'United In The War On Terror'

The leader of opposition spoke in the LokSabha in a mixture of Hindi and English. The following is taken from his websiteas the "salient points of his speech"

I join each and everybody in this august House to pay condolences to allthose innocent civilians, both Indians and foreigners, who lost their lives inthese attacks. I join all of you also in paying our grateful homage to thesecurity personnel who were martyred in these attacks. The names of HemantKarkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Sandeep Unnikrishnan have now becomehousehold names. But there are also other brave policemen who risked their livesin confronting the terrorists, and the nation is grateful to them for havingnabbed at least one of those terrorists alive.

A nation’s character is tested in times of crises like this one. And I mustsay that the security personnel and civilians who confronted the terrorists haveshown what the true character of India is.

After the battle was over and all the security personnel were boarding the busesin front of Taj Mahal Hotel, an ordinary jawan was asked by the reporter of a TVchannel. "How do you feel now?" And the jawan answered, matter-of-factly, "Hamareliye kuch bhi mushkil nahin hai."

These words of the Army jawan - "Hamare liye kuch bhi mushkil nahin hai"- should become the motto of the nation in our war against terrorism, and indeedin all our other endeavours in nation-building.

The draft of the Resolution to be moved in the House, has taken note of the factthat the terrorist attacks are not isolated incidents limited to Mumbai. It hasmentioned "the acts of terror committed in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhiand other places in India."

Frankly, I was disappointed to find that the near-simultaneous serial bombblasts in Guwahati and other places in Assam in October this year are notmentioned in the draft resolution. This is a serious lapse. By any reckoning,both the scale and nature of what took place in Assam are a grim reminder of avery dangerous situation that has developed in this sensitive and strategicallylocated state of India.

India is united in the War on Terror

What I wish to state right at the beginning is that my Party, the BJP, and ouralliance, the NDA, will wholeheartedly support the passage of whatever emergesas the final draft of the resolution after incorporating useful suggestions fromHonourable Members.

I wish to state this very emphatically that we would like this Resolution tocommunicate, to all the people of India as well as to the entire internationalcommunity - and especially to the enemies of India who have waged this War ofTerror against our nation - the solid unity of this House, cutting across partylines. This Resolution should convey the unshakeable resolve of the IndianParliament and Indian People that, in this War against Terror, we standtogether, and not apart.

This point is important because it is not simply about passing a ParliamentResolution. In times to come, our country may be required to take some decisivestep if the rulers in Pakistan do not pay heed to the message contained in thisResolution. When this decisive step will be taken, how it will be taken and whatits nature should be -- these are not questions to be debated today.

But I wish to assure the nation that the BJP and the NDA will stand togetherwith the government if the moment arrives for taking a different kind of actionagainst the perpetrators and patrons of these heinous acts of terror. 

Let me quote here from a statement issued by the Core Committee of the BJP on4th December.

"The four day long terrorist attack on Mumbai, India’s commercial capital isa challenge that must be rebutted fully, visibly and tellingly. Given thatPakistan has totally rejected all requests of the Government, we expect theGovernment is assessing the stern steps that are required to ensure thatPakistan desists from pursuing jihadi terrorism. As a nationalist party, the BJPshall stand by the government in the effective steps it takes in this regard."

Let it be clearly understood by the enemies of India that in this War againstTerror, the government and the opposition are united, all castes and communitiesare united, all of India is united. 

There is not a shadow of doubt that this was yet another instance of exportof terror from Pakistan. Pakistan has been exporting terror into India for thepast nearly three decades. There is now a mountain of evidence to showPakistan’s complicity in the terrorist activity in India - first in Punjab,then in Jammu & Kashmir and later all over the country. Yet, when confrontedwith hard evidence, the successive rulers in Pakistan have resorted to denial,dodging, rationalizing, sometimes justifying, and almost always seekingprotection behind falsehoods.

In the recent terror attacks on Mumbai, what we have seen is not just a thumbimpression of Pakistan but a signature in big bold letters. The terrorists whowere involved in the marine attack came from Karachi. Pakistan’s PresidentAsif Ali Zardari has admitted that "non-state actors" from his country wereinvolved in the attack.

This half-admission from none other than the head of state in Pakistan isextraordinary in many respects. If non-state actors operating from the soil ofPakistan are involved, what is the state of Pakistan doing? What is preventingit from acting against these actors? Or is the whole thing nothing butplay-acting to fool India and the international community?

But there appears to be a new pattern in the way the ISI operates. I wouldlike to quote here from an article in The Pioneer of 29th November 2008,in which Wilson John, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation,writes as follows:

"There is evidence of a cabal within the ISI, which noted Pakistani scholarAhmed Rashid calls ‘an ISI within ISI’. This body may be primarilyresponsible for formulating and executing the Pakistani State’s jihadistrategy in Afghanistan and India, while giving the cover of deniability to theArmy and civilian establishment."

Wilson John writes further: (This is from a mail he sent me last night andforms part of his forthcoming book)

"One myth that seems to be gaining ground in the western world is that thisgroup is a `renegade` group within ISI and is not in control of the Army.Nothing could be more misleading and dangerous. When President Musharraf cameunder pressure from India and the western world to `turn the tap off` onterrorism, ISI's operations were quietly and effectively taken over by a groupof retired officers, many of whom were recruited as consultants. This allowedthe Pakistan government a clever but quite effective excuse to deny itsinvolvement in the terrorist attacks launched against India."

Howsoever hard Pakistan’s rulers might try to pretend that the ISI has nothingto do with terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Toiba, the evidence to thecontrary is compelling. A report in Washington Post on 5th December 2008mentions that none other than Pakistan's current ambassador in the UnitedStates, Husain Haqqani, wrote in 2005, while he was a visiting scholar at theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace: "The most significant jihadigroup of is Lashkar-e-Toiba which is backed by Saudi money and protected byPakistani intelligence services."

What is the goal of terrorists?

It is important for us to know - and for the entire world to know - who has beencarrying out these terror attacks, it is equally important that we know why theyare being carried out. We are sometimes shy of discussing the ideology and goalof the terrorist campaign from Pakistan. However, without a clear understandingof this aspect, our strategy to counter this menace will not be effective.

After all, for some people to agree to become suicide attackers, there must be avery strong motivation that is rooted in extraordinary zeal. And this is whereit is highly disturbing to note that that there are forces in Pakistan who areunrelenting in their hatred for India and who misuse the name of Islam to whipup the anti-India sentiment.

Lashkar-e-Toiba is quite explicit about why it wants to talk to India in thelanguage of force. In a pamphlet titled "Why we are waging jihad", it statesthat its ideology goes beyond merely challenging India’s sovereignty over thestate of Jammu & Kashmir. It also affirms that its agenda includes "therestoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India". Lashkar-e-Toiba declaresIndia, USA and Israel as "existential enemies of Islam". It is therefore notsurprising that, in their attacks in Mumbai, the terrorists from Pakistanspecifically targeted the Jews living in Nariman House.

Real target of terrorists’ attack: Idea of India

Two things become very clear from the ideological motive behind the terrorcampaign against India.

Firstly, it is wrong on anybody’s part to think that Kashmir is the root causeof Pak-supported terrorism.

Secondly, the agenda of organizations like Lashkar-e-Toiba poses a potent threatto the very Civilisational Ethos of India. Since time immemorial, India haswelcomed every faith that has come to our land. And that includes Judaism,Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism. India has always held all faiths to betrue, has respected all faiths, and never discriminated people on the basis oftheir faith.

Therefore, what we see in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and previously inother places is an attack on our tradition of tolerance and peacefulco-existence amongst various faiths.

This however does not mean that India’s response to the threat of terrorisminspired by religious extremism is targeted against any particular religion orcommunity. I would like to reiterate here what I have often said in the recentpast -- namely, that terrorism has no religion and also that no faith orcommunity should be stigmatized for the criminal acts of a few individuals orgroups.

As a matter of fact, the expression of Indian Muslims’ anger over theterrorist attacks in Mumbai is a highly significant development. Recently, alarge congregation of Muslim clerics gathered in Hyderabad under the aegis ofJamiat-Ulema-i-Hind and passed a resolution against terrorism. This deserves tobe welcomed.

After the mayhem in Mumbai, M.J. Akbar, an eminent journalist and writer, and aformer Member of this House, wrote in Toronto Star:

"I am an Indian and a Muslim and proud to be both. Like any Indian, today I amangry, frustrated and depressed. I am angry at the manic dogs of war who haveinvaded Mumbai." 

Akbar also wrote something else which this House must take note of:

"I am frustrated by the impotence of my government in Mumbai and Delhi,tone-deaf to the anguish of my fellow citizens. And I am depressed at the damagebeing done to the Idea of India."

Today the feeling of anger and anguish among the people is palpable. Why are thepeople angry? Some people have tried to direct this anger against the politicalclass as a whole, but, as more and more facts are reported in the media, thefact cannot be denied that the people are demanding answers from the rulers inNew Delhi and Mumbai.

The UPA Government at the Centre and the Congress-NCP Government in Maharashtracannot shirk accountability, nor can they pretend that they have done all thatis necessary by way of accountability by getting the Union Home Minister, theChief Minister of Maharashtra and the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra toresign.

Many people are asking: Why have no heads rolled in the top echelons ofbureaucracy? There is a survey in today's Times of India that shows thatover 40% of the respondents have held the Prime Minister accountable. After all,what the country has come to know in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacksis not just intelligence failure but the governance failure on a colossal scale. 

The Opposition is not making an issue of prime ministerial responsibilitybecause his government is now at the fag end of its five-year term. I am surethe people will give their verdict when parliamentary elections are held inearly 2009.

Questions the Government must answer

In today’s debate, however, the government has a responsibility to answer manyquestions about the total collapse of intelligence coordination between variousagencies and also the utter failure of the political leadership to strengthenthe internal security apparatus.

And I would like the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to answer thesequestions:

1) My colleague Shri Arun Shourie, in an article in the IndianExpress on 1st December 2008, has given excerpt after excerpt from thespeeches of the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, former Home Minister, andNational Security Advisor, all of whom seemed to be aware of an imminentterrorist attack through the sea route.

My question to the Prime Minister and his colleagues is this: "To whom wereyour advice and warnings directed? Are you here to govern or to tenderadvice?" 

2) In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, variousagencies started saying that the intelligence they had was not specific.However, in the days that have followed, there is clear indication that fairlyspecific information was available that a marine attack on Mumbai was in theoffing. I would like to know from the Government: 

a) What intelligence did the Coast Guard and the Navy have on Al-Hussaini, thePakistani ship that carried the LeT terrorists from Karachi?

b) The Coast Guard had faxed a very specific alert to the BSF on the arrival ofthe Lashkar ship six days before the attack. Why was this alert not acted upon?

c) Why was there a delay of many hours in the arrival of the NSG commandos inMumbai?

d) What time did the Crisis Management Group meet in New Delhi?

e) As reported in the latest issue of Outlook magazine, is it true thaton November 26, when terrorists struck Mumbai, the national security advisor wasat a party thrown by a Congress MP from Bihar at his residence and that he leftaround 11.20 pm, a full two hours after the attack had begun?

f) Why are there persistent reports of dissatisfaction in the ranks of IB andRAW, and also about the lack of coordination between the two?

3) On a more long-term policy and implementation level, I would like to knowfrom the Government the action taken on a whole host of recommendations made bythe four Task Forces on Internal Security, which were set up in pursuance of thedirection given by the Kargil Review Committee? These were the mostcomprehensive recommendations since Independence for the overhaul of India’sinternal security apparatus. The implementation of these recommendations hadbegun during the NDA rule. I would like to know how this was followed up. 

4) Post 26/11, the Government has given Pakistan a list of 20 fugitives,including Dawood Ibrahim, to be handed over to India. I would like to know whatefforts were made by the Government of India in this direction in the past fiveyears? Or is it the first time in five years that the issue of Dawood Ibrahimwas raised with Pakistan?

Amendments in the Resolution

The draft Resolution needs to be amended to better reflect the mood of thenation and the requirements of a resolute struggle against Pak-supportedterrorism. Hence, I would like the following points to be included in theResolution.

1) India shall take its diplomatic, political and operational efforts in the waragainst Pak-supported terrorism to its logical conclusion by insisting thatPakistan fully and irreversibly dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism builton its soil and being operated jointly by state and non-state actors, andfurther that Pakistan abide by the letter and spirit of the Joint Statementissued in January 2004 after the meeting between Prime Minister Vajpayee andPresident Musharraf.

2) The Government shall promptly abide by the judgements of the judiciary inrespect of the past acts of terrorism such as the attack on Indian Parliament on13 December 2001 and also the Supreme Court’s directive, after the annulmentof the IMDT Act, on stopping the influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

3) The Government shall constitute a Commission of Inquiry, headed by a retiredjudge of the Supreme Court, to go into all aspects of the intelligence andgovernance failures that contributed to the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai,and fix individual and institutional responsibility for the same.

4) The Government shall quickly initiate all necessary steps to strengthen theinternal security apparatus in its totality by implementing the recommendationsof the various task forces and committees.

5) The Government shall initiate necessary steps to enact in the current sessionof Parliament a stringent law against terrorism as recommended by theAdministrative Reforms Commission.

6) The Government shall immediately recommend to the President to give herconsent to the pending legislations against organized crime from various statelegislatures on a non-discriminatory basis.