India: A soft target for terrorist?

The recent string of bomb blasts has raised some serious questions. Has India become an easy prey for terrorists? Are we as a country become too numb to terrorism?

The answer to these questions seems obvious and it is a big fat YES! India has become a terrorist’s hotbed with terror activity increasingly exponentially over the years. Over the course of this discourse I will try to elaborate my views on the problem.( The corresponding solutions will be posted in my next post)

1. Law Enforcement Agencies

A. Ill Equipped
Let’s be honest with ourselves and stop the barrage of attempts to lionise of our police force or even the CBI for that matter. Our agencies are one of the most impotent forces in the world. From weapons to technology to connectivity, name it and u will be able to find fault with our agencies. Modernisation, too, has been on the back burner for quite some time now and has only aggravated the troubles of the already badly armed agencies.

B. Corrupt and Demoralized
Corruption has been a never ending problem that our agencies have been facing for time immemorial. Even our top officers have a price tag and it goes without saying that those at the lower rung do fancy their chance of striking gold by looking the other way when it matters the most. Motivation seems to be in dire need in our agencies. Lack of enthusiasm in our agencies stem from facts like a below par leadership, negative perception at workplace and the likes.

C. Lack of coordination
India was split of linguistic lines and that division hasn’t seem to go away even a wee bit. Coordination of law enforcement agencies between various states is still pathetically low. Why hasn’t it dawned on them that they are fighting an enemy who has links across states and even countries and that the least they should to do is effectively coordinate with their counterparts in other states in more ways than one.

D. Political patronage
It is a known fact that law enforcement agencies have become a tool for political vendetta. The interference levels of the ruling party/alliance has reached intolerable levels that these agencies have by proxy become the nodal points for implementation of these parties political designs. How many times have we seen that the entire police force in our states being turned upside down when a new political is sworn into power. There have also been innumerable numbers of times when federal agencies, like the CBI, have been used for witch hunting to “take care” of the prime opposition party or the political rivals of allied parties. So it is clear that these agencies are fully occupied with “tasks” given by their political masters and have little time, energy or resource which can be dedicated for combating terror.

E. Questionable Practices
Witness harassment has been a mainstay in our agencies and this has been a major stumbling block in the general public coming forward and assisting these agencies in their investigations. Lack of a clear witness protection policy also plays in the minds of witnesses when contemplating providing help to these agencies. Our agencies have been accused with another shady practice, that of unjustified arrests. Under pressure from various quarters, our agencies make arrests that are usually totally unrelated to the case. A classic example I could point out off hand would be the detention of hundreds of Muslim youth after the Hyderabad blasts. This not only lowers the image of these agencies but more importantly gives ample reason for terrorists to further propagate their devious means.


2. Leadership

A. Lack of political will
Our leaders have been always unwilling to bring issues relating to terrorism to the common man. They fear that people will perceive this is a sign of weakness of the government and hence they might lose popular appeal. A school of thought also pervades in our political class that anti-terrorism laws/ discussion is against a specific society (read Muslims). Appeasement policies aren’t helping the cause either and in fact might be working against it. If certain section of society needs to be told off, then it must be told off. No point in trying to be nicey nice.

3. The General Public

A. Apathy
Our general public is too caught up with its own bread and butter issues that it barely has the time or willingness to confront the problem of terrorism. I guess they can’t be blamed or their apathy because one’s own problems are as important as national ones. Moreover, the general public has become too numb to these terrorist as they we hear about terrorists practically everyday in the news.

B. Lack of confidence in the system
The inordinate delay (it takes almost a decade for reaching closure in criminal cases) in criminal cases has simply eroded the confidence people had on the legal system. This combined with corrupt law enforcement officers have totally repelled away the general public from even remotely participating in important cases.