ON BENAZIR'S DEATH

They made a wasteland and called it peace -(Tacitus). I was just strolling in busy market lanes of suburb Delhi when my boring eyes stole a view from a news scene running on TV in a small shop. It flashed, "Benazir killed." I had a sensation that 'history was being made' and rushed back to my room and glued to Internet to listen and watch what BBC had to offer. I was also reminded of 14th February 2004, when a political assassinaion of another former Prime Minister and potent Opposition leader Rafiq Hariri in far away Lebanon, had created a similar sensation in me, and , before that, on 9/11 when BBC Hindi flashed the news that 'world trade centre towers have been hit in terrorist attacks" (it was a political violence at its worst), Even before that Rajiv Gandhi was murdered on May 21, 1991. List of political murders, gruesome as they are, can be multiplied but I will be lying if I say that I have personal memories of more such incidents than just alluded to. So why does a political act of ultimate violence affects me, an Ayurvedic doctor, trying to find his feet in society by trying to pursue an MBA , one would ask ? And especially when the political leaders are not blemishless in conducting their affairs ? Basic answer to such question lies in fundamental human craving for curiosity, to be a part of history, and of course, to make sense of the weird world we have to live in. Bhutto family's political fortunes in Pakistan have seen much ebb and tide right from Zulfikar's rise on socialist plank in 1960s through to his judicial murder by Zia's hangmen in 1979, his daughter's triumphant entry in Pakistan in 1986, (she twice became PM, both time failing to complete term), murder of her brother Murtaza by police in 1996, self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998, again grand welcome to political turf 'in' Pakistan on 18th October 2007 (marred by terror attack on her political rallies) and finally this ultimate violence on human soul. Pakistan has a unique gun-culture to settle political questions and Benazir is its just the latest victim. Many will point fingers twards Musharraf, many will say that it is Al-Qaida, and still others will point out petty inter-party feuds as reason of grisly act. In each case stolid political process of reviving a dream of democracy suffers, for, though death is supposed to affect human conscience as nothing else can ; when death is so ubiquitous as it is in Pakistan today, it losses ability to provide a possible opportunity for better senses to prevail. Pakistan has to endure this trauma because its citizens have allowed repressive, regressive, and stultifying regimes to overshadow and overwhelm people's democratic urges. If political class tolerates military dictators and allows fundamental paranoia to direct tribal nationalism, it is the politicians who have to face the consequences. Benazir Bhutto's life story has had a tragic blend at many turns but this final tragedy is a tragedy for all democratic forces in Pakistan. When she became first woman PM of an Islamic country, she was a great hope who soon gave way to desperation through petty compromises ; now again she was a great hope for democratic, moderate and progressive forces of her nation , but assassin's bullet did not allow her to play her part. Yet one must agree that she is a martyr in path of saner forces and martyr's blood seldom goes in vain, so Pakistan's people must unite to defeat forces that create such havoc in country