Hang... and be damned!

 I was vastly amused when a male friend sent me this....that 'he' and not a 'she' sent it, displays confidence and a great sense of humour....

This appeared in Sunday Times today.....

                              Hang…. and be damned

Qasab’s died a mangy dog’s death.Yes,it was pathetic.But his short life was even worse.Here was a young man who’d never lived. No wonder it hardly mattered to him when he spent his last few hours singing a Bollywood song, nibbling on a tomato. This image is so apt for a man whose 25 years on earth had no value to anybody. Disowned by his country, shunned by his village and forgotten by his family, Qasab’s existence was worth absolutely nothing. Whether he rotted in a jail in Mumbai or faced the gallows in Pune, Qasab lived and died a zero. In a way, one almost feels sorry for him. Ever since the dramatic announcement of his secret hanging was made public, there have been the expected reactions complete with the standard scenes of people expressing relief, jubilation and gratitude. That over used and rather annoying word – closure – has been repeated ad nauseum. But the one thing most of us have overlooked in our haste to congratulate Pranab Mukherjee, Sushil Kumar Shinde and R.R. Patil, is the wisdom of the decision. Why Qasab and not Afzal Guru first, is a very valid question to ask. Perhaps the real answer is far from palatable. Perhaps, we shall never know it. It’s also worth recalling that Qasab was the only witness who could have been summoned to testify in the David Headley case. But these are all nothing more than wild conspiracy theories. And we love them! Since everybody today has become a self styled authority on conspiracy theories in any case, why not table the current favourites? It is commonly conceded that in himself, Qasab was a nobody. He was just the ‘Butka’ who was programmed to go across the border and kill as many innocents as he could. He came to India to die, as he confessed. And we obliged him and his handlers by hanging him, in what can be described as unseemly haste. A haste that apparently took our own Prime Minister by surprise! Or was that just Sushil Kumar Shinde jumping the gun and making a monumental gaffe? As a former cop, Shinde says he knows how these games are played . Sure. But if around 80 people were involved in this key operation, howcome Manmohan Singh  was kept in the dark? Given the vast amount of paperwork such a complex procedure entails, it’s nothing short of a miracle there were no leaks this time. It’s been the high season for leaks, remember? Now that it’s a done deal, and Qasab lies buried in one of the six unmarked graves in the Yerawada jail compound, how smart a move is that, given the threats of retaliatory action issued by the LeT and the Pakistani Taliban? Should we ignore them? Should we also ignore ‘Im the Dim’s’ outburst demanding the death of our Sarabjit Singh languishing in a Pakistani jail? Qasab alive was our biggest bargaining chip. Was hanging Qasab in India’s interests at all? Or will we be paying a huge price for our action in the days ahead?

Poor Qasab. I never thought I’d be saying this. But looking at his close ups in various newspapers, one instantly recognises the eyes and face of a loser. A lost and listless wastrel like thousands of other disenfranchised, hopelessly impoverished, uneducated and frustrated young men with nothing at stake and nobody to call their own. Qasab’s is a classic story. That of a rootless,jobless desperado willing to try anything – even terrorism. Lured by false promises of financial security for himself and his family members, Qasab signed over his life to those who continue to be free…. in all likelihood training other Qasabs even as we in India rejoice over the death of an entirely dispensable cog in the much larger terror wheel. Haunted and hunted, Qasab went to his grave dealing with the blood of innocents he’d  systematically slaughtered for a handful of rice and a fistful of money , both of which were never given to his father. Ironically, he died in vain… used and abused by the masterminds who had brainwashed him into believing he’d be hailed as a martyr. His sisters may still be waiting for the promised money for their marriages. But their foolish, misguided brother will only be remembered as the coward who killed defenseless people. Not so surprisingly, when he finally found the noose tightening around his neck, he lost his voice, but his bowels opened up.What an inglorious life! And what a dirty death. The man, who shot people in cold blood, did potty in his pajamas in the end. Cheee chee, chee! Bechara Qasab.