Author: Diwakar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 28, 2007
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: But who
is doing the denying? What is the role of the intellectuals in this denying?
For example, when the terrorists attacked Mumbai last year, and the police
started to arrest the culprits, the media and the intellectuals started a
shrill campaign accusing the government of deliberately targetting the Muslims.
What they really implied is that for every Muslim arrested, the government
must arrest five Hindus to maintain the demographic balance. It does not matter
to them that the Hindus are the victims of the terrorism. The cynicism of
the people is not so much due to the politicians who are indulging in a programme
of Muslim vote-bank, but due to the media indulging in a hollow and hearless
analysis.]
It's difficult to escape the sense of deja
vu. The response to the latest terror outrage in Hyderabad was followed by
the by-now familiar and stale drill: vows to bring the culprits to book, levelling,
even if well-founded, charges against Pakistan and Bangladesh, condolences
for victims and review meetings by the Prime Minister downwards.
People cannot be accused of being cynical
if they dismiss these declarations as hollow and seem resigned for the next
jehadi strike. For a country that for more than two decades now has been bled
by relentless terror attacks, India has offered knee-jerk and sporadic attack-specific
responses. In fact, it has been in a state of denial, first by claiming that
no Indian was messed up with Al Qaida, and when that proved to be wrong, describing
this vicious campaign of violence as the handiwork of a "handful of misguided
youth".
The response has to change if the bleeding
is to stop. The first corrective will come by recognising the huge problem.
The right diagnosis is a pre-requisite for cure, and it ranges from acknowledging
that the scourge is no fabrication by agencies to creating synergies among
agencies, strengthening policing and by creating the necessary political will.
Just raising elite teams isn't enough nor
is holding out threats to Pakistan sufficient. The key to the success of an
honest counter-terrorism initiative lies in painstaking and sustained campaign
to strengthen the criminal justice system and law enforcement machinery.
For all our aspiration to be a superpower,
the harsh fact is that a lethal blend of corruption, inefficiency and political
meddling have enfeebled our criminal justice administration and have sapped
the police of will and strength to take on those killing the innocent.
Investigation into the Hyderabad carnage is
still on, but there are pointers that the loss of life on Saturday could have
been averted.
