DOST KHAN
JAMMU: Indian political class, the so-called civil society, the self-proclaimed experts and above all the media is gushing over Pentagon Report nailing Pakistan for using militant groups as proxies to unleash terror in India. The assessment report by the US Department of Defence to American Congress has sent all of them frenzy as if the terror war has been conquered. Instead of tackling terrorism, India feels job done by remaining engaged in convincing the world, especially the US, about Pakistan’s direct involvement in terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere in the country. This is sickening. This is what the nation has been witnessing with grimace during the past two and half decades. This speaks volumes about lack of will in taking on the rogue nation that has held the mighty Indian state virtually hostage to her tentacles. Did Americans, for a split second, wavered in its resolve to deal with terrorism by moulding the international opinion? They kept their front-ranking ‘ally’ in global war against terrorism in dark while nailing the most notorious terrorist in his rat-hole of Abettabad in Pakistan. See how Americans continue to carry out drone attacks in interior Pakistan even now only to target the al-Qaida, Taliban and Lashker cadre only because they have worked against the US interests from time to time. Do they consult India or any other country while framing up response to terror attacks?
‘We will come and get you’: This is how the firm and resolute America send a terse message to terrorists while observing 9/11 mayhem a few years ago. The then US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had reflected the national mood by saying, “The people who attacked us on 9/11 were trying to weaken America, trying to hurt America. And instead they strengthened us”. Equally inspiring were the words of the then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “America needed to fight terror on distant battlegrounds, but also needed unity in domestic politics”. In contrast, Indian politicians have been playing a blame game over tackling terrorism which in return provides much needed oxygen to terrorists, their over-ground sympathisers in Kashmir and mentors across the border. Today when Narendra Modi’s BJP is ruling the country, Sonia Gandhi’s Congress feels the nation wanting in taking appropriate action against Pakistan. What Congress did during the past one decade or years earlier in different spells of its government is not hidden from anybody. Remember how Indian leadership baffled after the chilling Delhi High Court blast, the politicians got embroiled in a shameful blame game. The then Home Minister P Chidambaram locked horns with the opposition BJP on the issue of tackling terror. The nation was enthralled to see BJP sounding inspiring while raising fingers at the Centre for failing in combating terror. Used to talk about zero level terrorism, the BJP led NDA Government is still struggling to frame up its Kashmir Policy and the road map for dealing terrorism and border incursions.
The Pentagon Report has not revealed anything new which is not known to an average Indian. That Pakistan is involved in terror regime against India from top to bottom is a gruesome fact that has been bothering every compatriot for long. They need no certification from Pentagon or any other country. They only want the Indian society as a whole-the politicians, the administrators, the civil society, the media-to show unity and resilience in facing the menace of terror monster, which is identified. They want the terror roots and its cronies in parts of the country to be dismantled as a national agenda. They want their rulers not to get buoyed or disheartened on account of human rights accusations while dealing with terrorists. They need to emulate from what the former US Vice President Dick Cheney insisted while defending the “war on terror”, launched after the 9/11 attacks, and the use of tough interrogation techniques – denounced as torture by rights groups, saying that the interrogations provided valuable counter-terrorism information.
It is time for Indians to have some sort of introspection and work in cohesion to rid the nation from the menace of terrorism rather than clap over Americans nailing the mentor of terrorism in the neighbourhood. The irony of this nation is that the vote bank politics, corruption and the inherent timidity in the political class has emboldened terrorist groups and their over ground sympathisers, who make them to surrender by exploiting their timidity and political expediencies.
