Hawking Haneef...

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Let me make this clear at the very beginning...My sympathies are with Haneef.

But are we not going a tad overboard with his welcome?

He is a man who was under suspicion of being a terrorist. His cousin is allegedly a terrorist, currently fighting for his life in the UK. His act (Sabeel, not Haneef) would have killed millions of people at Glasgow airport... all innocent, many Indian.

So here's my question.

Did we really need so many cameras (including ours) recording statements by his wife, his mother, father, brother, second cousin, vegetable vendor and dhobi etc? Did the Indian PM need to take a breather from condemning terror activities in India to say that he had 'tears in his eyes' when he saw the family suffer the way they did? Did the Karnataka state government need to offer Haneef a job as if he were a hero? A job that he politely declined by saying that he would keep his options open? And the Karnataka Chief Minister, never one to miss a photo-op moment, is still busy issuing statements to the effect that the state stands behind Haneef. Why? The farmers of Bijapur, grappling with a perennial water shortage problem would like some of that support.... As would the natives of the Kolar belt. But somehow they don't seem to count in the scheme of things.

Haneef may or may not have known of his cousins' misguided plot to kill millions. He may, and I believe personally that he is, be innocent. He may just be an innocent bystander in a war that wasn't even his to begin with...After all, he just wanted to come home and see his baby daughter. Hell, even I had a lump in my throat as I saw pictures of him slumped in his orange prison jumpsuit... dejected and lost. I love a happy ending as much as anybody... I wanted him to be free too.

But our reaction to his return is what makes me uneasy. Are we so lacking in heroes to make him one? Do we have to make him the face of India today? The man wants to return to Australia, for crying out loud!!! All he wants to do is get back to the life he had. And who can blame him!

What about the questions nobody is asking? How did Sabeel lose his secularism and turn so fundamentalist that he was willing to die for his cause? How did these boys who were financially distressed to begin with, manage to make their way to the UK... one of the more expensive countries to live in... What are the questions we are simply not asking?

The governments that are so busy handing out jobs to Dr Haneef who doesn't even seem to want them should perhaps focus their attention on getting back our jawans and officers languishing in Pakistani jails.... or perhaps on making sure that the victims of the '07 bomb blast get their dues.... Or all the victims of violence in Kashmir... Hindu pundits, Muslims... maybe they'd like some of these jobs that are so easily available....

Or maybe they just need to do something to generate this sort of media attention too...Maybe that will find a solution to their problems....

Maybe I'm just cynical... but I see so many people issuing statements on Haneef's behalf, milking their fifteen minutes of fame for all its worth... politicians, relatives, etc.. that perhaps it's justifiable. But to my mind, the only person who's come out of this with any dignity is Dr Haneef himself.... Not the job-dispensing politicians, not the sound bite giving relatives, not the sound bite seeking media and certainly not the rest of us.... Forcing heroism on a man who clearly does not want it.