TERRORISM AND SECURITY
Daya Varma
The Indian Prime Minister is being chastised by all kinds of people from Hindutva leader Advani to leftists for not providing adequate security. Making all of India like the present day Kashmir will stifle civilian life with graver consequences than can be brought about by terrorists.
The mayhem caused by mindless terrorists in Mumbai on November 26- onwards shocked the world and has been condemned by all. However, political figures from Hindutva supremacist Advani to extreme left and others in between condemned the Indian government for security lapses, which, according to them, if in operation, would have prevented this from happening. It is ironic that sometimes the government is blamed for excessive use of police and security and sometimes accused of not using enough.
In my opinion, there is already too much security in operation. One organ of the Indian government cannot function more efficiently than other organs. Of course India can be made into a police state where some one watches every move made by anyone and everything is channeled into a master counter-insurgency network. This is not unknown. The US has expanded its security operations since 9/11 and this has been rightly condemned by civil liberty organizations. Too much security is oppressive and anti-democratic and causes much more havoc than any terrorist attack including the Mumbai one. It can bring civil life to standstill.
Of course there should be no terrorist attack but it is not an issue of too little security. India comes second only to Iraq in terms of terrorist attacks. Why is that so? India will do well to address that question and restore civility in all walks of life. A country which lets crimes like the demolition of Babri mosque, anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, anti-Christian terror in Orissa, dictation of what should and should not happen in the cultural field and restrictions on internal migration by hoodlums of Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena cannot stop terrorism even if every package is searched for explosives and every house is watched to commit subsequent atrocities against Muslims and other minorities.
When Gorbachev and Regan had their historic meeting in Reykjavik the government of Iceland made no security arrangements. This was of course unacceptable to the US security. Upon insistence the government of Iceland posted girl scouts. So when civilian life is in order security is inherently there. In India too the need for security will diminish if all acts of terror – be it by Advani or Narendra Modi or by VHP and Bajrang Dal or SIMI are put to end in accordance with the Indian Constitution and laws. Let rest of India not become Kashmir!