Human conflict zones across the world have become the modern age volcanoes. They invariably erupt once in a while. The simmering Jammu & Kashmir cauldron has been heated up again by the ambush of the CRPF convoy at Pulwama killing over 40 soldiers. Social media has also erupted understandably in anger and disgust but what people need to understand is the purpose of the barbaric act.
World War II was supposedly the war to end all wars. The war did end, not the conflicts though. J&K became a bone of contention during India’s notorious partition event. Eerily, when J&K was seceding to be part of India, Israel was being carved out of Palestine. When the Indian subcontinent was being bifurcated based on religious lines, a Muslim kingdom ruled by a Hindu king was definitely going to be a hot pan just like creating a Jewish state in the Muslim heartland was going to be so. The feud over land, which started in 1948 in both J&K and Israel has been going on for seven decades with no end in sight.
But why have solutions not materialized even after such a long time? Because not every problem exists because of lack of solutions. Some are simply not meant to be solved because it’s continued existence serves the purposes of some or all of the stakeholders who are part of the problem. They want to keep talking about the problems in ways that will engage them with people and push forward their ulterior agenda through the people.
The Ram Janmabhoomi is another example here. Babri Masjid was taken down way back in 1992 for building the Ram temple. Even funds and stones were collected from Hindu houses all over the country. Why has the temple not been built till now? What happened to the money and the stones? The objective is to animatedly engage with the people and indulge in political rabble rousing in the name of religion whenever RSS and BJP thinks it is going to be useful for them. This is why the Ram temple becomes a dominant issue before every election.
The CRPF soldiers were not on a pleasure trip. Military convoys have always had well planned transportation procedures. Neither were the perpetrators sitting idle and bored and thought of killing some soldiers for fun. The convoy ambush was a well executed plan. Where did the perpetrators get the detailed information from? It is common knowledge that thieves and police are in cahoots in almost all neighborhoods not just in India but in many other countries as well.
Police can find a stolen item in an hour’s time in their area if needed, a fact which has been highlighted repeatedly in Indian movies mostly in a comical manner. Now when people are going on emotional rant on social media about revenge and punishing the perpetrators I am wondering if the details of information leak about the convoy would ever come out.
The more pertinent question is not who did the leak but why; the purpose of the carnage of the soldiers. What agenda of who all would be served by taking their lives? Soldiers are meant to die and they have always been expected to give up their lives for the protection of the land and the needs of their rulers. In ancient times, soldiers were executed so that their souls could accompany the souls of the kings in the afterlife.
The soldiers who created the grave of Mongol King Genghis Khan were all executed so that the site of his grave is never revealed. Collateral damage is the synonym for the death of soldiers. Is there a political angle to these killings because of the impending elections? If there is, it can be seen from how political parties are going to try and leverage these killings to further their election agenda.
Just like thieves cannot survive without the implicit support of the police, terrorists also survive and thrive on support systems. ISIS has been found to have the tacit support of Israel and Saudi Arabia. A few hundred or thousand terrorists have no chance to survive without powerful hands to prop them up. Afghan rebels would have had no chance against the Soviet Union forces without the liberal help of USA.
So why do terrorism and conflict zones exist? Because without them, weapons manufacturers will have to close their shops. Weapons manufacturing, along with prostitution, trafficking and medical treatment are the biggest money grossing industries on our planet. Once enough destruction has been caused in a region, financial institutions will move in, start lending money and enslave the lives of people there. People will then have to work all their lives for the financial institutions to repay the loans they have taken. These financial institutions and weapons manufacturers are also the biggest political fund providers for elections.
Human lives are the use and throw commodity for this corporate-political nexus. Human deaths are just collateral damage for them, be it while testing new medicines or killing a few soldiers. I am waiting to see the political rhetoric coming out from different political parties about this latest massacre of soldiers and the ensuing mud slinging and blame games. The soldiers will be forgotten in no time. Their lives will be a saleable commodity till the elections are over.