India faced more than 4,100 terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2004, accounting for more than 12,000 fatalities, according to the Global Terrorism Database.

In 2007, the United State National Institute of Counter Terrorism calculated that between January 2004 and March 2007, the death toll in India from all terrorist attacks was 3,674, second only to Iraq during the same period.

In the last 10 years, there have been bomb attacks in Mumbai, Coimbatore, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, more than once in some cities. And the latest 26/11 is like 9/11 for India.

No action; just empty talk:

What has been most frustrating in these last few days is the sameness of the events. Bombs go off, lives are lost, a home minister mouths a few platitudes, and a few days later, everyone gets on with their lives exactly as they did before. Terrorists seemed to attack at will and the real culprits are never caught. No place is safe in India.

In India, like in other spheres, we go through the ritual of dealing with terrorists but actually do nothing substantive. We have repealed acts like POTA which were meant to tackle terrorism through pre-emptive arrests.
India appears still enslaved by timidity when it comes down to tackling terror. It is time to say enough is enough and declare zero tolerance for terrorism. Otherwise, the “Incredible India” story is turning into “Impotent India”.

What did the US do?

Look at what America did after 9/11. Despite being one of the world’s most liberal democracies where you can burn the national flag or wear it as underwear, they introduced the Patriot Act which allows detention, tapping of phone conversations and monitoring emails and bank accounts in the interests of the State.
The Department of Homeland Security was set up to co-ordinate the work of all intelligence agencies. Although they are the prime target for terrorists, the US has had no terrorist attack since 9/11.

Reasons of political inaction in India:

The main reason for this inaction is that the UPA government is too soft on terrorism. UPA government has somehow wrongly convinced itself that fighting terrorism amounts to antagonizing Muslims. The fact is that majority of Indian Muslims are also against terrorism. But of course, NDA government also did not take all the necessary steps for eliminating terrorism, even though it did bring in POTA.

What should be done to eliminate terrorism?

1. There is no strong anti-terrorist law in India.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was one such comprehensive anti-terrorist act passed by the NDA government in the year 2002, but this was repealed by the UPA government in the year 2004 under the plea that it was being misused. Jago Party strongly condemns UPA government for such irresponsible action. Unless we empower police and judiciary to counter terrorism, how can we ever hope to fight terrorism? Yes, misuse may be minimized by putting in place adequate safeguards, but that does not mean that the very law should be junked. [UPA realised its folly and now it has made Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act a little more stringent under intense public pressure after 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai.]

2. There is no federal, nodal agency to make strategy against terror attacks and do all the necessary ground work: gathering of intelligence, pre-emptive action, making investigations and filing charge sheet. None of the central governments - neither UPA nor NDA - have taken any action in this regard. [UPA realised its folly and now it has set up a federal anti-terror agency called National Investigating Agency (NIA) under intense public pressure after 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai.]

3. Our police & army are quite capable of handling the situation, but they have not been given enough power, autonomy, weapons and manpower. For example, as on 1.1.2007, 1.6 lakh posts in police departments in Central & State governments were lying vacant. Why? Can a state wanting to fight terrorism afford to keep so many posts of police vacant?

4. There is a continuous political interference in police investigations. Is this a sign of serious political will to fight against terrorism?

5. There should be mandatory death sentence for all terrorists convicted in courts. But alas! Even after the confirmation of the Supreme Court, this UPA government is not hanging terrorist like Afzal. What message is going to terrorists by this shameless inaction?

6. There should be special courts to decide terrorism-related cases within 3 months. But there are thousands of cases pending in courts for years and no politician is raising his voice against such callous delays!

7. Millions of Bangladeshi and Pakistani infiltrators are roaming free in this country and the government is sleeping! Should they not be identified and brought to justice, preferably put to death sentence?

8. No mandatory preventive security measures like checking of baggage and persons are being taken to protect public places like shopping malls, cinema halls etc. This must be enforced vigorously.

9. India must be a part of global campaign against human rights violations and terrorism. It must send armies to fight terrorism, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever. Under the cover of Non-alignment, India has been too passive. It must become pro-active and form an alliance with NATO. We must be on the side of democracy, secularism and human rights rather than on the side of authoritarianism or theocracies. Unless there is one global alliance of freedom-loving countries and united offensive against terrorism, it cannot be defeated.