: the decade’s terrorist incidents. Apart from terrorist strikes in disturbed areas of J&K and the Northeast, 2000 had no incident; 2001 (Parliament attack); 2002 (American Culture Centre, Kolkata, and Akshardham, Gandhinagar); 2003 (nil); 2004 (nil); 2005 (Ayodhya, Mumbai, Sharmjeevi Express, New Delhi, and IISc, Bangalore), 2006 (Varanasi, Mumbai and Malegaon); and 2007 (Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Gorakhpur). The alarming aspect is that among these, culprits were identified and justice delivered in only the attacks on Parliament, the American Centre and Akshardham.
A telling example of the capability of the internal security establishment is the investigation in the Samajhauta Express blasts of February 19, 2007. Haryana Police obtained leads that the terrorists had brought the basic material for the fire-bombs in Indore and moved towards New Delhi on February 14. Beyond this there is no clarity on what happened, and to date the investigators are grappling with numerous mobile phone calls made between New Delhi and Indore. The failure to infiltrate the jehadi Terror apparatus and this absolute reliance on hands-off technical intelligence, so as not to antagonise prospective vote banks of the political masters, has led to the current situation where terrorists strike at regular intervals with impunity and there is lethargic response, if any, from the authorities.
It is only logical to assume that since all investigations are in bits and pieces, the truth may perhaps lie in an altogether different direction. A matter of record is that an influential section within the internal security establishment had a diametrically opposite view of the Mumbai blasts perpetrators, but these voices were silenced once National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan singled out the LeT in the cabinet meeting two days after the incident.
The current drift is connected to the functioning of the UPA government. For all his good intentions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has little time for internal security (his advisors boast that the PM does not need to meet the IB chief daily as he knows what the super sleuth will tell him) and has virtually outsourced it to Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Narayanan. Now, Patil is the right minister in the wrong portfolio — as can be seen from the fact that when all of Rajasthan was paralysed by the Gurjjar-Meena clashes on account of an inept state government, he was totally against central intervention and said so politely in a cabinet meeting. Narayanan, for all his sharp operational capabilities,...
Shishir Gupta
