Yesterday, Mumbai commemorated four years of 26/11 with
speeches and homilies and the kind of rituals that India is famous for. The
security measures we have managed to implement since that day are also largely
limited to speeches and rituals. On ground, little has been done to prevent
another 26/11.
Mumbai’s ambitious
coastal security plans are largely just that, plans. The patrol boats have
technical issues, the bulletproof vests are still being purchased, bomb squad
vests turned out to be substandard ‘Made in China’ ones, costal police stations
still don’t exist.
All this is only to be expected. If a system as a whole is
sick it is silly to expect it to suddenly start working perfectly after one
kick.
Procurement throughout the government is mired in corruption
and controversies. The police force is struggling to deal with modernity and
technological change, quite apart from corruption and rampant political
interference in transfers and postings. It is understaffed, underpaid, and
insufficiently trained.
Instead of making serious efforts to restore basic systems
to health, our leaders appear keen to perform some ritual cutting of ribbons
that would magically fix everything.
This is emblematic of the Indian mindset.
When corruption is recognized as a problem, a Jan Lokpal
Bill starts being touted as a magic bullet. When terrorism is a problem, a new
National Counter Terrorism Center becomes the magic cure. For everything, the
emphasis is on some shiny new therapy. Meanwhile the body itself continues
wasting away.
Reasoned thinking would force one to conclude that basic
systems and processes must start to work efficiently before the larger issues
can be reliably solved. In a broader context, this would have to happen across
South Asia for terror attacks to stop.
Most terror attacks emanate from Pakistan. In that country,
the systems are weaker than here. Democracy is fragile, the courts dare not act
against terrorists – the rare judges who have passed judgments against terror
groups have had to leave the country and go underground – and even journalists
are routinely subjected to lethal attacks.
Indian Right-wing extremists, who see all of Pakistan as
one, don’t seem to realise any of this.
All indications are that the democratic government, large sections of
civil society and media, and many traders and businessmen are in favour of
better ties with India. It is in the interest of all Indians to extend the hand of
friendship to these sections in Pakistan. This reality was recognized by the
BJP as much as the Congress. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani both made
efforts to reach out to them.
Renewing such efforts will be especially important in the
next two years, as US and Nato forces leave Afghanistan, and the situation in
the region starts to deteriorate.
It is likely that Afghanistan will return to a state of
chaos, with Taliban gaining influence. Everyone knows this and is preparing for
it. The security establishments of India and Pakistan will find their interests
colliding. The terror groups will find space again, and possibly return to
action with renewed vigour.
It is important that India gets its basics right in policing
and security before 2014 to prevent murderers like Ajmal Kasab slipping in. At
the same time, the country must pursue peace with Pakistan, move towards peace
in Kashmir, and stay out of military engagement in Afghanistan. The Americans
may want us to get in deeper there, but that is fraught with danger. The Soviet
Union failed there; the US and NATO have failed. There is no reason for us to
enter that minefield.
All this talk of foreign affairs may seem far away, but it
is not. Kasab came here from Karachi because he was motivated to fight for
Kashmir. The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and ISI are said to have launched the attack
with an eye on Afghanistan, because Pakistani forces were being forced by the
Americans to fight the Taliban. Another theory says the LeT was losing cadres
to the Taliban and wanted to stop staff attrition. An American named David
Headley did the site mapping. The whole thing was quite international.
It was a manifestation of the dark side of globalisation.
No comments:
Post a Comment