India's Achilles' heel

India’s dismal track record of handling terror-related situations has often drawn flak from most sections of society. This non-action is precisely & rightly described as our Achilles’ heel.

Let’s rewind history. As per me, the biggest blunders we committed in tackling terror situations were:

• Release of 5 terrorists in exchange for Rubiya Saeed who was kidnapped by members of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in 1989 (fyi--She is the daughter of Mufti Mohd Saeed, a politician from Jammu & Kashmir, who has held many offices & back then was India’s Union Home Minister).
• Release of 3 terrorists in exchange for 180 passengers on board Indian Airlines flight IC814 hijacked on a cold December evening in 1999 & taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The three terrorists released were Maulana Masood Azhar (who soon after, founded the dreaded terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad), Omar Sheikh (who was later responsible for the abduction & murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl) & Mushtaq Zargar.

In the first case, the Cabinet decision to release Rubiya was taken swiftly within 5 hrs of her kidnapping. Nothing came of the JKLF & its leader Yasin Malik eventually became a part of the separatist political process in the state.

However, my focus is on the latter.

A stunned nation watched the hijack drama unfold. This situation exposed the nakedness of our Crisis Management (which has repeatedly collapsed irrespective of which political party has headed the Govt) - Absence of a National policy to deal with hostage crisis; to add fuel to fire, Pakistan’s apathy towards India; plus the relatives of the passengers creating a racket by staging dharna’s outside the PM’s residence, finally forcing the clueless Govt to succumb to the pressure & release the terrorists. (To an extent, I think this stand diminished the image of a true statesman like Atal Behari Vajpayee. As for the BJP, the ghost of Kandahar still haunts it till date).

So what else could the Govt have done? Take military action? Storm the plane while it was refuelling at Amritsar or send our commandos to Kandahar to secure the release of the hostages much like the way Israel did in Entebbe? Whatever be the Govt’s argument, it is clear that it did not have the gall to fight them & the deterrents for its muteness were - lack of political will; far too many concerns about the international ramifications that our actions might instigate; the subsequent Pakistani response to an attack or the lack of trust in our security forces.

I believe we should have gone ahead with the Military option.

Every Govt deed has a direct repercussion on its people. It is a known fact that terrorist organisations across Pakistan & elsewhere collaborate on numerous areas ranging from planning & executing terror attacks, mujahideen training, weapons & arms dealings, money laundering etc. Its an open secret that the Jaish collaborates with the likes of other radical outfits like Al-Badr, LET, Jamaat-ud-dawa etc among others. Together, they have been collectively responsible for every terrorist attack in our country over the last 10 years (in the Parliament, Akshardham, every major city- Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad) that have seen over 1000 people dead.

That’s the irony - To save 180 back then, we’ve sacrificed over a 1000 since.

What worst could have possibly happened if we undertook a covert military strike??? Worst case scenario - they would have blown up the plane & killed all the hostages. But judging the capabilities of our Army, my gut feel says only a few may have lost their lives. So was not to be. In the bargain to save few people then, we accepted the demands of the hijackers & secured the release of the terrorists....those same terrorists who are now responsible for murdering a thousand. And god knows how many more….

My appeal to the Govt - take a stand & be firm on it (as the famous BUSHism goes 'Either you are with us or against us'). Do not let anything come in the way of taking action against terrorists. No vote banks, no diplomacy, no USA, nothing. Nothing should deter you from going after them. There cannot be a middle path!