Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 3, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/343913.html
This is a topical column so I cannot avoid
writing about terrorism in the week after three major Indian cities were attacked
by jihadi terrorists. But, since nothing has changed since the last round
of Islamist violence the only point worth repeating is that we do not know
who we are looking for. How can we win this war when the enemy remains so
nebulous? After every incident, the police lists for us the usual suspects.
The Indian Mujahideen, they tell us now, is a front for Pakistani and Bangladeshi
terrorist groups with our own SIMI lending a hand. Really? Have they discovered
this since the Indian Mujahideen struck in Jaipur in May?
Jihadi terrorism has been the biggest threat
to national security since IC 814 was hijacked by jihadi terrorists on Christmas
Eve, 1999. In December 2001 came the attack on Parliament, followed by major
attacks in cities across India. And, what have we done since? Nothing. Commentators
more qualified than I warn that the Islamist attacks will continue and spread
because our political class has not yet taken the threat seriously. Even by
their uncaring standards it is hard to think of a more irresponsible remark
than the one made by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj last week.
When she accused the Government of India of being behind the terrorist attacks
in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat was she aware that she was attacking India
and not its government?
When a senior politician says on nationwide
television that India is so degenerate a country that the Government is capable
of killing innocent people to divert attention from a political scandal it
should be considered treason. It amounts to saying that the terrorist threat
is not real, that it is just a tool used by politicians whenever they choose.
If Ms Swaraj was speaking as a spokesman of the BJP, and Mr Advani has not
disowned her comment, it explains why the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
did nothing to fight terrorism.
After the disgraceful handling of IC 814,
there should have been some attempt to set up a central counter-terrorism
unit, some acknowledgement of the need to improve intelligence systems and
policing. It did not happen. Ordinary policemen are our soldiers in this ugly,
ugly war. No attempt has been made so far to equip them to fight it. They
do not have the training for counter-terrorism, nor modern weapons, nor even
that most basic requirement: a national database that could help us put some
faces to the killers. Without a national database, without computerised coordination
between our state governments there is no chance of us winning against a small
army of fanatics who use Islam to persuade ordinary Muslims to do their dirty
work. Within hours of 9/11 we knew who the 19 hijackers were. In India, we
only found out about Maulana Azhar Masood and Omar Sheikh after we released
them in Kandahar. They were in Indian jails for five years writing journals
filled with details of their evil exploits, building tunnels to escape and
we knew nothing.
If the 'nationalist' Vajpayee government failed
to understand the seriousness of the jihadi threat the 'secular' government
of Dr Manmohan Singh has an even worse record. Islamist groups have struck
at random in our cities and are now so confident of their ability to remain
undetected that they send e-mails before the event. 'In the name of Allah
the Indian Mujahideen strike again. Within five minutes from now feel the
terror of Death'. This was sent before the Ahmedabad bombings. In this latest
attack they have shown that they can attack Bangalore on July 25, Ahmedabad
the day after and Surat the day after that. Mercifully, the 26 bombs they
found in Surat were detected before they went off.
Gujarat's Chief Minister described the attacks
as a proxy war. It is. And, it could be the only kind of war we will fight
in the future but we remain as unprepared to fight it as we were 10 years
ago when we watched the hijackers of IC 814 drive off into Pakistan and did
nothing later to bring them to justice.
It is a terrible situation. No city is safe.
No public place secure. If the Prime Minister wants to know what it feels
like to be an ordinary Indian let him spend a few days without his Z-plus
security. Let him shop in Delhi's bazaars and worship in his local gurudwara
and let him order his ministers to do the same. If not, let him at least Google
up 'jihad' so he can see on U-tube the venomous attacks on the 'cowardly Indian
Army' and the sophistication of Islamist propoganda. It might make him realise
that we are losing the war.