian scenario here.
Just a few days ago, a leaked anonymous letter from some members of the famed
GIGN (the gendarmerie unit trained in anti-terrorist and counter-insurgency
operations) accused their chief of incompetence and inefficiency during the
terrorist bombings earlier in the year.
The
scenario brings to mind reports about the deficiencies in the performance of our
National Security Guard, which is led by a police officer. France, too, made a
serious mistake, a few years earlier, when President Sarkozy managed to impose
his decision on his cabinet and transferred the gendarmerie from the Defence
Ministry (which was the controlling ministry for more than a century) to the
Interior Ministry. Clearly, this has adversely affected the morale of the
force.
The
two countries also share a fractured political structure. Many senior members in
the ruling Socialist party of France have not really come to grips with the
problem of Islamist terror. Their rose-tinted notion that all citizens are
united by the three cardinal Republican principles of “liberty, equality and
fraternity” is clearly flawed.
Their
country does have a serious problem in its body politic – the enemy within
continues to plan and launch assaults on the basic institutions cherished by the
French. An open society is something that is abhorrent to the Islamist warriors.
Many French citizens of Arab origin or Muslims from other former colonies in
Africa have become completely brainwashed by Salafist ideology that has been
freely propagated for many years in France.
The
comparison with India is most revealing. For many decades, we have allowed the
most vicious Wahabi agitprop in our country and many mosques are being used to
spread this mindset. This is accompanied by the brainwashing of children that
takes place in the madrasas. The Nehruvian regime (in its different
incarnations) encouraged Indian Muslims for more than seven decades to send
their children to the religious schools, as opposed to the state schools. No
attempt was ever made to control the curriculum in madrasas. All this was
carried on under the fig-leaf of “secularism”, “protection of minority rights”
etc.
However,
there are some differences in the situation in the two countries, too. The
French media is not split on language and class lines like ours and is now
firmly in the anti-terror camp, whereas our media, specially in the English
language, has a mindset that is grotesque, to say the
least.
It
presents Islamist terror in an anodyne, bland, manner so that outrages and
atrocities get thoroughly diluted and begin to look like commonplace
events.
Finally,
we have two critical differences between India and France that make us much more
vulnerable to existential threats. Our federal structure has forced us to be a
weak nation, when it comes to combating serious national threats. In a number of
states, the local satraps kowtow to Islamist demands, even when they are
blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. The other is geography, which has led to
a grave demographic assault on us.
The
socio-political ramifications of this demographic invasion have been enormous;
Assam, in particular, has seen a dramatic change in its population composition.
In the last four-and-a-half decades, since the 1971 war, West Bengal, too, has
gone through a transformation in its religious profile.
Islamist
terror groups find the common values that unite France and India to be
abhorrent. Nothing affronts them more than the fact that the two countries share
the values of freedom, consensus, tolerance of divergences and democratic
decision-making. These are dangerous principles for the
jihadis.
The
two countries must now take requisite steps to eliminate the scourge that
confronts both of them. The time for niceties is over.
Jay Bhattacharjee is a
policy and corporate affairs analyst based in Delhi.
Jay Bhattacharjee MA(Cantab), FCS
Advisor (Corporate Laws & Finance)
Tele : (91-11) 4182-8165 / 2651-0174
Mobile : (91) 98102-39986
Advisor (Corporate Laws & Finance)
Tele : (91-11) 4182-8165 / 2651-0174
Mobile : (91) 98102-39986
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