Another Movie Guide

Veerapan in Kashmir

In days of yore the brigand Veerapan would hurl defiance at all the attempts of his capture by the Governments of the 2 highly developed, educated and IT savvy southern states. Even the elite NSG failed to formulate a strategy to catch him. He virtually brought the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to their knees. His every diktat was religiously followed even if in the process the law of the land was bent or broken, and the Supreme Court had to intervene to give some semblance of respect to the state government machinery. The lantern jawed, mustachioed criminal took a dare at the task forces and commando groups set to catch him and ambushed and slaughtered the police officials/parties. With his killing, however the bigwigs in the Government breathed a sigh of relief.

Veerapan, despite his nuisance value happened to be portrayed as a Robin Hood by the media. Conjuring visions that Veerapan were a Kashmiri operating from the pine forests of Kashmir, and did exactly what Veerapan did in the sandalwood forests of south India. He would simply be dubbed as fundamentalist/terrorist. Condemned for his antinational activities, his loyalty to the nation and patriotism questioned, he would have been accused of working at the behest of foreign masters. The home ministers, both union as well as state, would have linked him to Laskar-e-touiba, if not Al-qaeda and the dreaded Bin Laden. His work would have been praised by the neighboring country. The politicians both in the power and in the opposition would have made all attempts to cash the situation. The public pronouncements would have been made, shibboleths cracked and bubble/double speaks mouthed…. well give a fitting reply and smash them (the foreign hands and the much talked about clich ridden fundamentalists/terrorists)to pulp, tear them to pieces, scatter them around, jump on them with the hobnailed boots and the like.

Residents surrounding the brigands area of operation would be subjected to nauseatingly unceasing house to house searches, frisking and harassment of any type by the law enforcing agencies. In the crackdowns that were as often as can be, young men in the area would be picked up, beaten, tortured or killed in custody and declared dead in (fictitious) encounters. All houses where the suspect(s) might have visited/resided/stayed would have been gun powdered, burnt or razed to ground. Armored carriers, helicopter gun ships and Israeli commando assistance would have been taken to nab the brigand. Forests would have been cut or burnt, and all possible companies of the security forces deployed to capture him dead or alive. In the protests and process that would have followed Gillanis, Yasin Maliks, and Other Hurriat leaders would have declared him as hero and of course a messiah and welcomed to join them.

The chief minister as usual would have called his Bollywood crowd and Junoon groups to come to Kashmir and see the real Gabber Singh in action. Like the golf course and tulip garden he would have sanctioned money for movie to be made on the brigands life, a la Phoolan Devi style at the state governments expense. The brigand would have seen that in Kashmir it was more profitable to join the statement government and loot under the umbrella of law, than to plunder the forests as an outlaw. Accordingly he would have joined one of the several political parties in the state or formed one himself. In the coming rigged elections he would have been elected with 5% of public votes. With this experience in forest trade he would have been made a minister for forests in the state cabinet. In a typical wolfish style of the wolf-and-the-lamb fable, cop outs would have been coined non-stop. In a bid to present his image in the public as holier than Pope the tub thumping campaign of eradicating corruption would have ultimately led to appointment of n number of enquiry commissions (to safeguard the interests of his kith and kin) and slaughter lambs as could possibly exhibit resistance. The timber trade/smuggling would have touched the sky whilst in the words of Robert Frosts tree heights come down to the root level

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep;

And cut all trees before I sleep

And sell all trees before I sleep

taj