India can tackle terror effectively only when politicians and officials stop looking at it as a piece of turf to fight over, and start treating it as a threat to our nation.

Immediately after 9/11, when President George W. Bush addressed the nation and declared war on terror, he ensured that former President Bill Clinton, then travelling in Europe, was brought back to the U.S. and stood by his side. Ten years later, America had much cause to celebrate. Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, had been located and eliminated in a house in Abbottabad, a stone's throw from the Pakistan military academy at Kakul. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, President Obama insisted on having his predecessor, President Bush, by his side while addressing the nation from Ground Zero. On both occasions, the Presidents sent a tough message to America's enemies. Beyond the symbolic, President Bush's gesture in September 2001, and President Obama's in September 2011, of having their predecessors by their side while addressing the nation, sent the strong message to America's detractors that when it came to national security, both Democrats and Republicans were one. All mature democracies put up a common front on national security issues, for these are issues that threaten the way of life that a nation state has accepted for itself.

EXISTENTIAL THREATS

India faces two such existential threats, one from jihadists inspired by Pakistan, and the other from Maoists. Sikh terrorism was brutally put down by the State, but one hears of attempts to revive the movement in the Punjab, with the backing of the Inter-Services Intelligence. Innocent lives lost in terrorist attacks in India since the advent of terrorism would have certainly crossed over a hundred thousand. The LTTE had not figured in U.S. records till early 1996. Two Americans were injured in the LTTE's attack on the Central Bank of Colombo on January 31, 1996 — and that was enough for the LTTE to figure in U.S. records as a terrorist organisation! In the United States, each citizen's life is precious. In India, we go from one crisis to another, reducing the lives of our citizens to mere statistics.
As early as November, 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that the Maoist insurgency is the single biggest threat to India's security. More than seven years have passed, yet we do not have a clear and coherent policy for dealing with this threat. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the States affected by Maoist terror. As soon as he took over as Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram tried to get all these States on board for working out a co-ordinated strategy to tackle the Maoists. The Central government was keen to supplement the efforts of the State governments in fighting the Maoists, and simultaneously going in for integrated development in areas vacated by the Maoists. But it was obvious that all political parties did not agree with the strategy — some still believed they could talk to Maoists and bring them round! It is not that Mr. Chidambaram did not invite the Maoists for talks. His only condition was that they abjure violence. Police and law and order figure as item numbers 1 and 2 in List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution — meaning they are within the exclusive preserve of the States. Once a State decides to go its own way in tackling a problem like that of the Maoists, there is little that the Central government can do. As someone said about the Dantewada incident, in which 76 CRPF jawans were brutally ambushed and massacred by Maoists, “the vote has become a four-letter word that impales decisions, a disincentive for the political parties from doing the right thing.”
In the last 10 years, Maoists have succeeded in killing one jawan for each cadre killed — a highly adverse ratio for the security forces. There have been over 18,000 violent incidents in this period, and the problem shows no signs of abating. No doubt police is a State subject. But in the case of Maoists, they move around freely through the jungles and remote villages along the borders of multiple states. While it is accepted that operational success against the Maoists will depend on the quality of intelligence back up that the State has, as amply proved in the case of Andhra Pradesh, this can happen in the nine affected States only when they have a common strategy, build trust in one another and the Central agencies, and back up one another against the Maoists. It should not be forgotten that the goal of Maoists is to overthrow the democratically elected government through an armed struggle. They have used talks to regroup and strengthen themselves, each time. In this, they are the true disciples of the LTTE, as much as they are in the art of making improvised explosive devices, which they learnt from the Tigers in the late 1980s.
The Mumbai carnage by the LeT in November 2008, or 26/11 as it is known, is considered world-wide as the most violent terrorist onslaught after 9/11 and, in that sense, a game changer. This was a good occasion for the nation to make constitutional adjustments to enable an appropriately strong response to terrorist attacks. Parliament hurriedly passed the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the National Investigation Agency Act. The latter was to focus on investigations of terrorism related cases only. Though the government claimed that the NIA could take over any terrorist case registered in any State after receiving a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the fact remains that since its inception, the NIA was given only one case that took place in Delhi last year, though there have been several crucial blasts in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. No attempt was made to mobilise public, and across the board political opinion before framing the NIA Act.
It is clear that the Central government is just not confident enough to use the full capabilities of the NIA, again due to compulsions of the federal kind. It may be recalled that Mr. Chidambaram was quoted in WikiLeaks as saying the NIA was “pushing Constitutional limits.” Then why did the government create this agency?
Jihadists plan centrally, and operate by choosing the place and time of attack. Recent investigations show that some groups have morphed into independent cells and go on their own attacks. If the line of investigation being pursued by the Delhi police holds good, and it is proved that Iranians were involved in the recent attack on the Israeli diplomat, it means a whole new dimension of the jihadist threat. The National Counter Terrorism Centre that Mr. Chidambaram initially had in mind was to subsume several Central Agencies like the NIA, the NSG, etc., together with the Multi Agency Centre which was being operated by the Intelligence Bureau. The aim was to give NCTC a clearly defined role in preventing terrorist attacks, and if an attack took place, of investigating them holistically. But what was finally approved was a truncated version of the original, keeping the NCTC within the Intelligence Bureau, and giving it powers under the UAPA for arrest, searches and seizure. It is this provision that has disturbed the States. They have not been given powers to register and investigate cases, as they have been in the case of the NIA.

NIA & NCTC

No intelligence agency has powers of open investigation — by their very nature, they operate in the shadows. The NIA will be answerable to the courts for its actions on searches, arrests and seizures. What about the NCTC? Will it get cases registered by the local police after the arrests, searches and seizures? What if the local police refuse to cooperate? Will the NCTC produce their secret records in courts? The NCTC could very well have functioned within the IB, and searches, arrests and seizures could have been organised through the NIA. Was this option not considered because of ‘turf'?
National security is too serious a challenge to be left at the mercy of political and bureaucratic bickering. One recalls with nostalgia former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao requesting the opposition leader, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to lead the Indian delegation to the U.N.'s international conference on Human Rights — it sent a strong message that India would not be pushed around, and was capable of facing international pressure as a united country. Unfortunately, we lack leaders of vision today.
(Radhavinod Raju is a former head of the NIA.)

 COMMENTS
There is a third "existential" threat to the country and that is total incompetence in governance at all levels of government at the Centre and the States.It is of course an empirical assessment based on common experience and therefore can be characterised as existential. But will the adjective make any difference to the truth content of the statement?

from:  K.Vijayakumar
Posted on: May 6, 2012 at 12:31 IST
A very professional articlE for all right thinking people. What is root cause of this opposition? Is it really the State Autonomy or is it self preservation f corrupt politicians and political parties? Indian politician has no respect or regard for human lives - they believe that they are above all that, confident that they can buy their existence even with terrorists or criminals. The ordinary people - the common man - for whom they cry so much are not their real interest except when it comes to the vote bank. Politicians in India are an ignorant lot - they know nothing of what goes on in the rest of the country or in the geographical neighborhood or in the rest of the world. One can see that in all their utterances. They are just interested in themselves and for the short term. What they do not seem to realize is that their lives are also short and limited. Is the fatalism of an Indian the root cause of all this? What will happen will happen and let us just mind and looour business!

from:  v.Ram
Posted on: May 6, 2012 at 08:56 IST
Brilliant article ! And unfortunately this is the bitter truth that we don't have leaders, just politicians.

from:  Mahender Soni
Posted on: May 5, 2012 at 11:35 IST
@faiz,The point author is making is how partisan politics is playing havoc with formulation and implementation of an effective national level anti-terror policy.Its mendate will not be religion or region specific.Coming to your point India has been hit by Jihad unleashed by Islamic extremists from across borders since eighties that resulted in loss of over 80000 lives and displacement of thousands of families from Kashmir valley. The things did not stop at Kashmir valley as later on other parts of country, including some religious places in Gujarat and Rajasthan, our parliament and later on Mumbai, were also targetted.Government's reaction was far from satisfactory.Malegaon or Samjouta express blasts, that I strongly condemn, happened much later. All this must stop. I share author's pain and frustration how politics is ruining the chances of having an effective national level anti terror body.

from:  Surinder
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 23:17 IST
Our country is suffering from fear syndrome. Whatever decision we take,
external or internal, economical or strategic they all have some element
of fear and mistrust. Need to change..!

from:  Pankaj Kumar
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 22:10 IST
With reference to playing centre-state with national security by Radhavinod Raju.
India will have to fight terror effectively. The foreign countries undertake immediate action against terrorism without much debate and have proved themselves by eliminating various terrorists. Our country lack behind because they think too much, resulting in the interference of various ministers. They concentrate much, on resolving debates rather than taking action resulting in kidnapping of hostages. In return what they demand is to be fulfilled or else consequences prevail. Every year we keep on estimating number of terrorists’ attacks and how many were killed, and if the rate of attacks goes down the next year, we proudly cheer up. What about the danger and people continuously losing their lives? Why some strong action is not being undertaken? It is very necessary to eradicate these terrors from our country, by taking immediate actions.

from:  Ankita Goswami
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 22:05 IST
A very well written article. It is high ti me that at least on some major issues the ruling and the opposition combines sit together and create an impression to the outside world that we are one on National issues. The UPA especially the Congress party should take the lead and call the principal opposition and discuss to come out with an understanding. On the security issue and other major issues like corruption and its tackling the Congress should discuss withe BJP and other major parties and arrive at a conclusion to take up the matter unitedly and seriously so that the blackmailing parties can be kept isolated and the Nation can stride ahead.

from:  Ramanathan A R
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 18:31 IST
The biggest security threat that India faces currently is not from outside but from inside although the earlier grabs more attention.
Naxalites are people who are generally misguided by others who preach war with administration inevitable for peace.I work at a site which is one of the most naxal affected regions and here TPC , MCC and the likes rule.One of the TPC leaders recently contested for assembly elections, although he lost but one can estimate their presence in politics.
So called naxalists are mostly poor and uneducated villagers who can raise guns for few thousands or sometimes for a bottle of wine.
An inclusive development coupled with intelligent security system can overturn the situation and the article clearly advocates the latter

from:  raj kamal vatsa
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 15:58 IST
NCTC has been used as a football which has been kicked around by the non-Congress chief ministers, including some who are part of UPA II. An eminently sensible idea was knocked down by the chief ministers on the ground of attack on federalism. For one thing, when did we start being a Federation? The Constitution says: India, that is, Bharat, shall be a Union of States. It does not say that India shall be a Federation of States. Even then, everybody swears by the sanctity of the federal structure and the need to preserve the powers and jurisdiction of the states. Too much has been made of the idea of the federal structure. Nobody seems to realize that while the chief ministers are splitting hairs, the problem of terror is daily becoming more serious. Someone should have had the sense to realize that the need to tackle terror should override questions of jurisdiction. No one is concerned about the destruction being caused by terrorists. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi, India, 4 May 2012, 1530 IST

from:  Dr V. C. Bhutani
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 15:30 IST
In the past all such acts that interfered with the concept even marginally were blatantly misused by the central government.Provision should be in place to safeguard such misuses.

from:  Anil Kumar Choudhury
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 15:12 IST
The UPA, by their persistent action and partisan attitude has consistently shown apathy to non UPA States creating a suspicion on the government's intentions to bring in the new bill. A number of bills in the past including the infamous POTA were more to target persons/institutions inconvenient to the government or settle scores amongst the parties than to take any action against the real terrorism; naturally the States look at the NCTC as another ploy by UPA to interfere with State’s privileges; the trust is lost. The Centre should not consider the non UPA States as less privileged; this attitude must change. Either Bush or Obama called their opposite number by his side to reiterate certain values bears out that the ruling government had the will to carry with them the opposition; but UPA have no such noble intentions. The example of Rao requesting Vajpai is another point to confirm that the acrimonious trend is recent. The Nation’s security is at cross roads; time UPA changes ways.

from:  M.R.Sampath
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 14:35 IST
one is forced to think whether unitary form of government was a better option and whether makers of our constituion made a mistake by choosing federal form of government. it is high time to keep our national interest above all petty regionalism based politics.

from:  vipin bhatnagar
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 14:29 IST
Very true lines"Unfortunately, we lack leaders of vision today"

Fantastic article

from:  P.Joseph
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 14:18 IST
I feel that in India human life is very cheap and why not,we are over 1 billion so if some blast in some city kills some people,our govt(both center and state) will not be moved.This has become the destiny of our country-blasts happen,people are killed,various teams are formed by the govt and nothing comes out and finally,everyone forgets everything.These maoists are nothing if both the central and state govt join hands to eliminate it but out of political reasons ,nothing is done and things remain the same.Same is the case with terrorists.India doesn't have the guts to fight this menace like US.Everytime blast happen, our govt will present India as a country which cares a lot for its people but eventually nothing is achieved.
In this respect,I feel "A Wednesday" was a film which vividly depicts the frustation of a common man and i think that if we want to kill the "cockroaches" we will have to take initiative ourselves becz this govt is "good for nothing".

from:  himanshu khandelwal
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 14:07 IST
Any fascist government exalts one institution above all others - the
Military. This "Military Man" like a true Fascist has shown contempt
for democracy, democratically elected politicians (something the
largely middle-class readers of this paper have rarely engaged and so
have contempt for) and constantly speaks of doing 'the right thing'.
What exactly is the right thing? What HE thinks of course. Anything
else is 'squabbling'. It is precisely this mindset which is the
Fascist mindset which the modern world rightly fears.

from:  Abdul
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 13:57 IST
We are being goverened by a conglomerate of more than a dozen parties whose vision is their existance and interest not that of the NATION. We the voters must Shortlist 2 or 3 national parties to lead the nation at the centre.

from:  chawla
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 13:40 IST
When Terrorists declared guilty by the Courts are supported and
the Police and other agencies are attributed with "False" charges
by senior persons in Political Parties including those in the Ruling alliance where do we stand,
There is NO political WILL to nip all forms of terrorism armed or
economical.
Parties are competing with each other to DEFEND those identified by the Investigating Agencies and No conclusion has been made on the cases of " IMPORTING " Container loads of Fake Currencies from
our Neighbours.The Govt.is now giving their citizens permission to
"INVEST" In India bourse.
Agencies entrusted with collecting information and ensuring attacks
vie each other to score "brownie" points.India is nt a Nation but
a Conglomeration of
Towers" of Babel

from:  ajith kumar
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 13:39 IST
Very apt article. With a good suggestion of NCTC in IB. But one
question Sir, what is going to stop a central government (esp like the
current one) to stop abusing the state govt.? The case of Gujarat is
fine example. And its no secret that the current admin is using most of
the IB to spy on its political rivals and citizens who question their
authority. In such an atmosphere how can you expect trust the center.
The gesture of PVN and the reply of ABV is legendary. I do not buy the
argument that we do not have such leaders any more. Its just that they
not been able to get to the top because of current "representatives".

from:  Vijay
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 13:33 IST
The opposition is mindlessly opposing the govt. again on everything.
When will the BJP learn that people are not stupid ?! They see through
the opposition's farce.
It's as if they are hell bent on showing that the present govt. can't
perform. And, it's not surprising that BJP doesn't care about the
innocent Indian lives, given their past record of being complicit in
numerous communal incidents.

from:  S Kumar
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 13:26 IST
In short there are so many people in India and such incompetent leaders
that 1 American life = 1000 Indian lives.

from:  Mayank
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 12:28 IST
Perfect article!! with an unbiased view author is successful to portrait the measures taken by government to curb the Terrorism. Parties can stick to their ideology but for some issues they need to be united. And unfortunately Indian parties have no ideology just tactics to fetch the vote.

from:  Tarun Gupta
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 12:11 IST
The author has missed out one unpalatable truth - India itself is a major promoter and encourager of terrorism while bleating that we are innocent victims of this scourge! We supported the LTTE in order to secure the Tamil sympathy vote. We launched JS Bhindranwale in Punjab to suppress the Akali Dal. We quietly released five convicted Latvian turned Russian terrorists involved in the notorious Purulia arms drop case. We are zealously protecting convicted terrorists like Mohd Afzal and Ajmal Kasab from the gallows, not to mention similarly treating Omar Sheikh and Azhar Masood earlier till they engineered their escape via the IC 814 hijack incident. We have flatly refused to implement measures from the counter terrorism doctrine as these might adversely affect the vote bank of the religious community to which the terrorists belong. A lot of us are on ISI's payroll. Most of all, our netas are well protected 24/7 while the aam admi is offered as the slaughter material to the terrorists.

from:  JK Dutt
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 12:00 IST
"United we stand, Divided we fall"

from:  Satish
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 11:18 IST
Terrorism is now a global phenomena transcending boundaries,but alas our mechanisms to deal with it is still obsolete.The idea should be consensus rather than petty politics if centre is trying to build new structures to deal with it.
I hope our politcians see the national intrest atleast in this!!!

from:  abhishek
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 09:37 IST
The last paragraph brought tears to my eyes.

from:  chinna reddy
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 08:15 IST
This article says only one side of terrorism in india ;the cliché words jihadists and maoists.I agree both are real threat to national security as they get help from outside.But what about the extreme hinduthva nationalism ?.or the making of the majority hindus against the minority muslims by the incidents like Hyderabad temple incident or the extreme side malegaon or samjotha blasts etc.It would have been better if the article had at least touched these things.

from:  faiz
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 08:12 IST
In order to fight terrorism, start fighting discrimination and irrational prejudices in our minds, and injustice and deprivation of people in our neighborhood and stand up to fight human rights violations everywhere. People's rights to a dignified existence on this earth have to be upheld irrespective of caste, socioeconomic status, religion, and sex. If this becomes a commitment of the Indian state both to practice and to teach the Youth, then there is hope for a better future otherwise not. It is a long term goal but a realistic one to face terrorism.

from:  Tony
Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 01:41 IST
This Article is pure GOLD.....completely balanced in facts,presentation.....superlike.explains the ground reality

from:  P.Chinway


Posted on: May 4, 2012 at 00:49 IST

The Hindu, 4 May, 2012       http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3381185.ece#comments