12-25-2007, 12:19 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Flashing V, iron hand</b>
This is not to say that all is hunky-dory with Gujarat under Modi, but only to point that the Congress-led UPA government can ill-afford to ignore the political dimension of the internal security issue. The internal security meeting in the Capital last week clearly showed that nearly all state chief ministers wanted anti-terror law sans the draconian provisions of the now repealed Pota, as they made it very clear that their states were ill-equipped to handle terror. However, the UPA governmentâs record in matters of national security leaves much to be desired. Given its sensitivity to vote banks, the present government not only refused to develop new tools to fight terror but also has made enforcement agencies toothless by repealing Pota and putting the recommendations of the Justice V.S. Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System on the back burner.
The fact is that the current internal security scenario in the country is rather grave, with Naxalites on the rampage and terrorists striking at will every two to three months. Even eight years after the Kandahar episode, the chief hijacker, Athar Ibrahim, brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar, is actively involved in targeting India. The internal security agencies have intercepted web chats between the Pakistan-trained Munawar, alias Okasa, who was the leader of three JeM militants arrested by the UP police on November 16, and Rawalpindi-based Ibrahim, on the selection of VVIP targets in India. But then the UPA internal security managers love playing politics with terror. Otherwise, how can one explain the premature exposure of the three JeM militants to the public and media without Munawar, the Muzaffarnagar-born leader of the Jaish terror module, having been nabbed? This question obviously was not on top of the mind for the UPA establishment but their grouse was that Rahul Gandhiâs name was unnecessarily dragged into the entire issue by the UP government. And Mayawati apparently was unhappy that Rahul Gandhi, who was allegedly the target of these JeM militants, got some undeserved publicity.
Although the internal security establishment is rather clueless on which group conducted the last serial blasts in UP courts, little effort has been made to go beyond the usual suspects of HUJI, Jaish or Lashkar-e-Toiba groups.<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> Not one major terror strike since June 2005 has been completely solved by the internal security agencies, yet the operational head, inexplicably, has been given a prized posting abroad. While there is mounting evidence that critical answers to all these terror strikes lie between Ghaziabad and Bijnore, the government is still to summon the courage to take action, given the political sensitivities involved. </span>
Modiâs victory shows that people want a strong ruler who is proactive and has the courage to take the fight to the terrorist camp. Today, Indian entrepreneurs and people at large do not need government support in the form of licences or quotas. They just want the government to provide a terror-free or violence-free environment, so that they can get on with their job. Like it or lump it, Modi was perceived by the majority of Gujaratis to have provided just such an environment.
With 2009 general election only 14 months away, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress Party must realise that national security is very prominent on the radar of the electorate and that its own managers have increasingly become a liability. Shivraj Patil may be the best home minister that India ever had as far as 10 Janpath is concerned, but the âconsensus manâ just does not inspire confidence among his own bureaucracy and paramilitary chiefs. <b>National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had the gumption to warn Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states about an impending Al-Qaida strike on their oil installations, but still does not know who bombed the Makkah and Malegaon masjids. He gives chits of credibility to a beleaguered Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan even before the Americans, but negates any initiative that his prime minister wants to take on either Kashmir or Siachen. To add to that, interventions by the Centreâs interlocutors on Kashmir are kept hanging. It is said that this window of opportunity could be used by the prime minister when the time comes. A similar indecision marks dealings with insurgents in the Northeast.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is not to say that all is hunky-dory with Gujarat under Modi, but only to point that the Congress-led UPA government can ill-afford to ignore the political dimension of the internal security issue. The internal security meeting in the Capital last week clearly showed that nearly all state chief ministers wanted anti-terror law sans the draconian provisions of the now repealed Pota, as they made it very clear that their states were ill-equipped to handle terror. However, the UPA governmentâs record in matters of national security leaves much to be desired. Given its sensitivity to vote banks, the present government not only refused to develop new tools to fight terror but also has made enforcement agencies toothless by repealing Pota and putting the recommendations of the Justice V.S. Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System on the back burner.
The fact is that the current internal security scenario in the country is rather grave, with Naxalites on the rampage and terrorists striking at will every two to three months. Even eight years after the Kandahar episode, the chief hijacker, Athar Ibrahim, brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar, is actively involved in targeting India. The internal security agencies have intercepted web chats between the Pakistan-trained Munawar, alias Okasa, who was the leader of three JeM militants arrested by the UP police on November 16, and Rawalpindi-based Ibrahim, on the selection of VVIP targets in India. But then the UPA internal security managers love playing politics with terror. Otherwise, how can one explain the premature exposure of the three JeM militants to the public and media without Munawar, the Muzaffarnagar-born leader of the Jaish terror module, having been nabbed? This question obviously was not on top of the mind for the UPA establishment but their grouse was that Rahul Gandhiâs name was unnecessarily dragged into the entire issue by the UP government. And Mayawati apparently was unhappy that Rahul Gandhi, who was allegedly the target of these JeM militants, got some undeserved publicity.
Although the internal security establishment is rather clueless on which group conducted the last serial blasts in UP courts, little effort has been made to go beyond the usual suspects of HUJI, Jaish or Lashkar-e-Toiba groups.<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> Not one major terror strike since June 2005 has been completely solved by the internal security agencies, yet the operational head, inexplicably, has been given a prized posting abroad. While there is mounting evidence that critical answers to all these terror strikes lie between Ghaziabad and Bijnore, the government is still to summon the courage to take action, given the political sensitivities involved. </span>
Modiâs victory shows that people want a strong ruler who is proactive and has the courage to take the fight to the terrorist camp. Today, Indian entrepreneurs and people at large do not need government support in the form of licences or quotas. They just want the government to provide a terror-free or violence-free environment, so that they can get on with their job. Like it or lump it, Modi was perceived by the majority of Gujaratis to have provided just such an environment.
With 2009 general election only 14 months away, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress Party must realise that national security is very prominent on the radar of the electorate and that its own managers have increasingly become a liability. Shivraj Patil may be the best home minister that India ever had as far as 10 Janpath is concerned, but the âconsensus manâ just does not inspire confidence among his own bureaucracy and paramilitary chiefs. <b>National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had the gumption to warn Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states about an impending Al-Qaida strike on their oil installations, but still does not know who bombed the Makkah and Malegaon masjids. He gives chits of credibility to a beleaguered Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan even before the Americans, but negates any initiative that his prime minister wants to take on either Kashmir or Siachen. To add to that, interventions by the Centreâs interlocutors on Kashmir are kept hanging. It is said that this window of opportunity could be used by the prime minister when the time comes. A similar indecision marks dealings with insurgents in the Northeast.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->