Indra Shekhar Singh
The attack on Salman Rushdie raises many questions. Love is perhaps the only way to deal with hatemongers, hate begets hate
Salman Rushdie lives! Stitched up and sedated, he does talk and hasn't lost his sense of humour. But there is some question India@75 must answer. How do we react when one of the most famous Indian-origin people alive is brutally stabbed in a public event in the US? We must begin to question.
After watching the video a few times and reading a dozen articles with eye-witness accounts the picture got murkier. But let's do a quick recap, to get the fact clear. Rushdie is no ordinary writer, he has been under threat for decades due to a death fatwa issued against him by a religious leader in Iran. He was living in Britain then, and for years under the protectorate of the British secret service. The British government no doubt used him as a pawn in the geo-political cat and mouse with Iran and the EU, but nevertheless protected his life from assailants in Britain and the world at large. Even Rushdie salutes the heroic efforts of security personnel that protected him over the years. Meanwhile, the British foreign office along with concerned citizens and nations successfully pressured Iran to not enforce the Fatwa.
Post the non-enforcement stance taken by Iran, Salman Rushdie began returning to his normal life and eventually moved across the pond to the US. He was even been allowed into India.
But let's go back to the attack now. First question if the attacker wanted to kill Rushdie, why didn't he use a gun? Thank god he didn't use it, but why didn't he? Buying a small caliber weapon is as easy as buying candy in many parts of America, so why didn't the attacker use one? If the attacker was not a ‘lone wolf' his handlers would have no trouble getting the attacker a gun. One can easily wonder was the attacker just trying to injure Rushdie.
The Attacker wouldn't have gotten the bounty if Mr Rushdie was merely injured. So the use of the knife was quite ill-thought, especially as there were almost no security checks at the institute. He could very easily carry a gun inside.
The second question stems from the first, why didn't the policeman on Rushdie's security detail, take preventive disarming actions? Especially when the attacker ran across the hall and climbed the stage to attack Rushdie. The US police system has gained much notoriety for being a trigger-happy force. So why didn't the policeman on duty shoot the assailant? If not on the body, at least on the leg? What happened in Chautauqua Institution in western New York, is a flagrant violation of every security protocol, especially by American standards. Rushdie is a high-profile target who addressed the Uber-liberal democrats, it was only SOP to have some security there.
So now the question is – was this an intentional lapse? Let's move away from Rushdie for a minute now and focus on the US foreign policy agenda. Despite even Henry Kissinger calling Anthony Blinken's foreign policy driving the “US to the brink of war” with “Russia and China”, the Biden administration has been making all the right moves to antagonise them further and also strengthen their ranks.
This attack on Rushdie may be a coincidence or a mad-hatter conspiracy, but this public stabbing brings Iran back into the news cycle and reinforces the negative public opinion against Iran suddenly. Iran has been US's favourite punch bag for some time now, and with the Salman Rushdie attack, the US foreign policy politickers can add Iran to the “new axis of evil” — Iran, Russia, and China. The debate is slowly shifting away from Rushdie and more towards Iran bashing. It is regretful that yet again Rushdie has become a pawn in the great power politics.
But what should we do? Join the haters and celebrate this attack. Do we blame Rushdie for writing his heart out or embrace Rushdie and support him and add to the Iran bashing? The answer is not a straight one. A Muslim didn't attack Salman or an Iranian. It was an individual. Let's keep the blame where it belongs and not allow the machinations of warmongers to piggyback on it.
India and her people, our civilization is a major theme of Rushdie's books. And any readers of Joseph Anton, Rushdie's memoirs will verify his love for this land. Yet we banned his books, canceled his visas, and made him a pariah, at a time he needed his people the most. The armed assailant didn't only attack Rushdie, he attempted to destroy the stories and ethos of the subcontinent that Rushdie writes, about and will fictionalize in the future. And the only way to beat the attacker is to love Rushdie. We need to unban all his books, so the people of our country can make a decision for themselves. We need to battle hate and violence with love, for without it neither Rushdie nor us have any chance. That's why perhaps Allah made the good Muslims live and sent the bad ones to prison.
(The author writes on agriculture and environment, and is a former Director — Policy & Outreach, National Seed Association of India. The views expressed are personal.)
