Author: Aniket Raja
Publication: Organiser
Date: November 25, 2001.
"Fifteen years of terrorism in India
has cost India 54,000 lives which no single war would have done that loss,
and terrorist organisations such as Al Qaida and Lashkar-e-Toiba are spreading
terrorism in India under the cover of jehad and freedom fight. While we
want organisations that are involved in terrorist activities in Jammu and
Kashmir to be banned by the rest of the world, why, whenever the Government
tries to ban such organisations through antiterrorist laws, it is called
"Draconian", posed Shri Arun Jaitley Union Minister for Law, Justice and
Company Affairs at a seminar on "Two Years of Governance", organised by
Organiser Forum at Mumbai recently.
Under such a situation how should
we fight out terrorism? Shri jaitley asked. Should we fight it by internationally
isolating those nations that encourage it; should we fight it by supporting
a world effort that is yet to destroy the terrorist countries or should
we fight it by winning back the confidence of the people in the terrorist-affected
areas? He asked.
According to Shri Jaitley, the September
11 tragedy has vindicated India's stand on two counts. The first advantage
is that the world has accepted India's agenda on terrorism. Today we have
heads of governments behind us saying that we cannot have double-standard
in the matter of terrorism, he said, and added we should have one voice
on terrorism irrespective of the place where it is happening. Second, the
epicentres of terrorism in Afghanistan are being destroyed and Pakistan
is being compelled to be put into a 'back-foot, which is a great victory
for India, Shri Jaitley said.
Shri Jaitley said that in the western
world, where the problem of terrorism was marginally low, they had very
strict anti-terrorist laws as compared to India. For successfully combating
terrorism, Shri Jaitley suggested ways, which include: Financing channels
of the terrorists must be eliminated, money laundering should be banned
on salutary legal principle, i.e. no one should be allowed to enjoy the
profits earned through terrorist activities; India should not rely on western
countries especially the US to ban terrorist organisations, but ban them
herself, India should develop a strong network to reach the terrorist hideouts
and last, vested interest of the political parties should be set aside
while dealing with matters related to terrorism.
Talking about the crises the country
faced throughout the decade of the nineties, particularly after 1984 as
the era of political instability began with the electorate not returning
a clear verdict, Shri Jaitley said that India had shown a tremendous amount
of resilience in getting out of those crises as the country had a clear
verdict for an alliance in 1999 and hopefully the country is at present
out of that instability.
The second problem from which we
have moved away from the past is that coalitions have proved to be successful,
Shri Jaitley said and added that our political behaviour in terms of running
the coalition government seemed to be maturing.
Stating that today India had been
successful in placing the Kashmir issue in the correct perspective, Shri
Jaitley said that earlier Pakistan used to rake up the 1948 UN resolution
on Kashmir at every international conference and used to whip up the issue
of human rights in Kashmir. "Fortunately now, the situation is far behind
us", the Minister said while. hailing Kargil as a major diplomatic victory
for India. Speaking about countries that had adversely reacted against
India's nuclear blast (especially Australia and Japan) he said that they
were virtually now with us. Besides these two countries, the whole world
is supporting India as regards Terrorism, Shri Jaitley said. Under such
a situation India has got a golden, opportunity to march ahead, the Minister
said and added, we have to prioritise the areas of our growth.
Elaborating on these areas he said
that there was a growing sense of cynicism in the Indian society and if
this persisted it would create a major hurdle in our growth. We still as
a nation have not learnt the art to identify issues that are totally national,
especially economic issues and national security, opined Shri Jaitley.
The Minister further said, that
we were going towards a mediacentric governance, whether it was business,
industry, sports or day to day governance. It is not just the glaring headlines
of the newspapers that can hijack the national agenda. Agendas are based
on far more responsible and careful thinking. A cynical nation that just
highlights or exaggerates its problems does not resolve the problems but
creates more problems for itself, Shri Jaitley maintained.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Seshadri
Chari, the Editor of Organiser, said that it had been a great pleasure
that whenever there was a need for collecting people together for a common
cause the response had been tremendous. To institutionalise all these responses
in a proper way Organiser Forum was formed, Shri Chari further elaborated
and added that it was proposed to hold such meetings in as many centers
as possible in the country.
So strong is the impact of terrorism
that what is uppermost in the minds of the people today. Is not economic
reforms or governance but the effects of terrorism on our day to day life,
said Shri Chari. Terrorism has come to occupy the centre stage of not only
Indian politics but also the international polity, he added.
Among the other eminent personalities
who graced the occasion were S/Shri Akhilesh Bhargava, Bharat Udeshi and
Raj Basantani of Sounderaft Industries. Shri Madhav Bhave recited the Vande
Mataram and Shri Atul Shah, BJP MLA from Khetwari, Mumbai proposed a vote
of thanks.