E D I T O R I A L

Terrorism can be fought only if we are united
By H.K. Dua

IF nothing else, the attacks in the heart of Mumbai must shake the nation out of its familiar tendency to lapse into complacency after a crisis is over.

The terrorists, obviously masterminded from abroad, struck at prestigious targets in India’s commercial capital not just for the heck of it. They have indeed given a notice that they are at war with India and whatever it stands for.

The terrorists’ message was more than clear from the earlier serial blasts in Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad, but as a nation India has been somewhat slow to grasp it.

The earlier the one billion people, the governments at the Centre and in the states, political parties, police and civil authorities and others whose job is to govern the country, wake up to the gravity of the threat the terrorists are posing to India’s existence, the better it will be.

There is no scope of starting a blame-game or scoring brownie points at a time when one of the most serious threats India has ever faced is to be tackled.

Panic is certainly not an answer; taking the threat as a challenge is. As also is a coherent strategy that must replace the ad hoc approach generally followed by soft states, including India.

While this is not the time for apportioning blame, it is time Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil – who has already come under the purview of the Peter Principle — puts in his papers to let someone else who has not reached the highest level of incompetence do the job. Shivraj Patil’s resignation from the government and its immediate acceptance will at least convey that the Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhi are taking the danger posed by the terrorists to India seriously.

This in itself will not be enough. The government machinery at the Centre and in the states has to be strengthened to the bone. Intelligence is one area that needs special attention. There are many questions that will be asked once the embers at the Taj and the Oberoi have died and all the hostages freed. A key question will be: How did groups of terrorists armed with lethal weapons managed to come to Mumbai in numbers and reach vital targets from the sea — or from inland hideouts — with impunity? How is it that no one got an inkling of the deadly project that might have taken months of planning?

It may even now take time for the authorities to figure out the place where the mischief was planned, who masterminded the serial assaults on Mumbai and other important cities during the last one year, the route the terrorists followed from bases abroad and the network they might have established in different parts of the country.

India may have to step up cooperation with other countries to find out more about the functioning of international terrorist groups that are spread over many countries and the sources of their inspiration and arms as well as linkages.

While the Indian resolve to fight out the menace cannot be allowed to slacken at any time, no one can underestimate the vast swathe of territory over which terrorist groups have spread their wings in and around India. Al-Qaida and the Taliban are fully geared to cause instability in the entire South Asia, particularly India, from their forays from areas straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are extremists inside Pakistan who cannot ensure comfort for anyone and have ideological and other motivations. Bangladesh has been allowing its territory to be used by insurgents specialising in creating trouble in the north-east. In Sri Lanka, the LTTE is no friend of India. In Nepal, there could be sections of Maoists whose aims are not benign either.

Not that India should become a prisoner of a siege mentality that can only dampen its will to stand up to the challenge.

One essential requirement for fighting terrorism is national unity and harmony. No nation can fight such a formidable challenge without its readiness to shed petty considerations that seek to be divisive and drain its energy.

Most politicians, unfortunately, do not see beyond the nose and let their behaviour coloured by considerations of caste, creed, religion or region. Other petty considerations only sharpen the divides and weaken the national resolve further.

Simply, a divided people just cannot fight terrorism or any other crisis of such a magnitude while a united people can. The people have only one choice left for them.