The guards are up !

Union Defense Minister A K Antony announces decision to install radar cover for the entire coastline. What next?? Now, we wait for the terrorists, sitting in their safe havens, to devise a new methodology to gain entry and unleash terror on our country. Please……….its time, our so-called think tanks start thinking ahead of these terrorists. We should stop assuming that once they implement a successful strategy; they will repeat it over and over again. Even the common man of the country do realize that these terror merchants come up with novel ideas every time they have decided to select India as a target.

The whole of India is on High alert. The security has been beefed up in places of significance across the country, especially Hotels and Railway Stations. That was very predictable since we have witnessed such activities immediately after every terror strike, whenever it has happened. I personally don’t think the terrorists will plan another assault in such close immediacy to an earlier one, especially after one as big as Mumbai, and that too using the same modus operandi and selecting similar targets. Not to say that these defensive actions are not necessary, but we should realize that being defensive is not a very successful strategy against terrorism. India should look at options for maintaining this alertness throughout, because these perpetrators of violence will plan their acts only when they feel that our guards are down, just as it happened in Mumbai this time.

There were reports in the media, in relation to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, about Lashkar e Taiba targeting atleast 5000 deaths from this operation, as revealed by Amir Kasab, the Pakistani who was nabbed alive in Mumbai. The death toll in the 9/11 WTC attack was around 3000. So the scale of operation that these perpetrators of terror had in mind when they planned the Mumbai operation was at par with or even larger than that in the US. Imagine, a terrorist organization like LeT, whose presence in the global terror map is most prominent and whose prime targets include the World’s most powerful economic powers, designs a violent outing in India as spectacular as one executed in the US. No, don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that this is something to feel proud about. What I am trying to point out is that, when such deadly attacks, comparable to the one that struck the United States, are being planned and executed in our country, are we even remotely as prepared as that country is, in case of such eventualities.

Time and again we have proved that no such comparison is possible, as far as our readiness is concerned. The economic disparity between these two countries notwithstanding, we are left with no choice but to be as prepared as ever to face such threats. After the 9/11 tragedy the US has successfully kept such terror strikes at bay. Same is the case with UK after its 7/7. But it is not happening that way in our country. Every time India is targeted, our leaders talk tough, but nothing else happens after that. It’s a shame that, even after the terrorists had repeatedly made their intentions clear with a series of blasts in many important cities, we were not ready to tackle a situation when it happened, leave alone preventing it. It took almost 10 hours for NSG Commandoes, who led the counter operation in Mumbai, to arrive at the scene only because it had to be a political decision and our leaders who had to take this call were not clear as to what was happening. By the time such decisions were made, the terrorists were able to reach prime locations and consolidate their positions, which made the going tough for the NSG commandoes once they arrived at the scene. There were confirmed media reports about leaders of LeT making public declarations in Pakistan that India only understands the language of war, only a few days before the Mumbai incident occurred. Yet no precautions were taken. When the War on Mumbai was being reported, the media came up with stories of several instances of intelligence updates from different sources about possible terror strikes in India. If these are to be believed, all of it points to only one direction – shameful negligence or lack of political will to protect this country. From all these, are we to draw parallels between the present governing system prevalent in the democratic India and those rulers of the various nation-states that used to be India, who let the East India Company take over the reigns of this region.

Enforcing a strict vigil to prevent terrorist escalations in the future, as in the western countries, would require some levels of sacrifice from all of us. There may encroachment to certain extent on our personal space and time, for the purpose of enforcing security measures. This has been the case in all those countries who have successfully kept terrorism away from the common man. The people there have accepted this as a reality that they have to come to terms with. Let us take a cue from this and come together to tell our lawmakers that we are ready to sacrifice some of these privileges to ensure our own safety. Having said this, I would still reiterate the view that defensive actions such as setting up high security zones throughout the country cannot be treated as a strategy to “combat” terrorism. A political will that favors the nation and the security of its people and not one that indirectly facilitates disastrous plots of fanatic elements is the necessity of the times to prevent tragedies of mammoth proportion as in Mumbai.