Saffron and Other Colours of Terrorism

Saffron Terror
Anyone with a little common sense would know what the phrase means.  Just watched a debate on NDTV (Barkha Dutt hosting We The People) with a host of  intellects, dodos and politicians dissecting P Chidambarams sedate comment on the growth of Hindutva idealogy based terror. Rather than debate the growing and obvious 'terror', the discussion raged on getting the Congress partys immaculate Abhishek Singhvi to 'dress-down' the spotlessly white dhoti clad Home Ministers use of the word saffron.  Isn't it ridiculuous that 8 odd celebrities were deliberating the usage of words rather than chart a way forward.  It took a closing remark from a  viewer to get Barkha Dutt to declare the debate closed.

I see this terror, whether the Saffron(Hindutva), Green(Islamist) Red(Maoist),  or White(the old Ku Klux), all stemming from the same root - disharmony on Religion and Race.  I've used this as my status on Facebook and the more I see these debates, believe that Religion is the root cause of most of today's terror.  Religion on a public platform is the root cause and thus the breeding ground of Communal disharmony and hatred. And Communal hatred is the birthplace of an extremism that leads to terror.

The Solution : Keep Religion private and you will find that Terrorism itself will find fewer recruits.  The task is tough if not impossible as Religion is also the biggest industry today.

The Industry : Religion has far out run any other successful business in its longevity and of course in its profitability.  Any corporate would love to have a business that can be a patch or shade on the business of religion.
What makes Religion profitable?  The product most often is in thought - in the head! In belief.
The Product is Tax Free - Virtually every income is free from any levy. Every sale is free from levies.
Sales persons are free recruits who live off the proceeds and are not very demanding ( of course until you reach the higher echelons - but all earning is proportionate to sales proceeds)
With a few millions being born every day, the clientele of this business is never ending.  Each Religion is guaranteed more clients - and far quicker than those perishing.

Here I seem to have digressed. But the point Ive been trying to make is that  Religion, with its ever abundant coffers, as well as with the vast following, could be the best tool against terrorism. With the resourses they have, religious leaders could stop the mayhem. However, they seem to thrive in it, as deeper conviction in a religious thought leads to extremism and this leads to an ownership and thus the need to protect it. And today, thanks to people like George Bush - 'protection' is to defend with arms and attack the enemy as far from home as possible.  Thus spread the thought of hatred (instead of love), spread your armies (instead of your arms) and go and defend by destroying.  This is the real colour of Terror - whether Red, Saffron, Green or White.

As I write this blog, an idiot in the US - purporting to be a messenger of God ( the WHite Kind) is going to attempt to burn the Koran which he feels is responsible for the terror unleashed on Americans on September 11th a few years ago. He will inflame an already inflamed religion, no doubt, kindled by extremists ( like the book burner himself) - and this will lead to more mayhem. Its time to become colour blind and make Religion private - off the streets and off the airwaves as well. If television ignored him, this would have been a non starter. Giving Religion a platform to spread messages of hatred once again - will increase the spread of these forms of terrorism.