Engineering Terror?

In August, the Al-Qaeda warned that they are going to target
India. The suicide bomber at the Glasgow airport who happened to be an Indian
aeronautical engineer led many to declare that South Asian techies are more
easily prone to terrorism. This is exactly what American "Unabomber"
Ted Kaczynski, currently serving life imprisonment in a Colorado prison, would
be delighted in reading. This guy truly believed engineers are a dangerous lot.
He might even delude himself that he was justified in mailing the bombs.

Engineer: A Dirty Word

The "Unabomber" was a mathematics professor and mailed bombs to
engineering professors, scientists and students in American Universities in the
80s and 90s before his brother found out about his activities and tipped off the
FBI. Why was Ted Kaczynski targeting engineers? Kaczynskis reply, according
to the Crime library of Court TV, USA was that he wanted to make people aware of
the dangers of technology. That he thought everything from the sewing machine to
the typewriter was bad even though he used it to type messages, which would be
mailed along with the bombs, did not matter.

Call it coincidence or craziness but the media began to use
phrases like engineer an attack since then. It almost seems that the media
weirdly justified Ted Kaczynskis wish.

I am from Tamil Nadu and I had a British Sikh girl as a roommate
while doing my masters degree in the USA. Some of the American students would
jokingly refer to us as the Indian terrorists, which I found extremely
offensive. When I asked them why they said this, the reply was, "A Sikh
killed Indira Gandhi and a Tamil killed Rajiv Gandhi." I had to explain the
difference between a Sri-Lankan Tamil and an Indian Tamil. Furthermore, I had to
explain that not all Sri-Lankan Tamils were LTTE terrorists. I had to do the
same for Sikhs and explain to them that not all Sikhs are terrorists. Most soon
stopped calling us terrorists. It was interesting that this never happened to a
student who majored in business, humanities or cinema at our University.
However, this tendency to brand an entire community on the basis of religion,
region, language, profession or color is the danger one must watch out for.
Americans became trapped in this mentality in the aftermath of 9/11.

After Kaczynskis arrest, Israeli counter terrorism squads
began to nickname one Palestinian as "Engineer". His name became
irrelevant but it referred to a Palestinian electronics engineer who joined
Hamas, which is now in power in the occupied territories. Nowadays, the media in
order to describe a terrorist commonly uses terms like "engineer" and
"terrorist". You will not see terms like "politician
terrorist" or "doctor terrorist" or an "executive
terrorist" but engineer terrorist is common. I did an Internet search using
the word combination engineer and terrorist and the result was 1.8 mn Web
pages that used the term. Osama Bin Laden is considered to be a brilliant
engineer. David Copeland, the London nail bomber was undergoing an engineering
apprenticeship. The Glasgow bomber turned out to be an aeronautical engineer.

Does this make engineers more prone to terrorism? Even though
the answer is no, reading articles in the print media, listening to programs on
TV or browsing the Internetall made possible by engineerswould make you
think so.

An Engineer: the Victim?

Immediately after the twin blasts in Hyderabad, in which many engineering
students died, suddenly the media changed its tune. Now the engineer is being
portrayed as the victim. Many in the Indian media, especially the 24-hour
television news channels were carrying stories with headlines that said
"Target South India". Currently, we have stories about how the
Al-Qaeda will target South India here afterward. Maybe the media woke up to the
fact that the engineering industries in the four southern states of India are
the engines that drive the economic growth of India. Media and political
analysts came out with statements about how the engineering and tech sectors
need to be protected from terrorist attacks as they are soft targets. Alerts
were sounded in all metros and hi-tech parks and BPO industries were given
additional protection and security. What the media ended up doing was create
panic and fear among many engineers as it portrayed them as the next Al-Qaeda
target. While there is truth to a small part of the statements made by political
analysts and security experts, it is absurd and irresponsible of the media to
create panic.

Flip-Flop

It is time for the media to make up its mind. It cannot label Bangalore and
Hyderabad as the breeding grounds for hi-tech terrorists and in the same breath
declare the whole of South India because of its engineering industries, a soft
target for terrorists! Engineers down south and elsewhere in India are neither
terrorists nor victims. The media would do well to stop labelling terrorists as
"engineer terrorist" and using phrases like "engineer an
attack" in their articles and programes. Most of the Indians chose to
become engineers and dont like to be portrayed as either terrorists or
victims. The media, especially the Indian ones, would do well to remember that a
profession cannot be branded as terrorist prone in the same way a religion,
community, race or country cannot be branded. Members of the media need to
become more

responsible.

Fear is not the Answer

It is true that the recent kidnapping of children or family members of
executives of technological companies for ransom have risen nationwide in the
past few years. This is a disturbing trend. Separatist, naxalite and terrorist
outfits to fund their own activities could use the money obtained through this
way. However, this does not mean one has to panic and go into hiding or
pressurize the Indian government to indulge in pre-emptive strikes against
suspected individuals, organisations and countries. This is what the US did, and
look at the mess they are in. Calm needs to prevail in the engineering sectors,
especially the hi-tech ones. Fear is not the answer. Defence is the best form of
offence. Recently, the Tamil Nadu government declared the area around the
Kalpakkam nuclear power plant as a no-fly zone as it feared aerial attacks from
LTTE terrorists. Similar measures can be taken where there is a concentration of
tech industries. Security has to be increased but not to the level that it leads
to the violation of civil liberties of the Indian citizen or pose health hazards
to engineers. Senior executives need to put in place security measures, which
ensure safety of their families.

Studying engineering or becoming an engineer doesnt make one
prone to terrorism. It is an idiotic argument to make just because some
terrorists also happen to be engineers. Media needs to be more responsible in
reporting instead of creating a dangerous mindset that might target a particular
profession. Engineers need to be more alert and ensure that their career is not
ruined by suspicion and fear. Instead, techies need to concentrate on their jobs
and attain greater heights. This is the only way to defeat terrorists,
especially the Al-Qaeda whose aim is to economically bankrupt the country by
creating fear and chaos. Techies need to show them and the world, we are not
afraid and we will not let the terrorists succeed in creating discord among
Indians.

Deepa Kandaswamy

The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

The views expressed here are personal

Deepa Kandaswamy.

First Indian Serial Rights, CyberMedia 2007. 

Any quotes from this article must link to this article and credit both author
Deepa Kandaswamy and Dataquest.

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