Let actions speak

The Indian Parliament
is said to have spoken in one voice yesterday against terror. The Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh has ‘apologised’ for not being able to prevent
Mumbai terror attack’; The External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
has said that the time has come for the ‘words’ to be followed by
‘actions’; The Home Minister P Chidambaram has listed out new measures
to be taken by the government in the immediate future for fighting
terrorism; In the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack, the then Union
Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmuk and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil
have been forced to resign. The unfortunate fact is that for all the
above things, which are routine responsibilities, to happen, it has
taken nineteen ‘major’ terror attacks, thousand and odd deaths, three
thousand and odd injuries and millions of crores worth of property
damage!

 

While apologising to the nation, the Prime Minister has said that the use of terrorism as a ‘state-policy’ by Pakistan
would ‘no longer’ be accepted. The question to be asked is, has the UPA
government been accepting till now? Former President Musharaff had
openly said that ‘Jihad’ is a state-policy of Pakistan and the Indian Prime Minister had been shaking hands with the very same Musharaf, addressing Pakistan too as a victim of terror.

 

Though
Pranab’s statement, ‘action must follow words’ was directed towards
Pakistan, it holds good for India too! The UPA government has been
waxing eloquent after every terror attack, but actions have never
followed. If it requires the efforts of the entire ‘working committee’
of the party to push out the Home Minister, then it is not difficult to
imagine the amount of effort the government needs to put to fight
terror. Even then the question of its capabilities remains, considering
its track record.

 

Chidambaram has said that the internal security system would be overhauled and that a ‘Coastal command’ would be formed for the larger maritime security, which has been hanging fire for long. The Indian Navy
has been asking for such a measure since 2000 and had it been done on a
war footing many terror attacks could have been prevented. Chidambaram
has also mentioned the government’s special strategies to deal with
terror crimes including the formation of a National Investigation
Agency and amending the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
He has indicated that tougher laws would be introduced to fight terror
apart from establishing twenty counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism
institutes. He has also informed that the NSG would be spread to major
metros and cosmos. Though the intelligence agencies were said to have busted around 100 terror modules, this is nowhere near the mark of 800 terror modules, as told by the National Security Advisor M K Narayanan. The UPA government must show the same seriousness, which was shown in the speeches, in the implementation of these measures.

 

The
opposition BJP / NDA has committed the fullest cooperation to all the
‘tough’ measures likely to be taken by the government. Opposition
leader L K Advani
in his speech has delved deep into terrorism & terror and
terrorists & their goals. Even while committing his support and
cooperation, he didn’t spare the government for its colossal failures
in the last five years. The BJP has ‘rightly’ cautioned the government
not to rely blindly upon the actions claimed to have been taken by
Pakistan and advised the government not to depend totally on US for
taking action against Pakistan. Committing cooperation, it suggested
the government to take its own actions against Pakistan.

 

The
nation also witnessed members from other political parties speaking
against terror in Parliament yesterday in a show of solidarity. The
Indian Parliament, while condemning terror, has showed the ‘unity’ to
the world but it remains to be seen if the words would be really
followed by actions.   

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