07-12-2007, 06:30 AM
<b>Lal fortress</b>
Posted online: Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
<i>State must impose its writ on those intent on subverting law and order. Musharraf did it. Can UPA? </i>
Wrangling will go on for a while over the manner in which Pervez Musharraf ordered the final assault on the radical clerics and militants defiantly lodged in Islamabadâs Lal Masjid. The political opposition has predictably made it a point to highlight the delay in taking action and demands to know why the mosque complex was allowed to be fortified in the first place. It is a valid point. It puts Musharraf on the spot for courting the acquiescence of radical elements to his rule. Musharrafâs detractors, however, miss the larger point. If his regime had indeed been â there is ample evidence for this â turning a blind eye to activities of Talibanised forces in the hope of political returns, those hopes should have evaporated with the action in Islamabad this week. To contain the consequences, his government will have no choice but to extend the writ of the state.
In New Delhi, this should serve as a cautionary tale for the UPA in its sustained refusal to take law and order threats seriously. On Tuesday, Maoists killed more than twenty security personnel in their stronghold in Chhattisgarhâs Dantewada district. This is not a stray incident. And to show the width of their operational capacity, they had struck less than a fortnight ago on consecutive days in Jharkhand and West Bengal, destroying police stations and railway tracks. In the three years the UPA has had a government at the Centre, there has been a wilful resistance to considering Naxal strikes as a law and order problem. Estimates with the government show that as many security personnel are lost to Naxal violence as to terrorist strikes. But the Centreâs response still echoes with its initial attribution of Naxal violence to social problems. Remember key Naxalite leaders were allowed to walk out of the ambit of police operations and come to peace talks, while carrying their guns. That farce in Andhra has extracted a terrible toll on the country.
<b>The Naxalitesâ literature and rhetoric make it abundantly clear that their main purpose is to wipe out the writ of the state in their areas of operation</b>. The Congress, with a long-term stake in Indiaâs political stability, must know that any political returns from averting action against Naxalites will impose massive costs at a later date. India canât have red fortresses impervious to the rule of law.
editor@expressindia.com
Posted online: Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
<i>State must impose its writ on those intent on subverting law and order. Musharraf did it. Can UPA? </i>
Wrangling will go on for a while over the manner in which Pervez Musharraf ordered the final assault on the radical clerics and militants defiantly lodged in Islamabadâs Lal Masjid. The political opposition has predictably made it a point to highlight the delay in taking action and demands to know why the mosque complex was allowed to be fortified in the first place. It is a valid point. It puts Musharraf on the spot for courting the acquiescence of radical elements to his rule. Musharrafâs detractors, however, miss the larger point. If his regime had indeed been â there is ample evidence for this â turning a blind eye to activities of Talibanised forces in the hope of political returns, those hopes should have evaporated with the action in Islamabad this week. To contain the consequences, his government will have no choice but to extend the writ of the state.
In New Delhi, this should serve as a cautionary tale for the UPA in its sustained refusal to take law and order threats seriously. On Tuesday, Maoists killed more than twenty security personnel in their stronghold in Chhattisgarhâs Dantewada district. This is not a stray incident. And to show the width of their operational capacity, they had struck less than a fortnight ago on consecutive days in Jharkhand and West Bengal, destroying police stations and railway tracks. In the three years the UPA has had a government at the Centre, there has been a wilful resistance to considering Naxal strikes as a law and order problem. Estimates with the government show that as many security personnel are lost to Naxal violence as to terrorist strikes. But the Centreâs response still echoes with its initial attribution of Naxal violence to social problems. Remember key Naxalite leaders were allowed to walk out of the ambit of police operations and come to peace talks, while carrying their guns. That farce in Andhra has extracted a terrible toll on the country.
<b>The Naxalitesâ literature and rhetoric make it abundantly clear that their main purpose is to wipe out the writ of the state in their areas of operation</b>. The Congress, with a long-term stake in Indiaâs political stability, must know that any political returns from averting action against Naxalites will impose massive costs at a later date. India canât have red fortresses impervious to the rule of law.
editor@expressindia.com