Sunday, May 18, 2008

Reaction of a country to an attack

There are several incidents in the recent past where a country was subjected to dastardly attacks on its unsuspecting civilians by extremist groups. Terrorist attacks target the country in more ways than the obvious civilian casualties. However each incident is followed by responses by its leaders and the journalists, in most cases pandering to the vote banks but in some cases real pragmatic actions. The recent Jaipur terrorist attack and the reactions have been covered by some excellent posts in this blog. To summarize from the present to the past, we've seen Chindu try to steer the discussion away. There has been some idiotic statements by Praveen Swami like ignoring the author of the e-mail by the so-called Indian Mujahideen. Most importantly the uncaring attitude which smacks of Stockholm syndrome so clearly exhibited by N.Ram where he blathers in blatant sloganism over reality.
There is a lack of real action to tackle the issue by the UPA government, the Left wing comrades and the BJP. When the Tibet issue happened, the Chindu railed on how peaceful Chinese citizens were killed by murderous Tibetian monks. Where is that sense of outrage when something happens to our own country?
When 9/11 happened America was unprepared (conspiracy theories aside) but there has been real activities by the US Government since then. The path taken by America might not be perfect but at least it sent a statement to the world that you mess with our backyard and touch our people(yes not just one section, but any section of the population) we will hit back. Terrorism is a cancer which hits a country and it needs chemotherapy otherwise the patient (or country) will fall. Dr.Singh with his impotent government in a political quagmire decides to put relations with Pakistan in the forefront against formulating real world strategies aimed at protecting his own people.
Here's what I would like to see enacted (in no real order):
  • Creation of a real federal bureau to target terrorism with real budgets allocated and someone with experience to lead like say Mr. Gill or Julio Ribeiro.

  • Invest in ensuring the poor sections of Muslims are integrated within society by implementing real measures, maybe some features of the Sachar report. Yes this might flow against some of my earlier statements however the last thing this country needs is a set of misguided Islamic youth taking up arms. Break up the Muslim bastis in major cities as that is the single important place where the infestation occurs.

  • Formulate a real foreign policy and warn countries like Saudi Arabia not to push the Wahhabi crap into India.

  • Ensure that financial networks are being monitored closely to prevent the transfer of funds to certain groups which fund these activities.

  • Provide the BSF with some legal teeth and funding to prevent illegal Bangladeshis and other characters from entering into India.

  • Reenact laws to protect citizens from terrorist acts and empower the states to take on certain security responsibilities. Clean up the legal process to ensure punishment can be rapidly delivered to criminals unlike the case where 15 years taken to punish the Mumbai blasts case.

  • Join the global war on terror and collaborate with countries like Israel, Britain, Germany and also China(just not to get on LiC's bad side).

What are some of the things you would like see be done to tackle terrorism given the current limitations?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

First and foremost it requies extraordinary political will. The ruling administration (UPA, NDA or ABC or DEF) should be prpared to take action, however "politically incorrect" it may be (i.e however unpalatable it may be from the point of view of vote bank considerations, international opinion etc.).

The victims and their relatives have to be shown that the govt. of the day and leading political parties do care for them (not just announcement of solatium). People have to mobilise and be mobilised and pressure has to be brought on the central and state govts. In short, a grassroot-level action is necessary.

Of course, there will be conflicting pressures to take action and also not take action (for example, from the secularists and NGOs). Whoever applies greater pressure will eventually win. A civil war-like situation may also develop if things drift.

socal said...

UPA has no incentive to act tough on terrorism. People don't vote on it as an issue. They win nothing, loose votebank.

OT: DirtDigger thanks for linking to my post.

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