[Assam] Of Hostage Crisis and Counter - Sentinel Letter

[Chan Mahanta]

Welcome back Ram,

You agreed with me?  And with Kamal too ?  I knew we are together on 
things :-).

But seriously,

>But then, just because some may see cops and administration 
>officials as being incompetent, there >does seem to some sort of 
>cheering from certain quarters of the galleries for kidnappers and 
>of course >blaming the whole thing on the cops.


*** Don't you think these are two separate issues?

Yes, I am sure there are those who are pleased, in fact re-assured, 
of the police's utter incompetency.  Like all of what passes for 
government's too.

And there are ALSO those, who must bee reeling, cringing, beside 
themselves. For having to put up with them, relying upon their 
ability to protect them, to serve the cause of their society's 
justice.

But does the former neutralize the latter? Make it null and void?


>But generally speaking, if,  in the end, it is found out that the 
>police were involved or played foul in >some way or that they were 
>incompetent - they ought to get the punishments and reprimands 
>they >rightly deserve.


*** I knew we could depend on your sense of fairness, righteousness 
and justice Ram.  And even though I cannot see like George Bush does, 
into Putin's heart, thru his eyes; I knew your heart is in the right 
place.  However I wonder,sometimes, where your mind is :-).

How do you expect to "--- get the punishments and reprimands they 
rightly deserve" ? When was the last time you saw anything like that 
? Where in Assam or where in India? And why do you single out the 
hapless, clueless , untrained, poorly paid, incompetently led, police 
ONLY for what goes on? Are they the ONLY ones to be blamed?

This is where I understand where Kamal comes from.  And I am serious.


>---- moral compasses be damned.

*** I tell ya Ram! That is a market, wide open to be tapped. It will 
be hotter than cellphones.  If I were a bidnessman, I would hire 
Garmin to make low-cost, hand-held, GPS guided moral compasses and 
market them to that billion of humanity foundering, directionless in 
that land of the mother of all morals.

c-da :-)










At 8:20 AM -0600 7/20/07, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>Hi C'da,
>
>While I readily agree with you about re-hashing what exactly the 
>role of the police/administration ought to have been  (or was)  in 
>such cases and their levels of incompetencies. And yes, people ought 
>to ask those tough questions - what, when, who etc.
>
>But then, just because some may see cops and administration 
>officials as being incompetent, there does seem to some sort of 
>cheering from certain quarters of the galleries for kidnappers and 
>of course blaming the whole thing on the cops.
>
>I am not just talking about the PCR case (haven't read all the 
>details), there have been other such cases too.
>But generally speaking, if,  in the end, it is found out that the 
>police were involved or played foul in some way or that they were 
>incompetent - they ought to get the punishments and reprimands they 
>rightly deserve.
>
>I guess, its come to such a stage, that the police and admin. 
>officials ought to be the best, totally incorruptible and vigilant 
>every step of the way. And heaven help the people of Assam if they 
>drop the ball somewhere.
>Because if they did, there are always people looking for a chance to 
>take advantage of such lapses and wreck havoc. And it would, no 
>doubt be the fault of malgoverance or whatever
>  - and individual responsibilities, moral compasses be damned.
>
>--Ram
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>On 7/20/07, Chan Mahanta 
><<mailto:cmahanta at charter.net>cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
>I know it is not nice to blame the police for everything, knowing 
>the state of the 'policiary' ( you heard it here first).
>
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>Besides, they would not be the issue, had the bad guys not kidnapped 
>PCR to begin with, or made to look bad by digging up the wrong 
>corpse and calling it Ram's  ( I mean the other Ram )) or giving it 
>the grand farewell. How would the police know who it was? After all 
>Ram's son ID'd it  against their DOUBTS, didn't they?  How would the 
>police know whose  decomposed corpse it was? Are they experts at it? 
>Do they see them all the time? Were they supposed to know what he 
>looked like, what birthmark he might have had or where? Are they 
>supposed to know more than the son, who, was TOLD  that it was his 
>father's? Who told him that? Hey--how is one to know? Word gets 
>around!
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>Only the troublemakers would raise nasty questions, about whether 
>the police was only too relieved to see PCR gone. Can anyone prove 
>if the police heaved a sigh of relief, or muttered good-riddance?
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>Why did PCR's son insinuate that the police might have connived to 
>really get rid of PCR, once he resurrected?  Was PCR one who knew 
>too much? How would the son know anything about that? And then again 
>FCI--that hallowed guardian of food for the hungry-- what could that 
>have to do with any shady dealings, for PCR to know more than might 
>have been good for him? This is nothing more than a desperate 
>attempt at finding scapegoats.
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>What?  Why did the chief ULFA hunter, some Sarma or other , say that 
>they knew of PCR being in Gobinda Deka's house, BEFORE his DbIG boss 
>declared  NO, they had no idea.  What is there to be suspicious 
>about?  It is not like they are conjoined twins or something. One is 
>a khoini-khowa, the other a  kharkhowa Bamun. They don't even speak 
>the same language.  The same crowd of police-bashers would have 
>cried foul, of hatching some conspiracy, if they got together to get 
>their story straight before going public.
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>It would be damned if you do, damned if you don't!
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>I am with Kamal, and Ram ( our Ram that is)  too. Let those who have 
>20-20 hindsight cry all they want.
>We may not have much, but we have our honor and we shall not go 
>trying to show the world how sharp we are , after the fact,  joining 
>the witch-hunting posse. If we had to do it, we shall do it the old 
>fashioned way--by being on the front-lines, fighting the big fight, 
>like we usually do!
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>Insincerely yours.
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>cm :-)
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>PS: I don't know why our friends keep giving my acerbic side the 
>fuel it needs to keep flaring up, while I struggle desperately to 
>keep it under wraps. Not nice !
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>At 3:16 PM -0600 7/19/07, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>
>>Here is a letter from KJD in today's Sentinel.
>>
>
>
>In generally agreeing with KJD, I would also like to add that many 
>of us seem to forget that just because one may believe there is an 
>incompetent government entity or police force, they ought not to be 
>patting the insurgents on the back (for having got the better of the 
>govt.).
>
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>There are two distinct sides to this issue. One is that there ought 
>to be wholesale condemnation against such kidnappings. The second is 
>the role of the police or adminsitration to getting hostages 
>released.
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>If these hostages were NOT kidnapped in the first place, they would 
>not have been killed, would they?
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>I am not sure that the Govt. of India has even a standing policy on 
>hostage negotiations or negotiations with terrorists. Each 
>successive GOI administration seems to have, what one might call a  
>policy on the fly.  They seem to make up policies on these critical 
>issues as they go along. That apparently gives terrorists and other 
>such elements the idea that its a free for all.
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>India needs to take strong lessons from countries like China, 
>Russia, and Israel in formulating tough policies against terrorists.
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>--Ram
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>_______________________________________
>
>Of Hostage Crisis and Counter
>
>J P Rajkhowa's article entitled "The Goof behind a Bizarre 
>Encounter" (The Sentinel, July 15, 2007) reminds me of an old 
>Assamese adage - ''borokhun gole japi'' - the loose translation of 
>which in English would be ''to lock the barn house after the horse 
>has bolted'. Invariably, as an incident as PC Ram's comes to an end, 
>the columnists of all hues, who normally would not even open their 
>windows at the time of a simple riot, let alone camp at the site of 
>encounters, begin advancing their pet theories forthwith by heaping 
>calumny of the failures of the police department. It seems to be the 
>case of rushing to judgement before all the information, pertinent 
>to the incident, are out in the open. Should we not suspend our 
>judgment until, and if at all, all the facts are presented by an 
>independent party?
>I must say that this piece is not intended to belittle the 
>earnestness of Mr Rajkhowa to highlight the inadequacy of the police 
>department. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the cops are faced 
>with the bizarre situation of ''damned if you do, damned if you do 
>not''.
>In the event of a hostage crisis, the administration of the day may 
>not be able to save the lives of hostages every time, but each 
>country has the option of not compromising with the demands of the 
>terrorists. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case with India. 
>Remember how the Indian Government safely escorted two dreaded 
>terrorists, Masood Azahar and Mustaque Zagar, to Afghanistan in 
>December 1999 in the hijacking case of an Indian airliner, and how 
>the government unconditionally conceded to the demands of the 
>terrorists in the kidnapping of Rubbiya Sayeed in Jammu & Kashmir in 
>November 1989?
>Compare India's response to Russia's reaction to the Chechen hostage 
>crisis at the Palace of Culture a few years ago. There were 900 
>hostages. Even so, Kremlin made only one counter-offer - that the 
>lives of the jehadis would be spared if they freed the hostages. 
>Eventually, Kremlin had its special force to gas them, killing all 
>the jehadis along with 170 hostages but saved more than 700 lives. 
>The message that the Russians had sent to the terrorists was: 
>''Don't try to mess with us.''
>By the way, have any of those who regularly grumble against police 
>failures, ever seen the police barrack? I wonder!
>Kamaljit Deka,
>Sugarland, Texas.
>
>
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