12-19-2008, 07:27 AM
Lok Sabha Debate on Mumbai Terror - LK Advani's Speech
I join each and everybody in this august House to pay condolences to all those innocent civilians, both Indians and foreigners, who lost their lives in these attacks. I join all of you also in paying our grateful homage to the security personnel who were martyred in these attacks. The names of Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Sandeep Unnikrishnan have now become household names. But there are also other brave policemen who risked their lives in confronting the terrorists, and the nation is grateful to them for having nabbed at least one of those terrorists alive.
***A nation's character is tested in times of crises like this one. And I must say that the security personnel and civilians who confronted the terrorists have shown what the true character of India is.
***After the battle was over and all the security personnel were boarding the buses in front of Taj Mahal Hotel, an ordinary jawan was asked by the reporter of a TV channel. "How do you feel now?" And the jawan answered, matter-of-factly, "Hamare liye kuch bhi mushkil nahin hai."These words of the Army jawan - "Hamare liye kuch bhi mushkil nahin hai" - should become the motto of the nation in our war against terrorism, and indeed in all our other endeavours in nation-building.
***The draft of the Resolution to be moved in the House, has taken note of the fact that the terrorist attacks are not isolated incidents limited to Mumbai. It has mentioned "the acts of terror committed in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and other places in India."
Frankly, I was disappointed to find that the near-simultaneous serial bomb blasts in Guwahati and other places in Assam in October this year are not mentioned in the draft resolution. This is a serious lapse. By any reckoning, both the scale and nature of what took place in Assam are a grim reminder of a very dangerous situation that has developed in this sensitive and strategically located state of India.***
India is united in the War on Terror
What I wish to state right at the beginning is that my Party, the BJP, and our Alliance, the NDA, will wholeheartedly support the passage of whatever emerges as the final draft of the resolution after incorporating useful suggestions from Honourable Members.I wish to state this very emphatically that we would like this Resolution to communicate, to all the people of India as well as to the entire international community ¾ and especially to the enemies of India who have waged this War of Terror against our nation ¾ the solid unity of this House, cutting across party lines. This Resolution should convey the unshakeable resolve of the Indian Parliament and Indian People that, in this War against Terror, we stand together, and not apart.
***This point is important because it is not simply about passing a Parliament Resolution. In times to come, our country may be required to take some decisive step if the rulers in Pakistan do not pay heed to the message contained in this Resolution. When this decisive step will be taken, how it will be taken and what its nature should be ¾ these are not questions to be debated today. But I WISH TO ASSURE THE NATION THAT THE BJP AND THE NDA WILL STAND TOGETHER WITH THE GOVERNMENT IF THE MOMENT ARRIVES FOR TAKING A DIFFERENT KIND OF ACTION AGAINST THE PERPETRATORS AND PATRONS OF THESE HEINOUS ACTS OF TERROR.
***Let me quote here from a statement issued by the Core Committee of the BJP on 4th December. "The four day long terrorist attack on Mumbai, India's commercial capital is a challenge that must be rebutted fully, visibly and tellingly. Given that Pakistan has totally rejected all requests of the Government, we expect the Government is assessing the stern steps that are required to ensure that Pakistan desists from pursuing jihadi terrorism.
As a nationalist party, the BJP shall stand by the government in the effective steps it takes in this regard."Let it be clearly understood by the enemies of India that in this War against Terror, THE GOVERNMENT AND THE OPPOSITION ARE UNITED; ALL CASTES AND COMMUNITIES ARE UNITED; ALL STATES ARE UNITED; ALL OF INDIA IS UNITED.
***There is not a shadow of doubt that this was yet another instance of export of terror from Pakistan. Pakistan has been exporting terror into India for the past nearly three decades. There is now a mountain of evidence to show Pakistan's complicity in the terrorist activity in India ¾ first in Punjab, then in Jammu & Kashmir and later all over the country. Yet, when confronted with hard evidence, the successive rulers in Pakistan have resorted to denial, dodging, rationalizing, sometimes justifying, and almost always seeking protection behind falsehoods.
***In the recent terror attacks on Mumbai, what we have seen is not just a thumb impression of Pakistan but a SIGNATURE IN BIG BOLD LETTERS. The terrorists who were involved in the marine attack came from Karachi. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted that "non-state actors" from his country were involved in the attack. This half-admission from none other than the head of state in Pakistan is extraordinary in many respects. If non-state actors operating from the soil of Pakistan are involved, what is the state of Pakistan doing? What is preventing it from acting against these actors? Or is the whole thing nothing but play-acting to fool India and the international community?
***But there appears to be a new pattern in the way the ISI operates. I would like to quote here from an article in The Pioneer of 29th November 2008, in which Wilson John, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, writes as follows:"There is evidence of a cabal within the ISI, which noted Pakistani scholar Ahmed Rashid calls 'an ISI within ISI'. This body may be primarily responsible for formulating and executing the Pakistani State's jihadi strategy in Afghanistan and India, while giving the cover of deniability to the Army and civilian establishment."
***Wilson John writes further: (This is from a mail he sent me last night and forms part of his forthcoming book)"One myth that seems to be gaining ground in the western world is that this group is a `renegade` group within ISI and is not in control of the Army. Nothing could be more misleading and dangerous. When President Musharraf came under pressure from India and the western world to `turn the tap off` on terrorism, ISI's operations were quietly and effectively taken over by a group of retired officers, many of whom were recruited as consultants. This allowed the Pakistan government a clever but quite effective excuse to deny its involvement in the terrorist attacks launched against India."
***Howsoever hard Pakistan's rulers might try to pretend that the ISI has nothing to do with terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, the evidence to the contrary is compelling. A report in Washington Post on 5th December 2008 mentions that none other than Pakistan's current ambassador in the United States, Husain Haqqani, wrote in 2005, while he was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: "The most significant jihadi group of is Lashkar-e-Taiba which is backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services." ***
What is the goal of terrorists?
It is important for us to know - and for the entire world to know - who has been carrying out these terror attacks, it is equally important that we know why they are being carried out. We are sometimes shy of discussing the ideology and goal of the terrorist campaign from Pakistan. However, without a clear understanding of this aspect, our strategy to counter this menace will not be effective. After all, for some people to agree to become suicide attackers, there must be a very strong motivation that is rooted in extraordinary zeal. And this is where it is highly disturbing to note that that there are forces in Pakistan who are unrelenting in their hatred for India and who misuse the name of Islam to whip up the anti-India sentiment.
***Lashkar-e-Taiba is quite explicit about why it wants to talk to India in the language of force. In a pamphlet titled "Why we are waging jihad", it states that its ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the state of Jammu & Kashmir. It also affirms that its agenda includes "the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India". Lashkar-e-Taiba declares India, USA and Israel as "existential enemies of Islam". It is therefore not surprising that, in their attacks in Mumbai, the terrorists from Pakistan specifically targeted the Jews living in Nariman House.***
Real target of terrorists' attack: IDEA OF INDIA
Two things become very clear from the ideological motive behind the terror campaign against India.
Firstly, it is wrong on anybody's part to think that Kashmir is the root cause of Pak-supported terrorism. Secondly, the agenda of organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba poses a potent threat to the very Civilisational Ethos of India. Since time immemorial, India has welcomed every faith that has come to our land. And that includes Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism. India has always held all faiths to be true, has respected all faiths, and never discriminated people on the basis of their faith. Therefore, what we see in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and previously in other places is an attack on our tradition of tolerance and peaceful co-existence amongst various faiths.
***This however does not mean that India's response to the threat of terrorism inspired by religious extremism is targeted against any particular religion or community. I would like to reiterate here what I have often said in the recent past ¾ namely, that terrorism has no religion and also that no faith or community should be stigmatized for the criminal acts of a few individuals or groups.As a matter of fact, the expression of Indian Muslims' anger over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai is a highly significant development.
Recently, a large congregation of Muslim clerics gathered in Hyderabad under the aegis of Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind and passed a resolution against terrorism. This deserves to be welcomed.
***After the mayhem in Mumbai, M.J. Akbar, an eminent journalist and writer, and a former Member of this House, wrote in Toronto Star:"I am an Indian and a Muslim and proud to be both. Like any Indian, today I am angry, frustrated and depressed. I am angry at the manic dogs of war who have invaded Mumbai." Akbar also wrote something else which this House must take note of:"I am frustrated by the impotence of my government in Mumbai and Delhi, tone-deaf to the anguish of my fellow citizens. And I am depressed at the damage being done to the Idea of India."***
Colossal failure of governance
Today the feeling of anger and anguish among the people is palpable. Why are the people angry? Some people have tried to direct this anger against the political class as a whole, but, as more and more facts are reported in the media, the fact cannot be denied that the people are demanding answers from the rulers in New Delhi and Mumbai.The UPA Government at the Centre and the Congress-NCP Government in Maharashtra cannot shirk accountability, nor can they pretend that they have done all that is necessary by way of accountability by getting the Union Home Minister, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra to resign.
***Many people are asking: Why have no heads rolled in the top echelons of bureaucracy? There is a survey in today Times of India that shows that over 40% of the respondents have held the Prime Minister accountable. After all, what the country has come to know in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks is not just INTELLIGENCE FAILURE but GOVERNANCE FAILURE ON A COLOSSAL SCALE.
The Opposition is not making an issue of prime ministerial responsibility because his government is now at the fag end of its five-year term. I am sure the people will give their verdict when parliamentary elections are held in early 2009.***
Questions the Government must answer
In today's debate, however, the government has a responsibility to answer many questions about the total collapse of intelligence coordination between various agencies and also the utter failure of the political leadership to strengthen the internal security apparatus.
And I would like the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to answer these questions:
1) My colleague Shri Arun Shourie, in an article in the Indian Express on 1st December 2008, has given excerpt after excerpt from the speeches of the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, former Home Minister, and National Security Advisor, all of whom seemed to be aware of an imminent terrorist attack through the sea route.
My question to the Prime Minister and his colleagues is this: "To whom were your advice and warnings directed? Are you here to govern or to tender advice?"
2) In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, various agencies started saying that the intelligence they had was not specific. However, in the days that have followed, there is clear indication that fairly specific information was available that a marine attack on Mumbai was in the offing.
I would like to know from the Government:
a) What intelligence did the Coast Guard and the Navy have on Al-Hussaini, the Pakistani ship that carried the LeT terrorists from Karachi?
b) The Coast Guard had faxed a very specific alert to the BSF on the arrival of the Lashkar ship six days before the attack. Why was this alert not acted upon?
c) Why was there a delay of many hours in the arrival of the NSG commandos in Mumbai?
d) What time did the Crisis Management Group meet in New Delhi?
e) As reported in the latest issue of Outlook magazine, is it true that on November 26, when terrorists struck Mumbai, the national security advisor was at a party thrown by a Congress MP from Bihar at his residence and that he left around 11.20 pm, a full two hours after the attack had begun?
f) Why are there persistent reports of dissatisfaction in the ranks of IB and RAW, and also about the lack of coordination between the two?
3) On a more long-term policy and implementation level, I would like to know from the Government the action taken on a whole host of recommendations made by the four Task Forces on Internal Security, which were set up in pursuance of the direction given by the Kargil Review Committee? These were the most comprehensive recommendations since Independence for the overhaul of India's internal security apparatus. The implementation of these recommendations had begun during the NDA rule. I would like to know how this was followed up.
4) Post 26/11, the Government has given Pakistan a list of 20 fugitives, including Dawood Ibrahim, to be handed over to India. I would like to know what efforts were made by the Government of India in this direction in the past five years? Or is it the first time in five years that the issue of Dawood Ibrahim was raised with Pakistan?***
Amendments in the Resolution
The draft Resolution needs to be amended to better reflect the mood of the nation and the requirements of a resolute struggle against Pak-supported terrorism. Hence, I would like the following points to be included in the Resolution.
1) India shall take its diplomatic, political and operational efforts in the war against Pak-supported terrorism to its logical conclusion by insisting that Pakistan fully and irreversibly dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism built on its soil and being operated jointly by state and non-state actors, and further that Pakistan abide by the letter and spirit of the Joint Statement issued in January 2004 after the meeting between Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf.
2) The Government shall promptly abide by the judgements of the judiciary in respect of the past acts of terrorism such as the attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 and also the Supreme Court's directive, after the annulment of the IMDT Act, on stopping the influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
3) The Government shall constitute a Commission of Inquiry, headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, to go into all aspects of the intelligence and governance failures that contributed to the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, and fix individual and institutional responsibility for the same.
4) The Government shall quickly initiate all necessary steps to strengthen the internal security apparatus in its totality by implementing the recommendations of the various task forces and committees.
5) The Government shall initiate necessary steps to enact in the current session of Parliament a stringent law against terrorism as recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission.
6) The Government shall immediately recommend to the President to give her consent to the pending legislations against organized crime from various state legislatures on a non-discriminatory basis.
I join each and everybody in this august House to pay condolences to all those innocent civilians, both Indians and foreigners, who lost their lives in these attacks. I join all of you also in paying our grateful homage to the security personnel who were martyred in these attacks. The names of Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Sandeep Unnikrishnan have now become household names. But there are also other brave policemen who risked their lives in confronting the terrorists, and the nation is grateful to them for having nabbed at least one of those terrorists alive.
***A nation's character is tested in times of crises like this one. And I must say that the security personnel and civilians who confronted the terrorists have shown what the true character of India is.
***After the battle was over and all the security personnel were boarding the buses in front of Taj Mahal Hotel, an ordinary jawan was asked by the reporter of a TV channel. "How do you feel now?" And the jawan answered, matter-of-factly, "Hamare liye kuch bhi mushkil nahin hai."These words of the Army jawan - "Hamare liye kuch bhi mushkil nahin hai" - should become the motto of the nation in our war against terrorism, and indeed in all our other endeavours in nation-building.
***The draft of the Resolution to be moved in the House, has taken note of the fact that the terrorist attacks are not isolated incidents limited to Mumbai. It has mentioned "the acts of terror committed in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and other places in India."
Frankly, I was disappointed to find that the near-simultaneous serial bomb blasts in Guwahati and other places in Assam in October this year are not mentioned in the draft resolution. This is a serious lapse. By any reckoning, both the scale and nature of what took place in Assam are a grim reminder of a very dangerous situation that has developed in this sensitive and strategically located state of India.***
India is united in the War on Terror
What I wish to state right at the beginning is that my Party, the BJP, and our Alliance, the NDA, will wholeheartedly support the passage of whatever emerges as the final draft of the resolution after incorporating useful suggestions from Honourable Members.I wish to state this very emphatically that we would like this Resolution to communicate, to all the people of India as well as to the entire international community ¾ and especially to the enemies of India who have waged this War of Terror against our nation ¾ the solid unity of this House, cutting across party lines. This Resolution should convey the unshakeable resolve of the Indian Parliament and Indian People that, in this War against Terror, we stand together, and not apart.
***This point is important because it is not simply about passing a Parliament Resolution. In times to come, our country may be required to take some decisive step if the rulers in Pakistan do not pay heed to the message contained in this Resolution. When this decisive step will be taken, how it will be taken and what its nature should be ¾ these are not questions to be debated today. But I WISH TO ASSURE THE NATION THAT THE BJP AND THE NDA WILL STAND TOGETHER WITH THE GOVERNMENT IF THE MOMENT ARRIVES FOR TAKING A DIFFERENT KIND OF ACTION AGAINST THE PERPETRATORS AND PATRONS OF THESE HEINOUS ACTS OF TERROR.
***Let me quote here from a statement issued by the Core Committee of the BJP on 4th December. "The four day long terrorist attack on Mumbai, India's commercial capital is a challenge that must be rebutted fully, visibly and tellingly. Given that Pakistan has totally rejected all requests of the Government, we expect the Government is assessing the stern steps that are required to ensure that Pakistan desists from pursuing jihadi terrorism.
As a nationalist party, the BJP shall stand by the government in the effective steps it takes in this regard."Let it be clearly understood by the enemies of India that in this War against Terror, THE GOVERNMENT AND THE OPPOSITION ARE UNITED; ALL CASTES AND COMMUNITIES ARE UNITED; ALL STATES ARE UNITED; ALL OF INDIA IS UNITED.
***There is not a shadow of doubt that this was yet another instance of export of terror from Pakistan. Pakistan has been exporting terror into India for the past nearly three decades. There is now a mountain of evidence to show Pakistan's complicity in the terrorist activity in India ¾ first in Punjab, then in Jammu & Kashmir and later all over the country. Yet, when confronted with hard evidence, the successive rulers in Pakistan have resorted to denial, dodging, rationalizing, sometimes justifying, and almost always seeking protection behind falsehoods.
***In the recent terror attacks on Mumbai, what we have seen is not just a thumb impression of Pakistan but a SIGNATURE IN BIG BOLD LETTERS. The terrorists who were involved in the marine attack came from Karachi. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted that "non-state actors" from his country were involved in the attack. This half-admission from none other than the head of state in Pakistan is extraordinary in many respects. If non-state actors operating from the soil of Pakistan are involved, what is the state of Pakistan doing? What is preventing it from acting against these actors? Or is the whole thing nothing but play-acting to fool India and the international community?
***But there appears to be a new pattern in the way the ISI operates. I would like to quote here from an article in The Pioneer of 29th November 2008, in which Wilson John, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, writes as follows:"There is evidence of a cabal within the ISI, which noted Pakistani scholar Ahmed Rashid calls 'an ISI within ISI'. This body may be primarily responsible for formulating and executing the Pakistani State's jihadi strategy in Afghanistan and India, while giving the cover of deniability to the Army and civilian establishment."
***Wilson John writes further: (This is from a mail he sent me last night and forms part of his forthcoming book)"One myth that seems to be gaining ground in the western world is that this group is a `renegade` group within ISI and is not in control of the Army. Nothing could be more misleading and dangerous. When President Musharraf came under pressure from India and the western world to `turn the tap off` on terrorism, ISI's operations were quietly and effectively taken over by a group of retired officers, many of whom were recruited as consultants. This allowed the Pakistan government a clever but quite effective excuse to deny its involvement in the terrorist attacks launched against India."
***Howsoever hard Pakistan's rulers might try to pretend that the ISI has nothing to do with terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, the evidence to the contrary is compelling. A report in Washington Post on 5th December 2008 mentions that none other than Pakistan's current ambassador in the United States, Husain Haqqani, wrote in 2005, while he was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: "The most significant jihadi group of is Lashkar-e-Taiba which is backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services." ***
What is the goal of terrorists?
It is important for us to know - and for the entire world to know - who has been carrying out these terror attacks, it is equally important that we know why they are being carried out. We are sometimes shy of discussing the ideology and goal of the terrorist campaign from Pakistan. However, without a clear understanding of this aspect, our strategy to counter this menace will not be effective. After all, for some people to agree to become suicide attackers, there must be a very strong motivation that is rooted in extraordinary zeal. And this is where it is highly disturbing to note that that there are forces in Pakistan who are unrelenting in their hatred for India and who misuse the name of Islam to whip up the anti-India sentiment.
***Lashkar-e-Taiba is quite explicit about why it wants to talk to India in the language of force. In a pamphlet titled "Why we are waging jihad", it states that its ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the state of Jammu & Kashmir. It also affirms that its agenda includes "the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India". Lashkar-e-Taiba declares India, USA and Israel as "existential enemies of Islam". It is therefore not surprising that, in their attacks in Mumbai, the terrorists from Pakistan specifically targeted the Jews living in Nariman House.***
Real target of terrorists' attack: IDEA OF INDIA
Two things become very clear from the ideological motive behind the terror campaign against India.
Firstly, it is wrong on anybody's part to think that Kashmir is the root cause of Pak-supported terrorism. Secondly, the agenda of organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba poses a potent threat to the very Civilisational Ethos of India. Since time immemorial, India has welcomed every faith that has come to our land. And that includes Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism. India has always held all faiths to be true, has respected all faiths, and never discriminated people on the basis of their faith. Therefore, what we see in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and previously in other places is an attack on our tradition of tolerance and peaceful co-existence amongst various faiths.
***This however does not mean that India's response to the threat of terrorism inspired by religious extremism is targeted against any particular religion or community. I would like to reiterate here what I have often said in the recent past ¾ namely, that terrorism has no religion and also that no faith or community should be stigmatized for the criminal acts of a few individuals or groups.As a matter of fact, the expression of Indian Muslims' anger over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai is a highly significant development.
Recently, a large congregation of Muslim clerics gathered in Hyderabad under the aegis of Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind and passed a resolution against terrorism. This deserves to be welcomed.
***After the mayhem in Mumbai, M.J. Akbar, an eminent journalist and writer, and a former Member of this House, wrote in Toronto Star:"I am an Indian and a Muslim and proud to be both. Like any Indian, today I am angry, frustrated and depressed. I am angry at the manic dogs of war who have invaded Mumbai." Akbar also wrote something else which this House must take note of:"I am frustrated by the impotence of my government in Mumbai and Delhi, tone-deaf to the anguish of my fellow citizens. And I am depressed at the damage being done to the Idea of India."***
Colossal failure of governance
Today the feeling of anger and anguish among the people is palpable. Why are the people angry? Some people have tried to direct this anger against the political class as a whole, but, as more and more facts are reported in the media, the fact cannot be denied that the people are demanding answers from the rulers in New Delhi and Mumbai.The UPA Government at the Centre and the Congress-NCP Government in Maharashtra cannot shirk accountability, nor can they pretend that they have done all that is necessary by way of accountability by getting the Union Home Minister, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra to resign.
***Many people are asking: Why have no heads rolled in the top echelons of bureaucracy? There is a survey in today Times of India that shows that over 40% of the respondents have held the Prime Minister accountable. After all, what the country has come to know in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks is not just INTELLIGENCE FAILURE but GOVERNANCE FAILURE ON A COLOSSAL SCALE.
The Opposition is not making an issue of prime ministerial responsibility because his government is now at the fag end of its five-year term. I am sure the people will give their verdict when parliamentary elections are held in early 2009.***
Questions the Government must answer
In today's debate, however, the government has a responsibility to answer many questions about the total collapse of intelligence coordination between various agencies and also the utter failure of the political leadership to strengthen the internal security apparatus.
And I would like the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to answer these questions:
1) My colleague Shri Arun Shourie, in an article in the Indian Express on 1st December 2008, has given excerpt after excerpt from the speeches of the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, former Home Minister, and National Security Advisor, all of whom seemed to be aware of an imminent terrorist attack through the sea route.
My question to the Prime Minister and his colleagues is this: "To whom were your advice and warnings directed? Are you here to govern or to tender advice?"
2) In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, various agencies started saying that the intelligence they had was not specific. However, in the days that have followed, there is clear indication that fairly specific information was available that a marine attack on Mumbai was in the offing.
I would like to know from the Government:
a) What intelligence did the Coast Guard and the Navy have on Al-Hussaini, the Pakistani ship that carried the LeT terrorists from Karachi?
b) The Coast Guard had faxed a very specific alert to the BSF on the arrival of the Lashkar ship six days before the attack. Why was this alert not acted upon?
c) Why was there a delay of many hours in the arrival of the NSG commandos in Mumbai?
d) What time did the Crisis Management Group meet in New Delhi?
e) As reported in the latest issue of Outlook magazine, is it true that on November 26, when terrorists struck Mumbai, the national security advisor was at a party thrown by a Congress MP from Bihar at his residence and that he left around 11.20 pm, a full two hours after the attack had begun?
f) Why are there persistent reports of dissatisfaction in the ranks of IB and RAW, and also about the lack of coordination between the two?
3) On a more long-term policy and implementation level, I would like to know from the Government the action taken on a whole host of recommendations made by the four Task Forces on Internal Security, which were set up in pursuance of the direction given by the Kargil Review Committee? These were the most comprehensive recommendations since Independence for the overhaul of India's internal security apparatus. The implementation of these recommendations had begun during the NDA rule. I would like to know how this was followed up.
4) Post 26/11, the Government has given Pakistan a list of 20 fugitives, including Dawood Ibrahim, to be handed over to India. I would like to know what efforts were made by the Government of India in this direction in the past five years? Or is it the first time in five years that the issue of Dawood Ibrahim was raised with Pakistan?***
Amendments in the Resolution
The draft Resolution needs to be amended to better reflect the mood of the nation and the requirements of a resolute struggle against Pak-supported terrorism. Hence, I would like the following points to be included in the Resolution.
1) India shall take its diplomatic, political and operational efforts in the war against Pak-supported terrorism to its logical conclusion by insisting that Pakistan fully and irreversibly dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism built on its soil and being operated jointly by state and non-state actors, and further that Pakistan abide by the letter and spirit of the Joint Statement issued in January 2004 after the meeting between Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf.
2) The Government shall promptly abide by the judgements of the judiciary in respect of the past acts of terrorism such as the attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 and also the Supreme Court's directive, after the annulment of the IMDT Act, on stopping the influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
3) The Government shall constitute a Commission of Inquiry, headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, to go into all aspects of the intelligence and governance failures that contributed to the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, and fix individual and institutional responsibility for the same.
4) The Government shall quickly initiate all necessary steps to strengthen the internal security apparatus in its totality by implementing the recommendations of the various task forces and committees.
5) The Government shall initiate necessary steps to enact in the current session of Parliament a stringent law against terrorism as recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission.
6) The Government shall immediately recommend to the President to give her consent to the pending legislations against organized crime from various state legislatures on a non-discriminatory basis.