Helpless India : The Young India

Ananth Venkatesh

Cities under attack in recent times. Circled in black are cities attacked in 2008. Click to enlarge.

[Synchronised serial Blasts in New Delhi on September 13.
20 synchronised bombs in Ahmedabad on July 26.
9 bomb blasts in Bangalore on July 25.
9 synchronised blasts in Jaipur on May 13.
All of these in the year 2008. ]

Terrorism has scourged India uncontrollably ever since the inception of anti-national militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the late 1980s. The ineffectual rejoinder of the Indian polity to terrorism has intensified the misery of the victims here. The ineffectual response stems from:

The inability to arrive at a feasible consensus on the issue of anti-terror laws
The incapacity to steadfastly enact appropriately harsh laws against terrorism.

Terrorism, abetted by the brazenly divisive communalism of some political outfits such as the Congress, the Left front, etc, has become such a common phenomenon in India that people have accepted it to be an immanent constituent of their lives.

Whether it is some confederates of the UPA Government such as RJD’s Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Yadav professing their respect and empathy for the outlawed SIMI or the Left Front succumbing to the Islamic fanatics’ demands on the issue of Taslima Nasreen’s expulsion or fear of adopting concrete anti-terror actions due to minority mollification, the Indian State has surrendered feebly to terrorist-extremist groups.

Writer Taslima Nasreen attacked by a crowd that included three elected political leaders. The Communist Part of India-Marxists (CPI-M) expelled Taslima from Bengal to appease such hardline detractors. They also refuse to support the ban on Student's Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a militant body, for fear of losing Muslim votes in the state.

The tolerance of the Indian nation has been examined mercilessly by not only the fundamentalists but also by the unresponsive political system, which has been divided on being confronted with the problem of terrorism.

The fecklessness of the federal Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, is evidenced by the disastrous track record of his tenure, when terror has proliferated effortlessly to copious corners of India. Victimised by terrorism in ‘peacetime’, as India has been more than any other nation, Indians are forced to listen to the predictably tiresome utterances of Shivraj Patil in the aftermath of every terroristic monstrosity. His inability to persuade the provincial Governments to embrace the idea of a central investigative agency to tackle terrorism has hurt India immensely.

The revocation by the UPA of POTA, a severe anti-terror legislation, on capturing power democratically in 2004, was an ill-advised move originating from adherence to a debauched version of secularism, a part of which argues that poverty-stricken and direly disadvantaged individuals choose the terroristic path. However, this argument is not credible since many of these terrorists are literate.

“Judging by Abdul Subhan Qureshi’s early CV he should be a poster boy of the new India: educated at a church school, he studied electronics and software before joining a high-tech firm in Bombay in 1996.

Instead, this is the man now being described as India’s Osama bin Laden.” (Source)

Funding for the intelligence agencies and other espionage bodies must be significantly increased. India has to wage a conflict against people who are determined to impose their intolerant perspective on secular India. Internationally, some harsh anti-terror measures have been enacted by legislatures of countries, which have not been devastated by terrorism as comprehensively as India.

Israel is a wonderful example that India can observe and emulate. The steadfast dedication with which Shin Bet and Mossad, the two premier Israeli spy agencies, have been nurtured and used by Israel to eradicate anti-Israel militants should serve as a lesson for Indian intelligence agencies, whose ineffectiveness has been exposed repeatedly due to a wretched lack of coordination.

Mossad is an anti-terror body in Israel. Israel and Palestine are often in the limelight for their attack on civilians. However, India could do well with their own version of anti-terror squads like Mossad.

India must not treat the American offer of assistance of investigating the origins of the Delhi blasts warily. A joint probe might be fruitful since many of the previous terrorist atrocities in India have not been solved by Indian agencies responsible for the maintenance of law and order. India is becoming an unsafe site to live in, which might have problematic economic repercussions. Investment by the private sector might decline due to fear over the safeness of India. Tourist inflow will definitely decrease and India, like neighbouring Pakistan, might have to encounter the refusals of overseas cricket teams to tour India.

Only single-mindedness in the mission of eliminating terrorism will ensure success for India. Sorrowfully, this commitment seems to be lacking, which is making India bleed.

Click to read the complete list of militant attacks on India

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The Young India

Helpless India

on September 18, 2008

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