Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 1, 2006
PM's silence is intriguing ---- Key aides
of the Prime Minister are expected to be discrete and maintain a low profile.
Not so National Security Adviser MK Narayanan who appears to be increasingly
unmindful about the imprudence and impropriety of making public statements
that convey the impression that India is a nation under jihadi siege with
an indolent Government failing to rise to the occasion. On the face of it,
Mr Narayanan's disclosure, made in the course of an interview to a 24x7 news
channel, that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba has prepared an impressive
hit-list of targets in India, including at least one nuclear plant, is an
alarming admission by Government of the frightening scenario that we face
as a nation. It would be facetious to dismiss the National Security Adviser's
comments as either incorrect or exaggeration; after all, he is the repository
of various intelligence inputs and presides over the national security establishment.
If there were any doubts about his assertion, those have been removed by Defence
Minister Pranab Mukherjee who informed the Lok Sabha on Monday that the LeT
is planning to carry out some strikes on critical infrastructure, military
targets and religious places. This provides cause for concern; but, and more
important, it also highlights a fact that the Congress and the UPA Government
have so far steadfastly refused to admit: Jihadis have cranked up the ferocity
of their attack on India. Of course, spectacular terror attacks over the past
two years show that such denial need not be taken seriously, although it is
amusing to note that even while the National Security Adviser and the Defence
Minister were painting a grim scenario of a nuclear meltdown caused by a terror
attack, the Minister of State for Home was furiously denying the possibility.
Given the official admission, albeit late in the day, that for all its pandering
to Islamists of various hues both at home and abroad and genuflecting at the
altars of Hamas and Hizbullah, the 'secular' regime headed by the Congress
has singularly failed in convincing jihadis to look elsewhere to promote their
blood-soaked ideology. If India faced a threat from Islamist terrorism in
the recent past, it now faces a serious, debilitating threat from jihad's
army of fanatic killers.
It is anybody's guess as to how well prepared
the Government and its agencies are to pre-empt a terrorist attack with disastrous
consequences. If the Mumbai bombings of July 11 are any indication, all of
India is vulnerable, notwithstanding Mr Mukherjee's assurance that "necessary
steps are being taken to protect our vital installations and other high profile
targets." It is surprising that the Prime Minister has chosen to maintain
silence on his National Security Adviser's shocking disclosure, fielding Mr
Mukherjee to answer questions raised by the Opposition. Is it because Mr Singh
does not attach much importance to the information on the basis of which Mr
Narayanan has made his dire prediction, backed by Mr Mukherjee's statement
in Parliament? Or is it that like many other matters of state, the Prime Minister
is uninformed about something so crucial? The nation deserves an answer because
the lives of citizens are potentially imperilled. By electing not to speak
when he was expected to, Mr Singh has let it be known that he doesn't care
about the security of India and its more than a billion people.
