All Talk and No Action

Yesterday I attended a seminar on "Fight Against Terrorism", organised by the Mumbai Police.

I had gone in, expecting to listen to the Mumbai Police Commissioner, D Sivanandhan, a man I have come to admire.

However, I was quite surprised and very happy to learn about other panel members -

• M. K. Narayanan, Governor, West Bengal
• B Raman, Former Addl. Sec, Govt. Of India
• Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission
• Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, Former Director General., CSIR
• G. Parathasarathy, Foreign Policy Expert
• D Sivanandhan, Mumbai Police Commissioner
• A. N. Roy, Director General of Police, Maharashtra

M.K Narayanan & B Raman are two stalwarts, whose prose I regularly feed on.

Out of all the speakers, B Raman, Dr. Mashelkar & G. Parathasarathy came up with some fabulous pointers.

I mention some interesting points that emerged from yesterday's discussion -

B Raman

• Mr Raman pointed out the need to talk about our successes. Though our intelligence has failed at crucial times, given our proximity to unstable nations, we have done a good job at averting disasters
• Every time an attack happens, we shouldn't be citing the example of the US/UK. Each country is unique in its circumstances and a "one size fits all" strategic policy doesn't apply to all nations
• Victim Activism: US & UK have had very strong victim lobbies. After 9/11 every major congressional debate was attended by relatives of victims. They participated actively in the discussions, asked pointed questions to the Presidential Candidates and demanded solutions. Some even sued the governments of the Middle Eastern countries, to which the 9/11 terrorists belonged. Overall, citizens are more actively involved in maintaining law and order and often tip- off the police and security agencies in case of suspicious activities. India needs a strong activism of this sort - following up and fighting for the lives of one's near & dear ones needs to be taken seriously
• Public/Pvt. Partnership: After the London Bombings in 2005, the private sector came forward and shared the cost of development and initiatives. The elites in the US & UK, often share valuable resources with the government. In India, the elites are the most indifferent of the lot

Dr. Mashelkar

• Dr. Mashelkar spoke about his involvement with many universities and companies which were working on path breaking technologies, which could be used for better security management and intelligence inputs. Most of these innovations depend on cheap inputs/raw materials 
• Again, the need for an active and involved citizenry was pointed out. The youth of the nation is far more aware and it is about time the government took it into confidence, to face the menace of terrorism
• A billion people should not be looked at as billion mouths to feed, rather a billion minds to work for the country. An example: A unique way of solving the Kandahar Hijack would have been to let loose some chemical gas, which would have made everyone unconscious. This idea was expressed by Dr. Mashelkar, after the hijack, at some international conference. It was readily lapped up by many experts. The point being, a platform should be made available to ordinary citizens, to voice solutions/ideas which may be useful at solving our umpteen problems

G. Parathasarathy - The most outspoken, politically incorrect and refreshingly straight forward of all speakers

• Mr. Parathasarathy has lived, interacted, negotiated with all the players in this Global game of politics and terrorism
• He very astutely pointed out how terrorism always has political objectives
• His presentation focused on the idea that India needed to work on nation building, get its act under control and ensure a pluralistic economy
• There is no point in being wishy-washy about Pakistan and its common lineage with us. People to people interaction is wonderful, however, we should not forget that terrorism is a state policy that the Pakistani Army follows
• "Islam under threat" is keenly followed by the Army to further its tactical and strategic goals
• If one needed to find out who ruled Pakistan, we needn't go further. During Hillary Clinton's Pak visit, she spent about half an hour with the elected Prime Minister and President and more than three hours with General Kayani

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Question Hour saw a lot of interesting questions from the audience and from Rediff and TOI participants.

Two questions I have always wanted to, and were finally asked by someone else are:

• After 9/11 US has never had any large scale attacks. Look at us. When will we ever become like them?

Mr. Narayanan pointed out that US has had 11 threats after 9/11 while India has had ~507  threats in the last decade. Going by this statistic, our intelligence and police forces have indeed done a wonderful job. Moreover, a 26/11 kind of attack is quite possible in NY too, as agreed by the FBI.

• If Kashmir is resolved, will terrorism in India stop ?

Mr. Parathasarathy gave a sweet reply to this one: No. As mentioned earlier, terrorism has political objectives and the CIA, has in its possession, records of Gen. Musharraf openly mouthing, how a perpetual, low scale violence in India was in Pakistani Army's interest. The scenario hasn't changed much even now.

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A lot of what comprised the discussion yesterday cannot be put up here.

The panelists spoke about the changing face of terror; the professional recruitment followed by LeT in Oman, Qatar, Maldives and the likes; the role of Nuclear Technology and Nanotechnology in abating such attacks; NSG and MSG; why Naxalites should not be called terrorists, etc.

The most important point that emerged was: India is on its own, and it needs a more involved citizenry to face Terrorism.

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There were splendid arrangements for lunch after the event.

Someone remarked - It feels good to be fed by the police. Mostly, it's the other way round.

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I also wish to add that I always looked at the police in a black/white hue.

Now, I am less critical towards them; thanks to the knowledge I have been privy too.