Terror Attack: What India should do now?

Everybody agrees its time to take hard decisions and our soft approach is costing us dear. At the same time world economic situation is grim and we should not loose focus on Economic growth. We should remember that the terrorist were targeting our economic growth and we should not let them win.

So what should we do now?

Diplomacy – Foreign Ministry

The need of the hour is tough diplomatic stand by India. The world is in far worse financial condition than India and they too can’t afford an India – Pakistan face off. Its time we assert ourselves and claim our rightful position in the world. I suggest following diplomatic steps:

1. Stop all diplomatic talks with Pakistan as Pakistan is a divided nation without a single command. The elected representatives are just lame ducks with no control over armed forces, ISI and other organizations. We should communicate to the world the futility of any talks with such lame duck government. We should cite example of Kargil war where Nawaz Sarif admitted that army / ISI acted without informing the elected government. The coup that followed is enough proof of that. Condition is no better today.
Declare that India will not enter into any talk with Pakistan until we have 24 terror free months. No cricket, no sadbhavna buses and trains and no trade.

2. Take a hawkish stand in front of the world. Tell USA that we supported them when they needed us and now its time for them to return the favor. Play back the video to them with Bush’s famous lines like “either you are with us or against us. There can be no fence sitters.” Tell USA, Israel etc that we have common enemy and we need to destroy them. Anyway USA is bombing Pakistan border which is a proof enough that we have ‘commonality of purpose’.

3. Show to the world that we have enough proof of Pakistan hand in the terror attack. Ask US and other intelligence agencies to come and work on the case with India team and see the proof themselves. Satellite phones, level of training, sophisticated weapons will provide enough proof of its origin. We don’t care which part of Pakistan – elected government / Armed forces / ISI is behind the attacks. For us all three is Pakistan and we need to ‘neutralize’ them. Tell the world that proof is much more than ‘weapon of mass destruction (WMD)’ proof provided by USA government and failing to support India this time would be a proof of ‘double standards’. (Famous lines of Obama where he admitted that he didn’t understand why USA attached Iraq during election campaign should be used to rub the point in)

4. Force the world to deny any bailout package for Pakistan. Recently IMF gave a bailout package of around $ 8 billion to Pakistan to tide over the economic crisis. India should fight hard against any such financial support to Pakistan. We should clearly communicate that Pakistan is using these funds to fund terrorism against India and financial support to Pakistan is equivalent to supporting terrorism. Similarly force USA to stop all financial and equipment aid being provided to Pakistan armed forces on the pretext of war against Al-Qaida / Afghanistan. Tell them that indirectly they are providing sophisticated weapons to India’s enemy which is promoting terror attacks in India.

Internal systems - Home Ministry

1. Modernize the security system: Need to make use of best technology available. Make sure we atleast have equipments better than those of terrorist like Satellite phones, AK – 56 / MP 5 etc. We should be investing in sophisticated weapons & armored vehicles for our forces and not luxury cars for bureaucrats.

2. Transfer 50% VIP security budget to anti-terrorism security: Transfer 50% of the budgeted amount meant for VIP security to security of public places. This would show that politicians are concerned. It’s important that politicians feel more venerable to terror. Otherwise we will breed RR Patil (Maharashtra’s home minister) like thought process that “in big cities such small things happen.”

3. Have a single Anti-terrorism body with enough decision making powers during emergency: We all must admit that the way we handled operations after the attack happened left too much to desire. The time taken by NSG to come to Mumbai, decision time to send them, availability of aircraft for them, weapons and training, communication systems, everywhere we were lacking. There was obvious lack of coordination between different forces which was evident from handling of general public and media at terror sites, sharing of information between different forces etc. Again we here that information relating to terror attack was available in parts with different government bodies. We need to have a single body where all such information flows so that we can solve the zig-saw puzzle in time.

4. Spend more on intelligence gathering & information systems: Every country has intelligence system which generally is beyond the petty politics. We also need to invest in a high-tech information system. We need to place more CCTVs in public places / have central control rooms to monitor these cameras placed at railway stations, markets, malls, hotels etc. Al five star hotels have CCTVs. We should team up with communication companies and use their unutilized optic fibre to have option of transmitting these feeds to central control centre in times of need. We also need to guard our borders better. Accepting bribe to allow any kind of traffic across border should attract highest level of disciplinary action.

5. Cut support to terrorism: Terrorism can’t survive without support from insiders. We need to make sure that all funding to terror organizations is nibbed from the bud itself. These organizations collect contributions in name of religion from people who are generally unaware of the purpose for which these funds would be used. We need to communicate in clear terms to people that any direct of indirect support to these organizations knowingly or unknowingly would be treated as act of supporting terrorism and would be dealt with strongly. Ban all organizations like SIMI etc. that support taking law in their own hands in name of militancy / freedom etc. Any donation in cash or kind to these organizations should be considered as an act of supporting terrorism. Also make strict laws against other sources of funding for these organizations like drug trafficking, etc. Generally drug trafficking and other such traffic across international borders and terror traffic use the same routes.

Concluding remark

First step towards solving a problem is to understand the problem and admit the nature of the problem. We need to admit that Pakistan is no more a single nation with single head of state. Pakistan is a fragmented divided nation where various government and non government bodies are trying to exercise control. We also need to admit that they are getting support from Muslim fundamentalists inside India and they are prospering due to our vote bank politics.

Once we admit and understand the problem solution would be simple. As done in a war first cut the supply lines of the enemy and then strike when they are weak. We need not go into war against Pakistan immediately although we should act hawkish and should be mentally ready for it.

We should kill Pakistan by isolating them & cutting all their supply lines. We should make sure that they don’t get the promised IMF package and any other bailout. We should go for war only if the world tries to act soft on Pakistan, in which case we Indians will have to take an assertive stand. And if and when we go to war we should make sure that then there is no looking back. We should divide Pakistan into bunch of primitive tribes which would keep fighting among themselves with primitive weapons and let us live in peace.