The events in New Delhi since the terrorist strike by the so-called Indian Mujahideen (IM) on September 13, 2008, which killed 26 innocent civilians, should be a matter of concern for all right-thinking Indians.
The pent-up anger of large sections of our society over the helplessness and ineptitude of Shivraj Patil, the home minister of the government of India, who occupies a position similar to that of the British home secretary and the secretary for homeland security in the US, burst out with many demands either for his resignation from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh or for his dismissal if he refused to resign.
Neither happened. Patil brazenly said: "There is no question of my resigning so long as I retain the confidence of my leader." Whom did he mean by "my leader"? Dr.Manmohan Singh? No. Sonia Gandhi. He himself said so. What he said amounted to his asserting that so long as Sonia Gandhi had confidence in him, he did not have to worry about Manmohan Singh, who cannot touch him, or about the hundreds of innocent civilians, who have been killed by the jihadi terrorists in recent months.....
Dasmunshi did not stop with debunking his own Prime Minister and others who spoke of the need for additional laws to deal with jihadi terrorism. He even ridiculed the concerns of the public over the recurring jihadi terrorist strikes across the country. The same issue of The Hindu has quoted him as saying : "Can anyone predict a terrorist strike? No government can prevent it." So, to go by his words, the innocent civilians of this country have no other option but to keep dying at the hands of the jihadi terrorists.
The events of the past few days have further indicated--if further indication was necessary--as to who lays down the counter-terrorism policy of this country against jihadi terrorism.
Sonia Gandhi? No.
The Prime Minister of India? No.
The Home Minister of India? No.
The intelligence chiefs? No.
The police chiefs? No.
It is laid down by some of the leaders of the Muslim community themselves. They indicate the dos and don'ts and the government does not have the courage to go against them. There is a systematic attempt by some of the leaders of the Muslim community to ridicule the results of the police investigation into the activities of the IM. The police are accused of fabricating evidence and of targeting innocent Muslim youth in order to discredit Islam and the Muslim community. Everytime a suspected jihadi terrorist is sought to be arrested by the police, these leaders and some of the members of the community rally to his support. They either try to prevent him from being arrested or if the police manage to arrest, to frustrate his interrogation by making allegations of targeting the Muslim community in order to discredit it......
Fortunately, we are a democratic country. At the time of voting, every voter should have before his or her eyes the pictures of the death and destruction being caused right across the country by the jihadis and the faces of Sharma and other similar brave officers of the security forces, who have sacrificed their lives in the fight against jihadi terrorists despite the lack of support from the so-called secular political class.
Every vote in the forthcoming elections should be a vote against jihadi terrorism and against the political leaders who are not prepared to act against the jihadi terrorists.Let there be an anti-jihadi tsunami against all of them.
Thus far and no further--that is the message that should go across to the jihadi terrorists and their political backers and secular apologists.
B. Raman is Additional Secretay (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai
No comments:
Post a Comment