12-05-2008, 06:35 PM
<b>Can UPA tackle jihadi mentality?</b>
By Balbir K. Punj
THE ENORMITY of last weekâs incidents in Mumbai, and the earlier bombings in several Indian cities, have exposed the ability of terror merchants to strike at civilian targets across the country at will. Every time these incidents happen there are set reactions from those in power. <b>This time, however, the ruling coalition at the Centre and in Mumbai has been forced into accepting their incompetence and insensitivity and they are trying to save themselves from peopleâs anger by making Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and R.R. Patil the scapegoats</b>.
One is reminded of the public rage after Indiaâs defeat in the war with China in 1962 when the defence minister, also <b>Jawaharlal Nehruâs blue-eyed boy, V.K. Krishna Menon, was made the target. </b>The pathetic state of Indiaâs armed forces that the war in 1962 exposed and the poor quality of its leadership had turned the searchlight on Jawaharlal Nehru himself. <b>Two generations later, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has saved her own partyâs government by letting her favourite puppet in the home ministry take the blame for a series of security lapses, culminating in the 26/11 incident</b>.
Insensitivity to the tragedy of civilian and military losses was writ large on the behaviour of this generationâs Krishna Menons. <b>Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh took a âfilmyâ tour around the Taj Mahal Hotel, his deputy R.R. Patil dismissed the attacks as a small incidents that often happen in large cities, and the Union home minister was his usual deadpan n self, unable to put the attacks in perspective. But in a class by himself was the Left leader and Kerala chief minister V.S. Achutananandan when he claimed that but for the NSG Major who died leading the commando team, âeven a dogâ would not have visited the Unnikrishnan house in Bangalore.</b>
<b>Public anger is fed by the realisation that the government at the Centre has no strategy to tackle the pervasive threat of Islamic fascism. The roots of Islamic fascism are deep and the terrorism that it feeds is a complex phenomenon as one of Americaâs leading academics, Zbigniew Brezezinski, also national security adviser to President Carter, has pointed out.</b> In our case, the complexity is enhanced by the context. Pakistan is the original inspirer and instigator of jihadi terror, not so much the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The latter was a foster child of Pakistanâs changing regimes, both civilian and military, because terrorism paid political dividends for Pakistanâs rulers. The theory of defeating India by inflicting a âthousand cutsâ on its body was the central theme of Pakistanâs policy for the last two decades.
Even though terror groups have begun to bite the very hands that fed them, the new civilian regime in Pakistan can hardly afford to dismantle their camps and block their funds for fear of a fundamentalist backlash and Pakistani peopleâs adverse reaction. After all, terror groups like the LeT have umbilical links with the Pakistani Army. That connection was exposed when the civilian government had to withdraw its proclaimed intention of bringing the ISI under civilian control. And it was underlined when Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had to backtrack on his assurance to send the ISI chief to India in the wake of 26/11 for a joint consultation.
India is on Pakistan establishmentâs radar continually despite the fine words of President Asif Zardari in Delhi recently. The aggressive Pakistani military continues to be a force in Pakistani politics despite the change of regime from military dictatorship to elected civilian rule. And the mindset of the younger generation in Pakistan, created by decades of fundamentalist education, cannot be wiped out despite all the goodwill that has surfaced towards India in the last few months.
It has now been revealed that for several years the Indian government was aware of how vulnerable the Indian coast was to terrorist attacks. But if you ask the government what it did, the answer is a big âzeroâ. <b>The incompetence of this government is brought out by the fact that it took several hours to transport NSG commandos from Delhi to Mumbai because a plane to carry them was not available.</b>
<b>The level of ineptitude in the Manmohan Singh government is so blatant that despite the intercepts by RAW on the modalities of a sea route attack, no action was taken by the guardians of our coast. Even after the vessel carrying the terrorists was located, the Navy let it off when the occupants flashed fake identity cards.</b> Such revelations are piling up and the Manmohan Singh government is taking shelter behind another set of assurances and the elimination of a few heads.
In the wake of the 26/11 incidents and governmentâs abject failure in anticipating them, and inaction even after getting warnings from its own agencies, analysts have quoted from the bipartisan approach that characterises US foreign policy initiatives. Not only the current administration in Washington, but the incoming administration too has rushed to make common cause with India.
But bipartisan approach in India is difficult so long as the Central government is going to deal with jihadi terror wearing velvet gloves. Railway minister Lalu Yadav wanted the then home minister Shivraj Patil to resign. <b>But what about Mr Yadav himself who went to commiserate with Simi activistsâ families when several activists from Azamgarh were found involved in serial bombings? Congress minister Kapil Sibal too joined SPâs Amar Singh to demand judicial probe into the Batla House encounter where a brave police officer laid down his life while trying to apprehend terrorists. The Congress, the SP, the Left and others who collectively prop up this government have been apologists for the very people who were found by our agencies to be working in tandem with LeT and Bangladeshâs Huji.</b>
People who are demonstrating against the political class must ponder if it is enough to demand just stern steps against terror. <b>It is equally necessary for our government to be willing to confront the âjihadi mentalityâ on the strength of which terrorists from outside and inside build their âdestruction capsulesâ.</b>
<i>Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com</i>
By Balbir K. Punj
THE ENORMITY of last weekâs incidents in Mumbai, and the earlier bombings in several Indian cities, have exposed the ability of terror merchants to strike at civilian targets across the country at will. Every time these incidents happen there are set reactions from those in power. <b>This time, however, the ruling coalition at the Centre and in Mumbai has been forced into accepting their incompetence and insensitivity and they are trying to save themselves from peopleâs anger by making Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and R.R. Patil the scapegoats</b>.
One is reminded of the public rage after Indiaâs defeat in the war with China in 1962 when the defence minister, also <b>Jawaharlal Nehruâs blue-eyed boy, V.K. Krishna Menon, was made the target. </b>The pathetic state of Indiaâs armed forces that the war in 1962 exposed and the poor quality of its leadership had turned the searchlight on Jawaharlal Nehru himself. <b>Two generations later, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has saved her own partyâs government by letting her favourite puppet in the home ministry take the blame for a series of security lapses, culminating in the 26/11 incident</b>.
Insensitivity to the tragedy of civilian and military losses was writ large on the behaviour of this generationâs Krishna Menons. <b>Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh took a âfilmyâ tour around the Taj Mahal Hotel, his deputy R.R. Patil dismissed the attacks as a small incidents that often happen in large cities, and the Union home minister was his usual deadpan n self, unable to put the attacks in perspective. But in a class by himself was the Left leader and Kerala chief minister V.S. Achutananandan when he claimed that but for the NSG Major who died leading the commando team, âeven a dogâ would not have visited the Unnikrishnan house in Bangalore.</b>
<b>Public anger is fed by the realisation that the government at the Centre has no strategy to tackle the pervasive threat of Islamic fascism. The roots of Islamic fascism are deep and the terrorism that it feeds is a complex phenomenon as one of Americaâs leading academics, Zbigniew Brezezinski, also national security adviser to President Carter, has pointed out.</b> In our case, the complexity is enhanced by the context. Pakistan is the original inspirer and instigator of jihadi terror, not so much the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The latter was a foster child of Pakistanâs changing regimes, both civilian and military, because terrorism paid political dividends for Pakistanâs rulers. The theory of defeating India by inflicting a âthousand cutsâ on its body was the central theme of Pakistanâs policy for the last two decades.
Even though terror groups have begun to bite the very hands that fed them, the new civilian regime in Pakistan can hardly afford to dismantle their camps and block their funds for fear of a fundamentalist backlash and Pakistani peopleâs adverse reaction. After all, terror groups like the LeT have umbilical links with the Pakistani Army. That connection was exposed when the civilian government had to withdraw its proclaimed intention of bringing the ISI under civilian control. And it was underlined when Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had to backtrack on his assurance to send the ISI chief to India in the wake of 26/11 for a joint consultation.
India is on Pakistan establishmentâs radar continually despite the fine words of President Asif Zardari in Delhi recently. The aggressive Pakistani military continues to be a force in Pakistani politics despite the change of regime from military dictatorship to elected civilian rule. And the mindset of the younger generation in Pakistan, created by decades of fundamentalist education, cannot be wiped out despite all the goodwill that has surfaced towards India in the last few months.
It has now been revealed that for several years the Indian government was aware of how vulnerable the Indian coast was to terrorist attacks. But if you ask the government what it did, the answer is a big âzeroâ. <b>The incompetence of this government is brought out by the fact that it took several hours to transport NSG commandos from Delhi to Mumbai because a plane to carry them was not available.</b>
<b>The level of ineptitude in the Manmohan Singh government is so blatant that despite the intercepts by RAW on the modalities of a sea route attack, no action was taken by the guardians of our coast. Even after the vessel carrying the terrorists was located, the Navy let it off when the occupants flashed fake identity cards.</b> Such revelations are piling up and the Manmohan Singh government is taking shelter behind another set of assurances and the elimination of a few heads.
In the wake of the 26/11 incidents and governmentâs abject failure in anticipating them, and inaction even after getting warnings from its own agencies, analysts have quoted from the bipartisan approach that characterises US foreign policy initiatives. Not only the current administration in Washington, but the incoming administration too has rushed to make common cause with India.
But bipartisan approach in India is difficult so long as the Central government is going to deal with jihadi terror wearing velvet gloves. Railway minister Lalu Yadav wanted the then home minister Shivraj Patil to resign. <b>But what about Mr Yadav himself who went to commiserate with Simi activistsâ families when several activists from Azamgarh were found involved in serial bombings? Congress minister Kapil Sibal too joined SPâs Amar Singh to demand judicial probe into the Batla House encounter where a brave police officer laid down his life while trying to apprehend terrorists. The Congress, the SP, the Left and others who collectively prop up this government have been apologists for the very people who were found by our agencies to be working in tandem with LeT and Bangladeshâs Huji.</b>
People who are demonstrating against the political class must ponder if it is enough to demand just stern steps against terror. <b>It is equally necessary for our government to be willing to confront the âjihadi mentalityâ on the strength of which terrorists from outside and inside build their âdestruction capsulesâ.</b>
<i>Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com</i>