Only zero tolerance can end terror

Vaishakh Pournima

The view expressed in the article is of writer & need not be taken as HJS’s  views – Editor

By Swapan Dasgupta

The serial blasts in Jaipur on May 14 were apparently the 21st successful operation (outside Jammu & Kashmir) by radical Islamists against the people of India. The 70 or so people who died horrible deaths last Tuesday joined the 3,674 Indians who are known to have been killed by a galaxy of terrorists in the 50-month period from January 2004. The statistics, diligently collated by The Times of India, suggest that India is second only to Iraq in the number of people killed by terrorists. The "merchants of death" have never had it so good.

The story of Incredible India is truly remarkable. It would be difficult discovering too many societies where a Government tries to cover up its pathetic helplessness by projecting the organised killings of the aam aadmi –commuters on suburban trains, scientists attending seminars, housewives shopping for Diwali and devotees worshipping at temples — as karma and cruel fate. In normal democratic societies, the existence of well-organised terror networks would have prompted outrage. In India, it has prompted a curious response: A blend of capitulation and denial.

The capitulation has been shamefully brazen. In trying to dispel the assertion that terrorists don’t deserve human rights, the UPA Government has gone out of its way to assert that terror suspects shouldn’t suffer any discrimination. The architect of the Coimbatore bomb blasts, for example, turned his prison cell into a massage parlour before the authorities engineered his acquittal. The convicted perpetrator of the attack on Parliament idles away his time in prison with the full knowledge that the Government lacks the anatomical wherewithal to carry out the punishment awarded to him by courts.

For liberal India — UPA represents its most disfigured face — the important thing about terror is to deny its existence as far as possible. It has become almost a ritual for the Centre to greet every jihadi orgy with the assertion that we must not be provoked into enacting strong anti-terrorist legislation. For the English-language TV channels, the so-called "spirit of Mumbai" or the tale of Jaipur’s "resilience", is invariably contrasted with the savage response of Gujarat to the carnage in Godhra.

It’s one thing to invoke the gritty, stiff upper-lip approach as a byword for quiet determination. It’s another thing to believe, like the infamous Mohammed Shah, that Delhi is still a fair distance away, and declare an unending happy hour for terrorist marauders. To mindlessly repeat after every outrage that terrorists are "cowards" is to miss the point. The issue is not about the lack of personal integrity of the bombers. It’s about why the Centre has been emasculated by the terrorists.

It can hardly be the case that even someone as vacuously inept as Home Minister Shivraj Patil approves these attacks on what the Indian Mujahedeen email called the Kuffar-e-Hind (infidels of India). Like the inflation monster which threatens to eat up the Congress electorally in Karnataka, terrorists have alienated the UPA Government from large chunks of urban India. Yet, why is the Congress hellbent on courting unpopularity by persisting with its appeasement of terror?

After every terrorist atrocity, every religious head worth his name has invariably denounced the terrorists and prayed earnestly for peace. A massive conference was organised in Deoband some months ago to inform the terrorists that killing innocent civilians is theologically unsound. Therefore, if electoral support is what the UPA is after — a legitimate preoccupation in a democracy — why isn’t the Manmohan Singh Government hitting the terrorists hard, and where it hurts? Logically speaking, by adopting a robust anti-terror policy the Government could have clawed its way back on popularity charts.

Unfortunately, there is a striking mismatch between reality as projected by breathless TV anchors and the truth in real life. There has been mounting evidence to show that the bombers are not foreign disruptionists who merely "sneak" into India, carry out an operation and then disappear into their cubby holes in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The post-mortem of every terrorist outrage points to local networks of radical extremism that act as facilitators. The leadership of the Student’s Islamic Movement (they have dispensed with the "India" suffix) isn’t foreigners; they are people who can quite legitimately claim Indian passports.

India is confronted by home-grown, ideologically-driven terror. The Government doesn’t want to admit it. Nor does it plan to act against it for fear of unsettling people who vote en bloc. It persists with its hypocrisy and double-speak on the cynical belief that the Kuffar-e-Hind is incapable of responding in a united way.

No wonder there is growing liberal indignation at Rajasthan Government’s decision to deport illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. If people have entered India without valid papers, they deserve to be expelled — whether Bangladesh likes it or not. The compulsion is greater if it is established that Bangladeshi ghettos have served as sanctuaries for HUJI and other terror groups. Yet, just days after the outrage there is liberal clamour to keep many corners of Rajasthan forever Bangladeshi.

An effective anti-terror policy can be built on a combination of effective policing and social deterrence. That India needs a dedicated federal counter-terrorism body is undeniable. It is heartening that even the Congress has come around to this position. However, efficient policing and accurate Intelligence have to be complemented by all-round vigilance. A zero tolerance policy on terrorism implies creating an environment that discourages local support to bombers. All deterrence is based on fear of recrimination. Anti-terror strategies in India are hamstrung because support networks of terror enjoy political patronage. Our cities will become safer once the bombers and facilitators realise that every crime will be met by active intolerance.

Source: www.dailypioneer.com

Also See

1. Hindu Genocide in Kashmir
2. Achalpur Riots : Kashmir in Maharashtra