There is no other Nation in the history of human civilisation which has been taken by surprise by its adversaries so often & with such remarkable regularity. We were taken by surprise in 1947 by the tribals from Pakistan & lost half of Kashmir, thereafter the Chinese surprised us in 1962 & took away Aksai Chin. In 1965, the Pakis once again surprised us, In 1989-90 we were surprised by the uprising in Kashmir and then started the long saga of surprises; the Kargil intrusion, highjack, bomb explosions and fidayeens. This is not ancient or medieval history but recent history.
The terrorists have already carried out daring assaults against military camps, our major religious centers and national emblems of power viz., Parliament and the Red Fort, but because we Indians lack self esteem, all this does not disturb us. Our political leadership, surrounded by the Black cat commandos, care little for the ordinary citizen and prefer to respond with bold empty words after each terror strike. After each attack, the Govt in order to display its seriousness towards dealing with this menace talks of providing security to IT companies in Bangalore, BPOs, IITs, IIMs and R&D establishments, little realising that India is not a Banana Republic. What about the security at numerous shopping malls and markets, other prestigious Public Sector undertakings all over the country, huge rail network; with its over crowded Railway Stations, bridges and tunnels, numerous temples, 5 Star hotels, tourist centers and airports. The initiative is with the terrorists who are at liberty to decide the target.
If we continue to provide this kind of security then there will be no police available for its primary duty i.e. maintaining law & order and prevention of crime. Moreover, this kind of security can only be sustained for a few days. As it has happened repeatedly, there will be another strike.
The US might have faced the worst terrorist attack in its history on 11/9, but we Indians have faced so many of them in last 20 years that we have now lost the count. However, despite being targeted repeatedly by the terrorists, we have hardly learnt any lesson from these attacks. Our media, the political parties & Govt machinery not only seem to lack vision but are also unprofessional in their approach.
The moment the news of a terrorist attack breaks out, the media instead of inquiring & examining the effectiveness of Security arrangements, relief measures & emergency arrangements undertaken by the administrative machinery, prefer to seek statements from those politicians who have nothing to do with the security of the people & the nation. The electronic media also gets something to talk about but it is stage managed. The serious issues, therefore often end up with accusations and counter accusations. The so-called secularists would blame the BJP for demolishing the mosque and Gujarat riots and BJP would blame the Secularists for being soft and as a result a serious issue is once again politicised. This is how most of the debates on INTERNAL SECURITY end up.
Implementation of POTA, the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have been politicised to such an extent that although these issues are important from the security point of view but the successive Govts due to their electoral compulsions have preferred not to tackle them with the importance, they deserve. Ironically, no State Govt is willing to certify that there are no Bangladeshi immigrants in their State.
However, the response in UK and US where the terrorist attack led to loss of life was much more professional. The administrative machinery, the security forces, the relief workers carried on with their work as if they were trained for years to deal with such calamities. There were no politicians on the screen shooting off their mouths unnecessarily and blaming each other. Yes, a few leaders blamed the intelligence agencies for their failure to provide timely information but there were no controversies as far as measures to be taken to deal with the terror machinery. Both the countries in spite of having a sizeable muslim population & very old democratic traditions at least older than ours seem to be well poised to take harsh decisions in order to deal with this menace. Surprisingly, there were very few incidents reported where muslim community members were being targeted by the whites. Even after the US President had publicly announced that “ He will get Osama dead or alive”. He might not have been able to catch him but the dreaded terrorist’s network has been destroyed and he is on the run. It is this faith on the Govt machinery that desists the people of these countries from resorting to violent protests.
Back home; firstly, had an incident of this magnitude taken place in India there would have been riots. Secondly, had Indian PM given such a statement, which he should have given after Dawood Ibrahim carried out Mumbai serial blasts, the media and opposition would have crucified him. Thirdly, our administrative machinery is not geared up to deal with crisis situations. We were unable to stop the hijacked plane IC 814 at Amritsar, because of inadequate contingency planning.
China also, was ravaged by colonialism, but it has defined a clear objective for itself - and is therefore enhancing its capabilities ; both militarily as well as economically in order to improve its International status. India on the other hand strives more for external recognition than to build its own strength. It is the only country that moulds its foreign policies to win International goodwill and as a result has not taken any stringent step to deal with terrorism.
We have lost thousands of brave security men, and numerous innocent civilians due to bomb attacks, fidayeen attacks including on Redfort, Parliament, Indian Institute of Science, but even then, Let’s ask ourselves honestly, what special measures have we taken in last 20 years to deal with terrorism. Nothing at all! There has been no institutional backing up, only the innocent civilians and the security men have sacrificed their lives. The Indian Security Forces have been left alone by their own countrymen to fight terrorism with out the support of the media, the political parties and the Govt Institutions including Judiciary. The Democracy, instead of becoming our strength has become our weakness and is being exploited by our adversaries & the terrorists. Do the terrorists with their AK47s and RDX drive straight from Lahore to Indian cities or do they need some logistic and intelligence support before carrying out their violent activities, if the later is true then who provides them these facilities. These Govts have to answer this. The people know it.
It would be better to have stringent laws in order to deal with terrorism and fundamentalism rather then having communal riots emanating out of sheer frustration against a community like we had in Delhi in 1984 (after the gruesome killing of Mrs Gandhi), Coimbatore, Gujarat and Mumbai. However, we neither care for the loss of human life nor we have the self-esteem. Brahma Chellany a noted strategist rightly says Once a Nation lowers its Self-esteem in its own eyes, it opens the path to continuing compromises on National interests. This is what India is doing- compromising.
A nation with 1 billion population, aspiring to be a super power is not expected to respond to difficult situations in the manner it is doing so, right now. Probably, corruption, dishonesty, degradation of moral values, political and social decay is gradually eating up the system and as a result the media, the Judiciary, the Govt machinery, the political parties and the security forces are gradually becoming incapable to perform to the best of their potential.
© soldiersview., all rights reserved.
In case you missed...
Some other recent posts by soldiersview
© 1998-2008 Copyright Sulekha.com Connecting Indians Worldwide, All Rights Reserved.
Recommend
votes