The Proof Prayer 

When people known for their deceit, dishonesty and dubious intentions ask for proofs of things before they would condescend to take “honest” action where required, it baffles Third Eye. It reminds Third Eye of an incident attributed to the story of the United States. Of course, there is no proof that the incident was authentic, semi-authentic, or not authentic at all. Still, it had a moral and must be recounted, repeated and remembered. May be it would throw some light on the destruction. 

This is what happened. It was the time when the American nationalism of the very nationalist type was raging like a storm. The targets were then Communists and sympathizers. The head-hunter was Senator McCarthy. Even great American Negro singers like Paul Robson were accused of being subversive “reds” trying to sabotage America. His Negro spirituals, his “No John, No John No,” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” could not whitewash his red spots. He loved America but “could not prove it”. After all how does one find proof of loving the land of his birth. He decided not to run. He stayed in the United States, persecuted, humiliated and without proof. Many in the universities, the scientific laboratories and the glamour business of Hollywood were also unable to provide proofs of their not being “moles” burrowing around to destroy America to the total satisfaction of the Soviet Union. But the moles did not leave their holes. They were too big, tall and true. The holes cold not contain them. Their mole hills became mountains. Truth ultimately triumphed. The very disappearance of the Soviet Union proved beyond doubt, there were no moles in the American hole. Only witch-hunting was there, which died with the death of Soviet Union. 

Coming to the story I wanted to tell about the proof business of proofs during the great red-hunt of America. One fine morning, the US immigration office was mobbed by thousands of very patriotic American rats. What was ailing them? Everybody knew they were rats and good American rats, patriotic down to the very tips of their honest tails. The immigration officer, himself a very good, patriotic and democratic American, asked them to select a deputation who could be invited into the sanctum sanctorum of the immigration office to find out what was ailing the American rats across the nation. 

A delegation was duly elected by the rats and sent in to represent their problem, honestly and democratically. The delegation told the immigration officer with folded tails, “Sir, we the rats of America, want to immigrate and go to some other democratic country in the world, if there is one truly democratic country at all. For, we the rats of America believed in all faith for centuries that this was the truest and fairest of all democracies in the world. Nobody ever contradicted us. But now great threats and terrorism is posing a deadly danger to every little rat here. Please grant us the facilities for mass immigration. If nowhere else, permit us to migrate to neighbouring Canada. We would feel safer there.” 

The honest immigration officer was honestly shocked at the terror peeping out of those tiny rat-eyes. They were good American rats, living in democratic America. Why did they feel such a touch of terror? He asked, “Dear rats, I believe you are good Americans like all of us. Why must you leave the land of your birth in such a hurry and terror? There must be some reason?” 

The delegation of rats pleaded, “Sir immigration officer, McCarthy is witch-hunting American cats for having communist tendencies. Whether they are black, yellow, green, white or spotted brown cats, they are being branded red and threatened with dire consequences amounting to elimination at the special terminator cells. We are terribly, frightened; such things have never happens in this land of Lincoln, Jefferson and Garfield. Every rat has lived in peace, security and safety. But things are no longer the same. Senator McCarthy will get us all. We must turn tail now and escape with our lives to save the American rat species for posterity.” 

The immigration officer tried to allay their fears and reassure them. He said “Dear rats, you are good rats. You are American rats. Here is a country where human rights are respected. These include the basic right to life of every American, including you, the rats. And you are not cats. If cats are under scan, why need you be so afraid?” 

The answer of the rat delegation left the immigration officer dumbfounded. They respectfully and fearfully submitted, “Sir, your argument has its own place. But how are we going to prove to McCarthy that we are rats and not cats? He wants proof. We have none.” 

There is no record whether the rats were able to prove that they were not cats or moles or raccoons. It is not known whether they were arrested and put into rat jails or simply imprisoned in rat traps. It seemed that both McCarthy and the Soviet Union played their role and passed into the dust-bin of history. For, there is no dearth of rats in America and the people and rulers of the country too have rats. Take a look and believe them. Do not ask for proof. There is no record of a rat having had to prove and having been able to prove that he or she was a rat. 

But McCarthy was not the only politico who suffered from an acute proof-syndrome, a disease which is rampant like AIDS, particularly in semi-democratic, non-democratic and simply dictatorial countries in the world. 

Recently there has been a remarkable spread of this psycho-political disease in some of the neighbouring countries of India. For example, when soldiers of Bangladesh Rifles, by design or by sheer poor target-manship, wantonly started firing across the border, into India, it was natural for India to protest. Anyone would protest. But... and there was a big but. Yes, Dhaka never accepted it as a recognized truth. They wanted proof. Dead and injured Indians -- in uniform or innocent, unarmed civilians, were no proof in their eyes. They wanted proof from independent witnesses. And of course, they would not understand properly if witnesses spoke Hindi, Urdu or English. They always preferred independent proofs from independent sources in Bangla. They had some linguistic reservations in their minds. So, the Indo-Bangladesh exchanges of argument, sometimes cold and familiar and sometimes hot and angry, continued as a matter of course. 

India’s biggest proof problem was with the great confidence-building President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. He had an obsession for demanding proof of everything, anything. His habit of crying proof all the time had spread to his other military and civil colleagues in politics and power in Islamabad. His foreign minister Kasuri occurred in Mumbai and Srinagar and the whole world was shocked and condemned this calculated and cold blooded series of terror and murder. President Musharraf too was moved in his own way and offered to help inquire into the conspiracy and the identity of conspirators, if India provided proof that there was Pakistani involvement. 

It was rumoured that the Americans had real proofs and had provided Pakistan with proofs of their own and even a list of some 21 terrorists of Pakistani origin in this connection. But somehow Pakistan did not want to treat these proofs too seriously for they had come from their most favoured friend and the mentor in the campaign against global terrorism. After all what was such friendly exchange of such proofs between two friends. It happened every day and if nothing ever happened after the exchange that friends would naturally ignore it. After all they were close friends and global proofs were global and local were local. THIRD EYE had great sympathies for President Musharraf for his burden of proofs, which got heavier and heavier every day. For example, the President had not been able to convince himself that as many as four attempts had been made on his life by assailants who were said to have been of a combined civil-military origin. Only if there was enough proof to prove that terrorists and men in uniforms had started making common cause, not only against India, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Waziristan, Baltistan and so on and on. The President would have been too glad to take appropriate action. But proof? Where was it…? 

Why feel sorry for proof-less Parvez Musharraf only. There is no country where proof-mongers and proof-mongering are not flourishing in these days of prejudice. Hatred and emotional violence were being used as lethal weapons of politics. Politicians were ever accusing one another, of course wildly, without relent and demanding proof of the innocence of the accused. They shouted there were moles, spies, saboteurs and scamsters -- all in the ranks of their political opponents. The opponents should prove their innocence or quit the day. 

In this proof-less world, so many urgent things lie waiting. Nothing can be done to fight poverty, corruption, dishonesty, arrogance and AIDS, among other things, for sheer lack of proof. 

Well, well… Best things to do would be to pray every day to God Almighty “Our Father, Thou Art in Your Heavens, Give us this day, our daily proof.”