A couple of years ago when
President Bush visited New Delhi he pointed towards Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh to say that here was a person who had no
Taliban in his country.
This was not really true even at that time. The then security
advisor, M.K. Narayanan, said that he had his fingers crossed
because the terrorists could strike anywhere, at any time.
Yet what was apparent was that the terrorists came from outside
and that India had no sleeper cells inside. At least, that was
the impression. A bomb blast in Pune a few days ago, has
confirmed that Indian sleeper cells are very much there. They
call themselves the Indian Mujahideen to distinguish themselves
from militants in Pakistan.
I suspect that New Delhi knew about their presence even when the
terrorists attacked Mumbai in November 2008. But the government
considered it prudent not to mention them as all guns were
trained on Pakistan. Islamabad was embarrassed over the
disclosure that some of the terrorists involved in the carnage
were operators from its soil. However, Islamabad pressed New
Delhi for information on local sleeper cells but got no reply
despite reminders.
The Pune blast has made New Delhi change its earlier policy. It
has now admitted that sleeper cells are present in every big
city in the country. New Delhi may be correct in its assessment
that the Lashkar-i-Taiba is guiding the Indian Mujahideen from
across the border. But it is quite possible that they have their
own leaders to instruct them from within the country. There is
also the involvement of David Headley, a US national, whom India
is trying to interview but Washington is not allowing it to.
New Delhi deflects attention from terrorism when it brings in
Pakistan straightaway although it was cautious at the time of
the Pune blast. People get involved in anti-Pakistan rhetoric
and lose all perspective.
The real problem we face is the growth of terrorism on our side.
It is fundamentalism which is spreading. The youth are being
brainwashed by the extremists. That Pakistan is drowned in
terrorism is a cause of concern because militancy is bound to
flow into India. Had the two countries joined hands to fight
against it, people on both sides would have heaved a sigh of
relief. But mistrust came in the way.
Most Indians are convinced that Pakistan is involved in the
latest blast. But it appears that the Indian government now
wants concrete evidence before blaming Pakistan.
More worrisome are the Hindu extremists rearing their head. The
murder of police officer Hemant Karkare, who was probing the
Malegaon blasts, was the doing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or
Bajrang Dal. Such instances may tell upon our pluralistic
polity. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may not be siding with
the communal organisations openly. But the overall control of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on these groups endangers
our secular ethos.
After the Pune blast, I thought the consideration of peace and
harmony would bring all parties together on one platform.
Unfortunately, the BJP was the first one to politicise the
blast. It picked on the government for not doing enough to make
people feel safe. No doubt, the government should be doing more
to combat terrorism. But this does not mean that the party
should withhold its cooperation from the government. The danger
posed is not to the Congress party alone, but to the people in
general.
The BJP should have learnt a lesson from the manner in which the
entire nation stood behind actor Shah Rukh Khan, a Muslim. The
Shiv Sena, a Hindu outfit, had to make an ignoble retreat. And
the issue was Shah Rukh Khan’s criticism of the Indian Premier
League for not having allowed Pakistan cricketers to participate
in the T20 games.
Terrorism endangers the entire region. Talks on the subject have
to be prioritised. Yet there is no bar on any party to raise any
other subject. But the point here is that whenever talks between
India and Pakistan are to be held, the BJP reiterates its
one-agenda stance: anti-Pakistan.
As coincidence has it, the terrorists struck Pune just before
the talks. During the days of Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP
hawks were reined in by his foresight to reach an understanding
with Pakistan. After his electoral defeat, the RSS voiced its
aggressiveness through the BJP. Its session at Indore shows
that. The hostility towards Pakistan was open. If the talks are
not a way to sort out things, then should India take to arms?
They have behind them the support of a widely watched television
channel which talks about ‘aman’ but spews venom on Pakistan.
This also goes for Indian and Pakistani ex-bureaucrats who have
suddenly become Track II. They are the ones who are responsible
for embittered India-Pakistan ties.
When I was travelling with then Prime Minister Vajpayee by bus
to Lahore he called me before we reached the border. He showed
me an urgent message about the killing of 11 Hindus in the Jammu
region. He said some people, even in his own party, would
criticise him for going ahead with the visit despite the
killings. Yet he completed his mission and accepted a time-bound
agreement. It was obvious to him that what happened in the Jammu
region was meant to derail the talks even before they were
firmly on track.
The Pune blast was a similar effort. New Delhi said rightly
within an hour of the blast that it would not display a
knee-jerk reaction and did not cancel the talks. The important
lesson to learn from the Pune blast is to continue talking,
whether the meeting of the foreign secretaries is a success or
not. There is no option to a dialogue. America and the Soviet
Union kept on talking throughout the Cold War. Both India and
Pakistan should tear a leaf from their book.
