An unacknowledged war

[surajmal]

The biggest threat to India's security today is jihadi terrorism. Have you ever heard any of our political leaders acknowledge this? Have you heard them admit that this jihad is a war against the very idea of India and that its ultimate goal is to see this country divided once more in the name of Islam? Have you heard them tell the people of this country in clear terms that what the Pakistani army did after its Kargil misadventure was arm, finance and train Islamist groups to wage an insidious new war against India more lethal than those fought on battlefields? Quite the opposite has happened since Dr Manmohan Singh's 'secular' government came to power in 2004. On more than one occasion, senior Congress leaders have gone out of their way to emphasise that the real threat to India's security comes from 'saffron terrorism'. Rahul Gandhi said this to an American ambassador according to Wikileaks, and his political mentor Digvijay Singh publicly promoted a book whose title was, '26/11: an RSS Conspiracy'. The most recent statement of this kind came from the Home Minister himself when he charged the RSS with running terrorist training camps. No sooner was the statement made than the Home Minister got instant support from Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. If India's most wanted terrorist had listened to the Home Minister's statement after last week's Hyderabad bombings, he would have been totally assured that the Government of India was not serious about fighting jihadi terrorism. All that Sushil Kumar Shinde could come up with as words of comfort was a short catalogue of what he did in Hyderabad. "Along with the governor, the chief minister and other colleagues, I visited the places where the incidents took place and then we went to the hospital and met some of the non-critical patients. We talked to those who had suffered." From the Prime Minister we heard that the guilty would not go unpunished and, from Sonia Gandhi, that she suffered pangs of sorrow and anguish. Well, the time has come to admit that this sort of namby-pamby response is the reason why we are no closer to winning the war against jihadi terrorism than we were four years ago when Mumbai was attacked. After the 26/11 attack there should have been a concerted strategy, a robust time bound plan of action and it is time to ask why this did not happen. Did it not happen because of fears that it might alienate Indian Muslims? If this was indeed the reason, then it is hard to think of a bigger insult to them because it amounts to an admission that all Muslims support jihadi terror. Is this what 'secular' Congress leaders secretly believe? If, after the 26/11 attack, the Government of India had been serious about winning the war against terrorism the first thing that would have happened would have been improved policing at the lowest level. No matter how many national intelligence agencies we set up, real intelligence will only come when local policemen are trained in counter-terrorism. As someone who spends much time in Mumbai I can tell you that nothing has changed on the ground. Every now and then, armoured cars and armed policemen appear in the streets but this is usually to reassure visiting VIPs and not ordinary citizens. This city is as vulnerable as it was four years ago and so is every other Indian city. When P Chidambaram was in charge of the Home Ministry, he laid a lot of emphasis on setting up a National Investigative Agency. There is no harm in this if simultaneously we had seen state governments cooperate by setting up counter-terrorism units in local police stations. Without this happening, there is not the smallest chance of India winning the war against jihadi terror. I use the word jihadi deliberately because I am tired of hearing politically correct nonsense about how terrorism has no colour and no religion. It absolutely does. When jihadi groups kill innocent people in their cowardly war, they do it for what they believe is the greater glory of Islam. They believe infidel lives are worthless. And, when Hindutva groups try to counter this with their own cowardly attacks on unarmed people in bazaars and mosques, they do it because they believe they are defending the Hindu faith. What is not right is the consistent effort of senior Congress leaders to portray Hindu terrorist groups as the real threat to national security. They are not. The real threat to India's security comes from jihadi terrorist groups because they are financed and trained by the Pakistani army to the point that they act as its fifth column. Until those in charge of national security acknowledge this, there is every likelihood that jihadi terrorism will continue to spread its poison through the veins of India.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/an-unacknowledged-war/1078709/1 I think Terrorism of Congress is the biggest threat to the country but at least someone in the media is acknowledging the 2nd biggest threat.

[Clarke]

TBH UPA has declared Naxalism as the #1 threat and considering its reach across a third of India, it seems to be the biggest threat :dontknow:

[surajmal]

TBH UPA has declared Naxalism as the #1 threat and considering its reach across a third of India' date=' it seems to be the biggest threat :dontknow:[/quote'] The leadership of Naxals are a threat but the larger majority are just poor people asking for their share. I don't see a problem with that. Infact, I think it is a good thing because if all those poor people adopted the "Chalta Hai" attitude of the middle class, then India would be truly ****ed.

[jairamesh]

Where to start when we have these situations:

On more than one occasion, senior Congress leaders have gone out of their way to emphasise that the real threat to India's security comes from 'saffron terrorism'. Rahul Gandhi said this to an American ambassador according to Wikileaks, and his political mentor Digvijay Singh publicly promoted a book whose title was, '26/11: an RSS Conspiracy'.

or not discounting the number of times Musharraf has come to India as a TV panelist.

[surajmal]

Where to start when we have these situations: or not discounting the number of times Musharraf has come to India as a TV panelist.

That infuriates me to no end. I mean the guy should be put behind bars as soon he steps foot on this land. But these chewtiyas are hoisting him as guest of honor in debates and conventions. ackthoo.

[surajmal]

Hyderabad shows Congress isn't incapable, its complicit

In pursuit of its crass vote-bank politics, ever since it came to power in 2004, the Congress has not only dismantled anti-terror instruments like Pota but also allowed jihadis a free run of India It's amazing how "Sources" in security and intelligence agencies rush to plant information in media, especially news television channels, within minutes after a terrorist attack in this country. As much was witnessed last Thursday when two bombs went off within minutes of each other on a crowded street of Dilsukhnagar of Hyderabad (a third bomb was later found and defused), killing at least 16 people and injuring scores of others. As is usually the case, the excited chatter of blabbering television anchors and reporters soon gave way to ÃÆxclusive stories quoting ÃÔources in security and intelligence agencies on possible groups behind the attack, how there was prior knowledge of ÃÔomething being planned but nothing was done by way of preventive action, and the need to ÃÓevamp our intelligence gathering system. Much of what is said is as unintelligible as the commentary on and reportage of events. What is amazing is that these ÃÔources do not feel the necessity to push the envelope and force their organisational and political bosses to take pre-emptive action. For instance, if there is adequate knowledge of sleeper cells of jihadi organisations, then why arenÃÕ those cells busted before they can be activated to carry out a terrorist attack? And if these ÃÔources have tried to force precipitate action but failed, and feel frustrated by the ÃÔystem? then they should boldly blow the whistle and expose their bosses who are no less than collaborators. That is unlikely to happen, for these ÃÔources either do not exist or, if they do, they are just as thoroughly useless as the bosses to whom they report to in the organisational hierarchy and political leadership of the day. That said, little or no purpose is served by getting distracted by the mediaÃÔ obsession with grabbing eyeballs by needlessly sensationalising events that have a bearing on national security. It would be in order to point out the sharp contrast between the coverage of a terrorist attack in our media and that of, say, Israel. While our media, more so news channels, do not hesitate from indulging in what can be described, without fear of contradiction, as reckless kite-flying, the Israeli media would double check every word and weigh every utterance before putting it out in the public domain. An example would suffice. The Jerusalem Post had commissioned me to report on the terrorist bombing of a car in which the wife of the Defence Attache posted at the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi was travelling and the subsequent investigations and arrest of a key suspect in the crime. Each story was checked, edited, revised and played back to me for approval before being printed. On the first day I was slightly irritated by what to me appeared to be gratuitous changes made in the copy, but over the next few weeks I sensed a pattern to the fine but rigorous filtration process. It so happened that I was in Israel a couple of months after the incident and mentioned my experience with the desk at The Jerusalem Post to some senior journalist friends. They said it was a standard practice, largely meant to keep speculation and crucial information out of the public domain. It made eminent sense. Speculation does not change facts or alter the reality. And crucial information if put out in the public domain, even in bits and pieces, can seriously compromise both investigations and the larger counter-terrorism strategy. Much as the media would want it that way, the state cannot combat terrorism, either by way of preventive strikes or reactive action, in the glare of television cameras or by taking the media into confidence. It does not work that way anywhere in the world; in India it is doubly undesirable because the integrity of many journalists is, to put it mildly, suspect. Public memory is notoriously short but let us not forget that a senior journalist on the rolls of Deccan Herald was arrested for plotting jihadi attacks not many months ago. There are others who would happily sleep with IndiaÃÔ enemies for either ideological reasons or to flaunt their ethical promiscuity. What should instead worry us is the Congress-led UPA GovernmentÃÔ unwillingness to fight terrorism. It would be easy, and is indeed tempting, to describe the stunning failure of this regime to wage war on terror as incapacity and inability. But that would be patently untrue. Ever since the summer of 2004, the Congress has actively followed a policy of dismantling the counter-terror mechanism, including a legal framework, that had been put in place by the BJP-led NDA regime. This is because the Congress believes the best way to consolidate the Muslim vote in its favour is to go easy on terrorists. Crude as it may sound, that is the truth. Hence the speed with which Pota was rescinded; hence also the reason why senior Congress leaders known for their proximity to the partyÃÔ first family have visited Azamgarh to commiserate with the families of terrorists, cast aspersions on Delhi Police for its raid on Batla House (External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid wants us to believe Congress president Sonia Gandhi wept inconsolably when shown visuals of Indian Mujahideen terrorists responsible for bombings in Delhi who were killed in that raid), use the CBI to penalise upright police officers who take on jihadis (as was done with policemen involved in intercepting and killing LeT operative Irshad Jehan and her associates in Gujarat) and defame Hindus (as was done first by P Chidambaram who spoke of ÃÔaffron terrorism and then by his successor in the Home Ministry Sushil Kumar Shinde who luridly accused the BJP and RSS of training éindu terrorists? in the hope that this will titillate the fanatics among Muslims. The Congress maligns Hindus, secure in the knowledge that Hindus are a fragmented community who place caste and community above self-dignity; the educated feel that it is imperative to demean Hindus and Hinduism to prove their secular credentials; and, whether we like it or not, abusing Hindus and Hinduism does have an appeal among non-Hindus. If the ruling political elite, namely the Congress, is to blame for compromising national security in the interest of crass vote-bank politics, spineless bureaucrats are guilty of facilitating this dangerous pandering to minorityism. The Union Home Secretary seems to be more keen on sucking up to the Home Minister and seconding his absurd assertions about éindu terrorism than in going after the real terrorists. He is also the person who showered fulsome praise on Delhi Police after the terrible gang-rape and murder of a young woman, glossing over the serious lapses of the police that allowed the criminals to commit their hideous crime. He should now hold another media briefing and inform the nation as to why he, his fellow babus, the Intelligence Bureau and the Andhra Pradesh Police, all kept in clover by us tax-payers, did not act on the information that Indian Mujahideen activists arrested by Delhi Police in October 2012 had visited Dilsukhnagar and surveyed the same spot where the bombs went off last Thursday. Were they busy concocting tales about éindu terror to keep the Congress in good humour? We can be sure it was not incompetence that caused the failure.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/53483-hyderabad-shows-congress-isn%E2%80%99t-incapable-it%E2%80%99s-complicit.html