Tuesday's serial blasts in Jaipur once again reared the country's ugly face of terror. It also reiterated that terrorists need no stereotypes or pre-identified targets to attack. A hitherto unknown terror group, Indian Mujahideen, meanwhile, has claimed responsibility for it and warned of more such attacks.
As a developing nation, why can't India have a sound non-negotiable, anti-terror policy in place?
Why do we have a soft-pedal approach when it comes to tackling terror at home? Why is India soft on terror?
IBNLive.com organised a webchat with Prakash Singh, former DG, Border Security Force on India's soft approach towards terror and terrorists. A distinguished police officer, Singh has had an excellent track record of combating terrorism in the turbulent parts of the country including Nagaland, Assam, Punjab, UP and J&K. He has also served as the Police Chief of UP and Assam.
Reproduced below is the full text of the chat.
Neeraj: Why can't we have a policy and law against terrorism that should be political party, central government-independent and only managed and controlled by a central agency like RAW and special designated courts to manage terrorism-related cases?
Prakash Singh: All that is possible. Wish we had a leader like Putin or Ho-Chi-Minh or even Mao.
Chandra: Why doesn’t India strike on terror camps? What is the use of Agni missiles if not used for such things?
Prakash Singh: Weak leaders, devoid of guts.
K Rao: In many countries which are facing the scourge of terrorism, like the USA & the UK, one terrorist attack is all it took for the countries’ lawmakers to wake up and deal with the situation. Do our lawmakers lack the courage? By not addressing this are they not becoming silent accomplices to this menace?
Prakash Singh: Our leaders will wake up only when a couple of MPs get killed. As long as the common man is getting killed, they are not bothered.
Sunil: Sir, you have been active in the service and you seem to agree with common people like me that we should combat terrorism more aggressively. So does it mean that senior personnel from security forces, such as yourself, are advising the government to take this approach, and the government is not doing it?
Prakash Singh: The Government does not listen to people like me. They like chamchas.
Indian: Is it not shameful that Chinese guys hack our websites. In the era of technology revolution why we do not push for strong technical capabilities in lines of NSA?
Prakash Singh: Even Pakistanis hack our sites. We lack the aggressive instincts.
Sunil: Sir, where in the system is the first weak link ? Is it that we do not have enough intelligence, or is it that the government is ignoring such intelligence?
Prakash Singh: Weak links are - inefficient police, poor intelligence, court delays, hypocrites who masquerade as human rights activists and of course, leaders who cannot see beyond their nose.
Jassi: How serious is the threat of Naxal movement and why is the government not talking about it? Do they also have foreign support?
Prakash Singh: Threat is serious. The Government is doing a lot of talking. Action is not commensurate. They have foreign linkages.
Kaviean: You mentioned in an answer "Detect them, try them and hang them." so, you believe in blood-for-blood? Don't we have any other option to stop terrorism...after all, Mahathma Gandhi is the father of our nation...
Prakash Singh: Gandhigiri will not work against terrorists. It worked against the British, who were a civilized people. Terrorists are monsters.
Amal John: Sir, I would like to know whether we have the capability to protect our country from terrorism.
Prakash Singh: Yes we have the capability. But unfortunately our leaders do not take the necessary hard decisions - clear policy, firm laws, prompt conviction, prolonged detention, appropriate action against neighbours sponsoring terrorism.
Ashwin: Is it possible to maintain one single main database having information about all the fellow citizens for each state so that it becomes easy to track the outsiders?
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Prakash Singh: We should have a national register of citizens. That would make the job of tracking easy.
Ajai: Why are we not being pro-active instead of always being reactive?
Prakash Singh: We need strong leaders who would place national security above every other consideration. Unfortunately we have leaders for whom votes and office are more important.
Sachin: What is this Central Govt going to do about Terrorism? Congress has ruled India for last 50 years, why are they not able to act on terror?
Prakash Singh: We don't have a policy to deal with terrorism. We have no law to deal with terrorism. Very few terrorists are convicted. Those ordered to be hanged are not sent to the gallows.
Abhinav: What holds us on being tough –lack of will or lack of sight?
Prakash Singh: Lack of will. We are a strong nation burdened by weak leaders.
Deepak Yadav: Why are we called a soft state, is it just a political word used by parties against each other or does it have some relevance?
Prakash Singh: We are called a soft state because our response is soft. We only condemn the terrorist, announce financial relief and that is the end of it. No strong steps are taken against the organization or the country sponsoring terrorism.
Chan: How will India stop terrorists coming into the country and indulging in such devastating activities? What immediate steps should government take to avoid terrorist activities in India?
Prakash Singh: Detect them, try them and hang them.
Tapan: So what is the constraint in hot pursuit or responding to terrorism the way Israel does?
Prakash Singh: No constraint, so long as you have the upper hand. Could be done vis-à-vis Bangladesh.
Neeraj: Should we adopt policy to eliminate terrorists leaders on foreign soil like Mossad?
Prakash Singh: Why not, but you need a leader like Putin for doing that.
Saswata Gupta: Sir, why cannot we do surgical strikes? Look at Israel - if such a small country can do it with all enemy states around it then what are our decision makers afraid of? Our intelligence is expected to know the exact locations of the terrorists in Bangladesh and POK. So why cant we take the other powerful countries into confidence and strike. It will put our country into a war situation for sometime but after that atleast for sometime the peace will be there because these terrorist training & logistic support camps are to be rebuilt.
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Prakash Singh: The last time we could do a surgical strike was when the Indian Army was mobilised on the Pak border in the wake of attack on Parliament. NDA leaders unfortunately developed cold feet. Pakistan has since then made considerable progress in missile technology. A surgical strike could be carried out against Bangladesh which has about 200 camps sheltering terrorists from India.
Neeraj: Can't we have policy like other foreign intelligence agencies like Mossad to eliminate terrorists on foreign soil. Like Dawood, IC-814 hijackers Maullana Masood. What’s wrong in it? What we are waiting for? They attacked our Parliament and killed people all over India. If it is enough then why terrorism can't be stopped and still people are getting killed? America has destroyed the whole of Afghanistan when terrorists killed around 2000 people there even when most of them were not US citizens. It is shameful that our PM is having sleepless night when a terrorist's brother is jailed for killing people and he has sound sleep when innocent people are dying. Indian is shining, India is next super power in Asia, India has a growth rate of 8%.
Prakash Singh: We have a very weak leadership which is obsessed by political consideration of continuing in power. National security consideration takes a back seat. Hence these problems. RAW should be more aggressive. Our leadership has blunted its sharpness.
Viswanath A: Do you think is it high time to revive tough laws like 'POTA' ? How can intelligence inputs be strengthen to tackle terrorism?
Prakash Singh: We need a law tougher than POTA today. The situation is much worse. Intelligence will have to become professional. Presently, they are spending much of their time in political intelligence concerning the adversaries. RAW has been almost castrated, thanks to Mr. Gujral and some other prime ministers.
Balbeer Tiwari: Do you think an increase in terror attacks is due to lack of the Centre’s intention to tackle the issue?
Prakash Singh: Terrorist incidents are increasing because we are soft in dealing with them. We do not go to the root of the problem and are diffident in exercising diplomatic and other pressure on Pakistan and Bangladesh. Besides, we have no stringent anti-terror law. The terrorists have no fear of operating in India.
Prashant Kumar Gupta: Is resilience to terrorism, the only answer to we Indians?
Prakash Singh: No, terrorism should be firmly combated. We need to give a strong response. Unfortunately, that is not happening, and so we have a recurrence of such incidents.
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