“Don’t worry if you get caught in India. The Indian state will provide you lawyers, human rights organisations would go to town chanting that your human rights have been violated; political parties would claim persecution of a minority community; the media will scream intelligence failure; and finally the judge would throw out the case for lack of reliable evidence. So relax”.

So goes an old story about assurances given to agents of the ISI being infiltrated into India.
EU-India summit: Terror talks

The story may not be true, but is not very far from the truth. Counter-terrorism in India is in a mess. There is no cogent thought process. And on top of it all, the know-all media pundits must add their uneducated comments.

Political parties are, of course, wedded to political gains, terrorism be damned. It is both distressing and deplorable that garnering votes during elections has become the be all and end all of all political parties. The Muslim vote has become the cynosure of all political eyes because they believe these votes decide the results of an election when the electoral votes become tight.
A time for hard questions

The politics of minority votes; i.e., mainly Muslim votes, is not new in India. East Pakistani Muslims were quietly allowed into Assam from the very beginning for this very purpose. This was the root cause for the Assam students’ movement. Many of the Bangladeshi (formerly East Pakistan) immigrants formed illegal militant organisation like the MULTA. And the fall out of this ill-conceived politics created a separatist movement, the ULFA, which remains very active, with its headquarters in Bangladesh.

Similarly, the leftist government in West Bengal encouraged migrants from Bangladesh to come in on the understanding that they would vote for the CPM. Over the years, this illegal immigration has resulted in serious changes in the demographic composition of some of the districts bordering Bangladesh. This is a serious development and a time bomb for future communal clashes. West Bengal appears to have become the golden gateway for terrorists from Bangladesh, whether Pakistani-sponsored or indigenous to Bangladesh.
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The now banned Bangladeshi Islamic terrorist organisation, the Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), had set up its first foreign unit in Murshidabad, West Bengal in 2004. But while trans-border terrorists like the HuJI from Bangladesh transit through West Bengal, there has been no terrorism incident in the state. Obviously, the incoming terrorists do not want to disturb their gateway. There is no need to expand on the issue further in this column.

But the problem demands deeper examination, specially in the context of Central forces like the BSF who man the border, and state intelligence agencies who are supposed to ferret out terrorist consoles and their logistic supporters.
Investigators flounder as terrorists strike at will

Terrorism has obviously come to enjoy a comfortable political cradle in India. The issue of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is moot. Some former leaders of SIMI, which started as a social organization for the Muslim youth, are on record to say they left it after it started taking a militant stance. The arrival of Indian Mujahideen on the scene recently suggests the organisation is adopting the steps of Pakistan’s Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), an ISI sponsored terrorist group, with a so-called social front in the MDI. No one should be fooled by this double role organisation, but many in the Indian political spectrum prefer to hide behind this façade.

That some political parties have been demanding the lifting of the ban on the SIMI is no secret. This view is most prevalent in Uttar Pradesh with the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh in the forefront. The BSP was not far behind. The Congress has taken a rather ambivalent position. The Left has remained silent, suggesting their support for the SIMI, but not putting it in so many words. What good does such subterfuge do to effectively counter the rising incidents of terrorism in the country?

On the other hand in the case of Hindu votes especially in the middle class and lower middle class, it cannot be denied that there is growing religious bigotry in this section of the society. This is also a result of politics, with the Sangh Parivar – the Bajrang Dal, the RSS, the VHP with their political arm, the BJP, trying to nurture this huge population. Even then, given the history and culture of the country, militancy is largely not acceptable.

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The recent attacks on the Christian minority in Orissa, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh sponsored by the Bajrang Dal have not found resonance in the country, and in fact, such acts of violence may rebound in the elections against the BJP. Anti-minority policies and programmes are detrimental to the image of the nation overseas and damages it in more than one way in today’s globalised world.

But to the activists at the grassroots level the greater good of the country means nothing. The leadership of these groups, people such as Dr Praveen Togadia, must realise there are those outside who would jump at these developments to label India a Hindu terrorist country. This is not being stated lightly.

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Returning to the issue of Islamic terrorism, the fault lies squarely with the political parties, especially the ruling parties at the Centre and the states.

Have the intelligence and security agencies including the police been sufficiently empowered with human resources, training and technical support? The answer is an emphatic no!

Has there been a strong political will to eradicate terrorism without looking at the vote bank? Again, the answer is no.

Third, for decades the bureaucracy has been so badly infiltrated by politics that senior bureaucrats many a times look to what their political mentors want. There is now a nefarious nexus between politicians and the bureaucracy.

It is unlikely the police action that broke a terrorist cell in New Delhi on September 19 would have been carried out, had not the September 13 bomb blasts in the capital shaken the Central Government.

Human rights are very important. But this applies to all. Terrorists do not wear identity badges, and have little concern for human rights even of innocent children. In tracking and apprehending them some violation of human rights of innocent people will happen. This, however, must be kept at a minimum. There is no ideal action, and people must bear with inconveniences for the greater good.
Manmohan for global campaign against terrorism

At the same time, the political parties in the country must deeply introspect the causes, omissions and commissions which could have catalysed the tendency towards terrorism among a minuscule proportion of Muslim youth. It is time to revisit the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Mumbai blasts, the Mumbai riots, and the post Godhra massacre in Gujarat. These wounds have not healed, and no serious attempt has been made to remedy the mental and psychological damages.

The old theory that terrorism comes out of poverty and deprivation no longer applies to international terrorism or terrorism in India. Hardly any Indian Muslims went to fight in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet forces. Then why this sudden change of mind? Those involved in these activities are increasingly educated young men. Education brings in greater understanding, and hence greater sensitivity about religion and society.

These terrorists are influenced not only by developments inside India, but events and developments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in Western Europe and the US. Perhaps, they are imbibing wrong experiences. Perhaps, but not totally.
By the same author: The Marriot Message

Having said all this, it is time to look beyond. It is time to repair the damage done to the extent possible, and go forward with experience collected. It is very well to blame Pakistan’s ISI, but it does not solve the problem. The ISI will continue to do what it is doing. However, its success depends greatly on the operating ground it finds in India. At the moment, it has found very fertile ground. The Nanavati Commission report on the Godhra riots has poured more fuel in the fire.

There is very little community work either among the Muslims. This is a huge task and the politics of vote bank does not allow it. It is also time to realise that the people of the country, at least a majority, have begun thinking about what is good for them, their families, their future if they vote or do not vote for a certain candidate or party.

Finally, the issue of castigating the intelligence agencies and the police by the media. In every case of a terrorist attack, the most favourite expression in the media, especially on television, is “intelligence failure.” Then the Opposition political parties join in a most irresponsible chorus.

Do these young women and men in the media have even the remotest idea about intelligence work? Or do they see it through the prism of James Bond movies and Hollywood spy/action films?

Intelligence gathering is like looking for a needle in a hay stack – painstaking and backbreaking work sifting through thousands of reports and communication intercepts a day, walking into territories from which one may never return, working in a foreign territory with no protection and breaking into restricted areas, where, if caught, one has no answer.

There are Muslim organisations and Muslim leaders trying to work against terrorism who receive very little media space and airtime. The highest seat of Islam in India, the Deoband Darool Uloom has condemned Muslims who indulge in terrorism and terrorism at large. The Darool Uloom has also issued a fatwa.
The message from Deoband

There are statements from Asgar Ali Engineer and others. How much of these have really been given the space they need by the media? Very little. Peace does not sell, excitement does.

Then, intelligence organisations cannot tom tom their successes, since that could compromise operations. Whatever is given in the public domain is relegated by the press to some insignificant corner. Bloodshed makes for excitement, good copy, and rise in TRP. The media and politicians must understand that these agencies and security forces are also humans and work under very trying conditions.

If the country is serious about combating terrorism, we need serious mental overhauls across various levels, from politicians to the man on the street. The rest will then follow.

Article Written by: (Bhaskar Roy, who retired recently as a senior government official with decades of national and international experience, is an expert on international relations and Indian strategic interests.)