The high profile huddles of the prime minister and the cabinet with the three defence services chiefs in the war room of the Union defence ministry in December, and the bellicose public statements of India’s foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to the effect that all options — including the military — are under active consideration of the Union government because of Pakistan’s refusal to extradite the masterminds of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, are ill-advised exhibitions of unwarranted jingoism.
The plain truth which Indian politicians across all parties and the public must learn to live with, is that given Pakistan’s demonstrated nuclear weapons capability and the anxiety of jihadi elements — who are more interested in partying with beautiful virgins in paradise than wasting time in this complicated world — to use it asap, exercising even limited military options against known terrorist camps across the line of control in Kashmir or over the border, is unacceptable risk. Therefore, instead of irrational fire-breathing, New Delhi needs to urgently conceptualise an intelligent strategy to stem the flow of terrorism from across the Indo-Pak border. Firstly, it must extend overt and covert support to the democratically elected Asif Ali Zardari government and make common cause with it to identify, isolate and eliminate jihadi groups in that country, who threaten his government as much as the public in India.
Although detailing the features of an intelligent response to the terrorist threat to India is beyond the scope of this editorial, the next national priority should be to put this country’s bloated and wastrel intelligence agencies — the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) which gathers intelligence abroad, and the Information Bureau (IB) which does the same job within national borders — to work. Over the past half century, RAW should have built a huge database of jihadi and extremist elements within the Pakistan establishment and the public, and should have infiltrated all terrorist organisations across the border. Ditto the IB within India. But quite clearly, despite reportedly unlimited budgets, they have failed to do so, as evidenced by the ease with which Pak-based terrorists invaded Mumbai by sea, to visit murder and mayhem upon India’s commercial capital on 26/11.
Yet on a broader plane, the most enlightened response to faith-driven jihadi terror would be for the Indian establishment to win the confidence and support of India’s Muslim population — surely the most secular and democratic of the Islamic world — which has been alienated by continuous acts of omission and commission of the politico-bureaucracy nexus. Only if the Muslim minority feels secure and loyal to India, will RAW and IB be able to attract sufficient minority community volunteers ready and willing to transform into valuable intelligence gathering assets. This requires a major mindset change within the Indian establishment. Unfortunately there is no sign of such awakening in the Delhi durbar where routine responses continue to be employed to resolve complex new problems.