Tavleen Singh writes: Tragedy and horror

Indian Express

18 hours ago

The horror and tragedy of the Air India crash last week inadvertently became personal for me. Not because I lost friends or family in the crash, but because I was on an Air India flight to New York when it happened. Somehow, the crew of my flight had no knowledge of the crash and at JFK, the only thing Indians in the queue at passport control were concentrating on was the fear that they may not get into the United States. Donald Trump's deportations and visa cancellations have made even ordinary tourists nervous.
The taxi that brought me into the city was driven by a fellow Punjabi from Amritsar and he did not mention the crash. He was more interested in telling me that he had been forced to leave India because the situation in Punjab 'has got so bad'. This led to my asking whether he was legally in the United States, and he said he had a work permit and had been here for five years and was earning on an average $400 a day. Why would he want to go back to Punjab, where he would be lucky if his small farm earned him that much in a month?
Finally, as we headed towards Manhattan, my son called and said that an Air India flight had crashed and that when he woke that morning and saw the news in New York's newspapers, he had been frantic with worry that it could be the Air India flight that I was on. I am grateful to all the gods that I dodged Yama this time and totally devastated by the pictures from Ahmedabad and the heartbreaking stories of those who lost loved ones. So let me begin by expressing my sincerest condolences to those whose friends and family were on the doomed flight.
The memory of the Air India flight that crashed in June 1985 because of Khalistani terrorists haunts me to this day. They say that terrorism was not responsible for the crash in Ahmedabad and we must hope that this is true, because the consequences if it was terrorists who were behind it are too grim to contemplate. It has become clear in the days that have passed since Operation Sindoor that India will no longer allow terrorists to win the cowardly, dirty war they have waged against us for far too long. There have been terrorist acts against innocent Indians for more than forty years. For too long, our response was too feeble to stop these killers. First, came the Khalistanis. Financed, sheltered and backed by the Islamist Republic next door. Then came jihadi terrorists. Financed, sheltered and backed by the Islamist Republic next door.
For far too long, those countries that could have put curbs on Pakistan by denying it money and weapons did nothing. In the city from where this piece comes to you, it was jihadis from Pakistan who first tried to blow up the World Trade Centre. But it was only after 9/11 that the United States started to notice that something very bad was happening in India's neighbourhood and that the fallout from this was likely to affect the world.
It is good that India is finally making a serious effort to convince the world that it needs to do more. The global fight against jihadi terrorism did not end with the death of Osama bin Laden. It continues. And now that Israel has attacked Iran, that fight has become more perilous. Israel may feel that it has no choice but to make a full attack on Iran because if there is one country that has done more than Pakistan to spread jihadist terror it is Iran. No sooner did the attack happen than social media was flooded by pictures of dead children and posted by Pakistanis with captions like 'why did this child have to die'.
It is heartbreaking when children pay for crimes committed by their parents but that usually is the way of war. It is a war that has been forced on the world by an ideology that is totalitarian and absolutist. Those who are victims of this war have no choice but to fight back. It is unfortunate that in India's case we have failed repeatedly to convince the leaders of the world that our fight against jihadi terrorism is necessary.
When Narendra Modi decided to send delegations across the world to tell India's story, I confess that I thought it was a stupid idea. It seemed to be no more than a summer holiday for our MPs before the next session of Parliament. But now that I see how well they have done, I admit that I was wrong, and I hope that when the monsoon session of Parliament begins, the bilateral bonhomie that has been established between our political parties will grow and flourish. The wars being fought in the world right now are too serious for silly ones to be fought inside the Lok Sabha.
I have consciously tried to end this piece on a hopeful note because the week just ended has been one of the worst in a long while. I would like to express once more my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones in last week's crash. If it was an accident and not terrorism, then it will be easier to deal with, but it will not be balm.