They made an advertisement that went on for 59 hours. A bit long, bloody and terrible, our copywriters would say...but a hugely successful one at that.

As we wet the floors of CST, Taj and Leopold with warm candlewax and tears today, hundreds of teenagers from Karachi to Kandahar will line up to join jihad with pamphlets hailing the 26/11 attackers, gooseflesh of adventure on their arms, anger raging in their hearts like a bombed oil rig.

All the while, more cold money from Saudi and elsewhere will settle in the coffers of those who had issued the ad on November 26, 2008, which blazed across televisions, websites and newspapers in India and the world.

Show us you can deliver, and you're in business.

The business of terror runs on strong and simple capital: anger and helplessness. One takes the leap of faith readily when there is no rational handlebar to hold; no redressal for injustice, price rise, theft of resources or insult (real or imagined) to identity.

Religion, for instance, shines brightest where governments or justice systems are corrupt, tyrannical, sickly or entirely absent.

And then there's the lethal helplessness of not being able to put a finger on who we are or what we want to do, and angry refusal to accept that answers lie inside.

In the globalised world, with countries becoming corporations and every part of life invaded by business, an al Qaeda, Lashkar, Raj Thackeray or Narendra Modi bring to us what seem like ideals. Refreshingly un-commercialised, promising quick justice, empowering in an otherwise helpless existence.

But they are actually in business. Violence is their visiting card. Acts of terror is their advertisement. They have quarterly, half-yearly and annual profits. And unless people are shot in the head, taxis are burnt, shops smashed and looted, their investors won't put money in their ventures.

Look at the Shiv Sena. From the day Uddhav Thackeray took goons off the streets, started talking about development, stopped sounding hysterical about migrants and minorities, the party's doom has set in. It is nearly out of business now.

From the time BJP changed its catchline from Ayodhya to India Shining, it has never really recovered. Modi presided over a riot, and he has been rewarded with two terms in office.

Just as a shoemaker can't sell candy, al Qaeda can't sell sanity. Nobody will buy.

As we move a year away from the 26/11 gunshots, it might help to remember that it is not us versus them, it is about what we are buying.

Email: abhijit.majumder@mid-day.com.
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