How To Fight Terrorism?

The terrorists are waging a war against India, but we are unable to declare a war on terrorism. Our stock response to every terrorist attack is condemnation, promise of punishment, appeals for communal harmony, financial compensation to the victims’ families and slogans of zero tolerance towards terrorism. Incident after incident, the same platitudes are mouthed and no new concrete anti-terrorist measures are unveiled.

No government can provide total protection against terrorist attacks. Suicide attacks cannot be altogether deterred. At issue, therefore, is not total immunity from terrorism but an unflinching commitment to public safety and adoption of every possible measure to prevent loss of innocent lives.

Radical ideologies and international terrorism have entrenched themselves around us. We are a multi- religious society with a history of communal tensions. Our internal social fractures are increasingly exposed to these forces of exceptional malevolence. Our democracy, social peace and economic rise are at risk.

Pakistan is most responsible for putting India in the cross hairs of radical Islam. For years it has used jihadi terrorism as state policy towards us. It has unfailingly bracketed the Kashmiri Muslim cause with that of the Palestinians in a bid to mobilise Islamic sentiment against us globally. Pakistan has played its weak hand deftly by managing the contradiction of being both a source of terror and an ally against it. It fights religious extremists under US pressure but supports them clandestinely to preserve its future long-term options vis-a-vis Afghanistan and India.

Washington has begun asking for greater accountability from Pakistan for this duplicity. With its conduct under international scrutiny, Pakistan wants to shift attention away from itself and towards internal failures in India and Afghanistan to combat indigenous groups animated by local grievances.

Pakistan can claim terrorism in India is homegrown by establishing local terrorist cells with its support. In the climate of zealotry surrounding us, a handful of elements in India can always be mobilised in the name of Islamic/Hindu solidarity to settle scores with the enemies of Islam/Hinduism.

We must equip ourselves with the means and mentality to face the mounting terrorist threat. We are unable to forge a national consensus either on defensive measures or on the nature or source of terrorism. We have accepted the proposition that both India and Pakistan are victims of terrorism as we could no longer pressure Pakistan to abjure terrorism through denial of resumption of dialogue. The joint terror mechanism was another investment in the hope that Pakistan’s cooperation would spare us from taking hard decisions ourselves to combat terrorism. After accusing the ISI of complicity in targeting the symbol of our sovereignty in Kabul, we express resolve to quickly put the normalisation process back on track. We display helplessness.

While democracies like the US, UK and France have introduced special anti-terrorist legislation, in India we deny this need because in the past special laws were misused to settle political scores or target the Muslim community. The secular versus non-secular argument has inserted itself. Even when the Supreme Court has given its ruling in specific cases of terrorism there is political reluctance to act, underlining the complex electoral or political party calculations that are affecting our ability to deal with terrorism in the absence of a national consensus.

India has no federal investigative agency dealing with terrorism. The states are against ceding some of their powers for law and order to the Centre. Such political distrust within the political system and parochial priorities reflect a serious flaw in governance. We have even failed to equip our agencies with better technical capabilities and more human and material resources. The politicisation of our police forces has damaged their professional capabilities, aggravating the inefficiencies of our combat against terrorism.

India sponsored some years ago in the UN the draft of a Comprehensive Convention to Combat International Terrorism. We see the need at the international level to create a consensus on combating terrorism and tighten the legal obligation of states to act. Yet, at home, we are neither creating such a consensus, nor equipping ourselves with tighter laws to confront the challenge we face. No wonder the killings go on.