08-01-2006, 02:16 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Jihad's new targets </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
PM's silence is intriguing ---- Key aides of the Prime Minister are expected to be discrete and maintain a low profile. Not so National Security Adviser MK Narayanan who appears to be increasingly unmindful about the imprudence and impropriety of making public statements that convey the impression that India is a nation under jihadi siege with an indolent Government failing to rise to the occasion. On the face of it, Mr Narayanan's disclosure, made in the course of an interview to a 24x7 news channel, that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba has prepared an impressive hit-list of targets in India, including at least one nuclear plant, is an alarming admission by Government of the frightening scenario that we face as a nation. It would be facetious to dismiss the National Security Adviser's comments as either incorrect or exaggeration; after all, he is the repository of various intelligence inputs and presides over the national security establishment. If there were any doubts about his assertion, those have been removed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee who informed the Lok Sabha on Monday that the LeT is planning to carry out some strikes on critical infrastructure, military targets and religious places. This provides cause for concern; but, and more important, it also highlights a fact that the Congress and the UPA Government have so far steadfastly refused to admit: Jihadis have cranked up the ferocity of their attack on India. Of course, spectacular terror attacks over the past two years show that such denial need not be taken seriously, although it is amusing to note that even while the National Security Adviser and the Defence Minister were painting a grim scenario of a nuclear meltdown caused by a terror attack, the Minister of State for Home was furiously denying the possibility. Given the official admission, albeit late in the day, that for all its pandering to Islamists of various hues both at home and abroad and genuflecting at the altars of Hamas and Hizbullah, the 'secular' regime headed by the Congress has singularly failed in convincing jihadis to look elsewhere to promote their blood-soaked ideology. If India faced a threat from Islamist terrorism in the recent past, it now faces a serious, debilitating threat from jihad's army of fanatic killers.
It is anybody's guess as to how well prepared the Government and its agencies are to pre-empt a terrorist attack with disastrous consequences. If the Mumbai bombings of July 11 are any indication, all of India is vulnerable, notwithstanding Mr Mukherjee's assurance that "necessary steps are being taken to protect our vital installations and other high profile targets." It is surprising that the Prime Minister has chosen to maintain silence on his National Security Adviser's shocking disclosure, fielding Mr Mukherjee to answer questions raised by the Opposition. Is it because Mr Singh does not attach much importance to the information on the basis of which Mr Narayanan has made his dire prediction, backed by Mr Mukherjee's statement in Parliament? Or is it that like many other matters of state, the Prime Minister is uninformed about something so crucial? The nation deserves an answer because the lives of citizens are potentially imperilled. By electing not to speak when he was expected to, Mr Singh has let it be known that he doesn't care about the security of India and its more than a billion people.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
PM's silence is intriguing ---- Key aides of the Prime Minister are expected to be discrete and maintain a low profile. Not so National Security Adviser MK Narayanan who appears to be increasingly unmindful about the imprudence and impropriety of making public statements that convey the impression that India is a nation under jihadi siege with an indolent Government failing to rise to the occasion. On the face of it, Mr Narayanan's disclosure, made in the course of an interview to a 24x7 news channel, that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba has prepared an impressive hit-list of targets in India, including at least one nuclear plant, is an alarming admission by Government of the frightening scenario that we face as a nation. It would be facetious to dismiss the National Security Adviser's comments as either incorrect or exaggeration; after all, he is the repository of various intelligence inputs and presides over the national security establishment. If there were any doubts about his assertion, those have been removed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee who informed the Lok Sabha on Monday that the LeT is planning to carry out some strikes on critical infrastructure, military targets and religious places. This provides cause for concern; but, and more important, it also highlights a fact that the Congress and the UPA Government have so far steadfastly refused to admit: Jihadis have cranked up the ferocity of their attack on India. Of course, spectacular terror attacks over the past two years show that such denial need not be taken seriously, although it is amusing to note that even while the National Security Adviser and the Defence Minister were painting a grim scenario of a nuclear meltdown caused by a terror attack, the Minister of State for Home was furiously denying the possibility. Given the official admission, albeit late in the day, that for all its pandering to Islamists of various hues both at home and abroad and genuflecting at the altars of Hamas and Hizbullah, the 'secular' regime headed by the Congress has singularly failed in convincing jihadis to look elsewhere to promote their blood-soaked ideology. If India faced a threat from Islamist terrorism in the recent past, it now faces a serious, debilitating threat from jihad's army of fanatic killers.
It is anybody's guess as to how well prepared the Government and its agencies are to pre-empt a terrorist attack with disastrous consequences. If the Mumbai bombings of July 11 are any indication, all of India is vulnerable, notwithstanding Mr Mukherjee's assurance that "necessary steps are being taken to protect our vital installations and other high profile targets." It is surprising that the Prime Minister has chosen to maintain silence on his National Security Adviser's shocking disclosure, fielding Mr Mukherjee to answer questions raised by the Opposition. Is it because Mr Singh does not attach much importance to the information on the basis of which Mr Narayanan has made his dire prediction, backed by Mr Mukherjee's statement in Parliament? Or is it that like many other matters of state, the Prime Minister is uninformed about something so crucial? The nation deserves an answer because the lives of citizens are potentially imperilled. By electing not to speak when he was expected to, Mr Singh has let it be known that he doesn't care about the security of India and its more than a billion people.
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