In India we may not have so far seen the kind of suicide bombing that killed nearly 150 people in Karachi last Thursday, but we are seeing an alarming increase in terrorist violence. Hyderabad, Ajmer, Ludhiana within weeks of each other most recently and before that a long, long list. Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, to mention only a handful of Indian cities that the jihad has targeted since Dr Manmohan Singh became prime minister.

After every act of violence we have had the same response. The home minister or the prime minister makes a flying visit to the scene of the carnage and announces that terrorism will not be ‘tolerated’. The culprits will be hunted down and punished. Then nothing happens, nothing at all till the next attack when the exercise is repeated.

If in between carnages the police tries to do more than make routine noises, it faces a barrage of criticism from secularists and human rights activists and all attempts at real investigation die before they begin. Privately, policemen and politicians admit that they work with only half a heart because they are afraid of being labeled anti-Muslim. It is the fear of offending ordinary Muslims that deters real action against known terrorist front organisations like SIMI and hundreds others of similar genre.

The Indian state cannot be accused of directly nurturing terrorist groups as the military governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh have done, but not taking firm action to destroy our home-grown Islamists is nurturing of another kind.

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