One year is a long time in history. Unfortunately, 26/11 is moving fast towards becoming our history than being relevant to our present. And we as Indians are the ones who are responsible for it. We are a changed lot today than what we were in the immediate aftermath of Mumbai attacks. No one is talking of revenge any more as we were then. We are all talking of justice and demolition of terror infrastructure in Pakistan. Our Prime Minister even has had official meetings with both Zardari and Geelani, something which would have been unthinkable when 26/11 happened.

The US pressure has not really worked so far. Our Chief of army has even gone to the extent of saying that 2000 more terrorists are waiting in terror camps in Pakistan to be inducted in India. Fortunately, winter is just around the corner when snow levels may not permit this to happen so easily. What we as Indians do not understand is that ‘HATE INIDA’ is the prime motivator for their army and govt, which is run by army in the first place. If they were to do something which would benefit India it would go against their own basic principles. The recent charge sheeting of Lakhvi and Zarar Shah along with a few others (including Ajmal Kasab who has been named as a proclaimed offender) by a Pakistani court is just a face saving exercise which Pak keeps doing to keep Americans in good humor. Even if they were to punish these guys for 26/11 attacks it doesn’t really solve the entire problem which is ‘HATE INDIA’ principle. It is this principle which will not change till such time the Kashmir issue is amicably resolved and even then there is no guarantee.

US may keep pressurizing them but to believe that Pak will demolish all the terror camps in the country would be rather naive. They have not done it for the last eight years after 9/11 when America started this war on terror and they will not do so now. Actually, more so now when things have cooled down a lot here in India, which were rather hot immediately after 26/11. They will continue with their few face saving exercises like indicting Lakhvi and others but nothing beyond that. Period. US pressure be damned.

That leaves India with three options. These are-

1. To resolve the Kashmir issue amicably at the earliest. By amicably I mean, to Pakistan’s satisfaction which implies handing over our part of Kashmir to them. This, off course, would be absolutely unacceptable to any Indian.

2. Launch a full scale war on Pakistan. Well, if we did not launch a full scale war even after Kargil and 26/11 we are not going to do it now either. This option is an absolute no no, for now. But this may change in case there is another horrific attack like 26/11.

3. Make our internal security and intelligence so strong that a repeat of 26/11 does not happen. This is something which should have been done so as to prevent 26/11 in the first place but nonetheless, if we are able to achieve this even now it would be worth it.

Given the way things are though our govt keeps saying that they are doing what is required to be done all indications are that it is not enough. Establishment of National Investigating Agency,  placing NSG commandos at more places, creating a dedicated strike force for dealing with a similar situation in Mumbai are all steps in right direction but they are all incomplete. NIA, at the moment seems to be a toothless agency which can only investigate such events not prevent them from happening. Also, they can only investigate if a case is referred to them which means loss of valuable time if and when another attack takes place.

Similarly, next attacks will quite likely not take place where NSG is located. What happens then? This kind of force, not necessarily NSG, should be available in every state at two or three places if not more with fast dedicated helicopters at their disposal. Mumbai strike force may be a step in this direction but other states too need to do this. And even after 26/11 if this realization has not dawned on them I really wonder when it will? Also, these troops need to be given the best training and equipment which they can take on loan from the army to begin with.  Not just the equipment but  personnel and infrastructure for training  can also be taken on loan from the army. Police force in states too needs to be given the kind of training and equipment required for such purposes. I wonder why the state govts are not doing this? Are they waiting for something similar to happen in their states or what? I really don’t know. I mean, you don’t really have to be a rocket scientist to draw these lessons.

If our govt were to only allocate a couple of billion dollars to this cause they would do a big service to this country. They can create a separate Anti  Terror Fund in which this money can be kept and utilized by both central and state govts. A mechanism for such a fund and its utilization should have been in place by now but unfortunately, it is not so. Hope our govt wakes up now.

Actually, there is a fourth option which is a mix of the second and third options. What I’m saying is that while we keep preparing for war we don’t really launch it but at the same time make our internal security so strong that terrorists cannot strike us. On the face of it we may be doing exactly this but my option is slightly different. What I would suggest is that while we can keep harping on Pakistan to dismantle the terror mechanism we take our military might to the next level wherein we become an international force to be reckoned with. We should not try and force a solution on Kashmir till that happens. It doesn’t really matter if we take another decade or so for this. If we have lived with the Kashmir issue for 60 long years we can sure live with it  for ten more. When we reach that level there will not be any requirement of a war with Pakistan. Yes, they too are progressing but to reach a decisive level vis-a-vis India they will probably take more than a few decades.

Some would say that even then we will need to launch a war to take the whole of Kashmir. To such an argument I would say that we will not need to do this if we accept that our part of Kashmir is enough for us. When we have the military might that I’m talking about even Pakistan will agree to this solution but not now. For Indians too this is a very difficult thing to accept but I don’t think we have any other option because launching a war means nuclear holocaust. Remember, they have no such policy of ‘No first use’? We therefore may have to bear the first brunt of this nuke attack. And lets not have any doubts about it. They will use the nukes even if they know that we will retaliate. So go ahead and take your pick. Nuke holocaust or only the Indian part of Kashmir.

There may be some talk of making our Kashmir borders irrelevant wherein both countries have equal rights over the area and some such stuff but I don’t think it is workable. There is so much of distrust and animosity between the two of us that this will not succeed.

When 9/11 happened America converted this crisis into an opportunity. They ensured that another 9/11 does not happen again on their territory and they have succeeded. They did not let 9/11 just become history before they dealt with their present. Can we, as Indians let 26/11 just become history without dealing with our present? The question is for all Indians to answer for. And I’m not talking about candle light vigils or some such stuff here.

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Posted on November 26th, 2009 India calling • Tags: 26/11, 9/11, attack, holocaust, Mumbai, nuke, response, Terror, war. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback