The tension in Jammu, which spilled over to Srinagar, is worrisome not merely on the count that the young are restive. The danger signs are to be seen in the way the youth have reacted to a poster of the Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale being torn by the police. The resurfacing of symbols of a rebellion against the state is not to be dismissed as temporary. A clear policy on such matters as the display of reverence towards controversial figures is called for as this is not a phenomenon that will disappear.
Down south, the police moved quickly to remove a statue of the chief conspirator behind the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, Velupillai Prabhakaran. As chief Tiger of the militant LTTE movement in Sri Lanka, he had waged war against his country as well as against the peacekeeping force sent by India. His statue came up at a temple entrance and people were pictured praying as if he were a deliverer. But then, as history has often shown, there is only a thin line between a freedom fighter and terrorist, and as time passes even that line is blurred.
Similar is the case with Veerappan, a forest bandit who slew scores of security personnel as well as killed an estimated 2,000 elephants for ivory. People have been known to attempt to build memorials to him, but the state has always removed any permanent reminders. Any space given to terrorists and brigands could lead to the gullible beginning to believe in folk tales that run counter to the real place history allots to them.
