India News and Features Alliance (INFA) - Citizens Need Stake in State:NATIONAL SECURITY AND ITS DANGERS. Col. P.K. Vasudeva (Rtd.),19 Jan 06

Terrorism is nothing new in India. The country has been fighting it since times immemorial. We have been facing insurgency since 1960s in the North-East, since 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir and since mid-1980s in Punjab. It was at its worst ebb after the 1984 riots. Delhi has always been a vulnerable city. The assassination of Indira Gandhi in October 1984, the transistor bombs and the random terrorist attacks that struck the city through the 1980s led to the stepping up of security for the VIPs in the Union Capital.

This heightened security left most of the citizens out of the purview, who instead had to learn to put up with the inconveniences that accompany “VIP security”. At the same time, such lopsided security implied that it could never be foolproof. The series of bomb blasts in crowded market places in the capital, followed months after the blasts that struck some of the city’s cinema halls, and comes four years after the attack on Parliament in December 2001. In recent years other Indian cities, such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jehanabad have been victim of terrorist strikes.

The recent serial blast in Delhi that killed 61 innocent civilians and injured hundreds others has once again focussed attention of the civil society in India with regard to terrorists and killers who are prepared to snuff out innocent lives with impunity at the time and place of their own choosing.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed in no uncertain terms to Pakistan’s President, Parvez Musharraf at the SAARC meeting in Bangladesh that Pakistan has a hand in blasts which took scores of lives of young and old and was concerned with such dastardly acts of terrorism. The UN has also sent a similar message albeit somewhat indirectly to Pakistan that any kind of terrorism from across the border must be curbed and the export of terrorist activities across neighbours should be crushed.

While this has served to focus attention on those responsible for the October 29 blasts, the fact remains that as a class of activity, these incidents are bound to take place whenever those diabolical intentions planned to do so, the glory inference being that the civil society security agencies in the country are quite helpless in altogether preventing such activities.

This shows complete failure of intelligence on the part of intelligence agencies and also complacencies on the part of civil and para-military forces in Delhi who have not been able to keep a track of terrorist movements not only at one place but at a series of places. How can the Government instil confidence among civil society and ensure maintenance of peace to every citizen of the country and justify the exorbitant expenditure on the national security forces.

The crucial bit of action, which the security agencies must take for prevention of such occurrences altogether, which most of the people will argue insensibly, is quite an impossible task for any society as densely populated and porous as India’s. Even the war against the civil terrorism of all types must continue with the utmost resolve at the command of the nation’s security agencies strength and continuous efforts are made to make it a hard battle for the perpetrators of the violence.

The question that needs to be asked is: Is it being done today? The answer appears to be “No”, because if such an action was indeed taken by the agencies concerned there will be little scope to tighten the security in and around Delhi.

Only after the incident the security forces start checking the ordinary citizens at the entry and exit points of the crowded places and get slack after sometime. Would it not be a trifle for the security agencies to allot more people and equipment for such duties throughout the year, which would accomplish the task before the tragedy is struck instead of waiting for some more lives to be lost?

The same sort of preventive action should be taken to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in crowded bazaars, and shopping malls, not to speak of crowded public transport such as buses and trains where the impact of such explosions could be maximum, because of the closed physical nature of the environment.

All the major airports all over the country have stringent entry-check stipulations throughout the year, which have certainly made the job of the terrorists more difficult. Terrorists cannot be wiped out from the Indian society, but certainly the pressure on them can be increased manifold to make their existence difficult. Can we expect the national security agencies which exist for the safety and welfare of their countrymen to fulfil their task effectively by becoming more vigilant?

The step that is being mooted is the establishment of a separate terrorist intelligence agency involving different wings of the army, the police and the para-military forces that will enable the pooling of information, technical and other resources. Without the active involvement of the citizen, however, these moves will have little impact.

There is enough indication of the state slipping into its usual complacency. While the state agencies, especially the police personnel need to become more accessible, citizen groups too can come together to ensure greater vigilance whether it is through installation of closed circuit cameras or security personnel engaged in monitoring the city’s public spaces.

It is time that terrorism and the response to it evoked a reaction, not by bringing in laws that deny the ordinary citizen his/her liberties, but also in truly empowering the individual, helping in creation of a “citizen” who has stake in the state and in the well- being of a fellow citizen.---INFA