JK News Today Commentary
Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s declaration that his ministry will soon announce a national counterterrorism policy is a step that deserves nation-wide appreciation and it should also make other countries aware that India is not only serious about tackling terrorism on its soil but also beyond the boundaries .
This is a timely step that Home Minister has thought of , in view of the growing threat of terrorism which nowadays manifests in most unconventional fashions – not jut firing of bullets and explosion of bombs , it has travelled to embedding radicalism and extremism in the lifestyle curriculum with the help of drug trade and hawala money . This is adding layers of terrorism where the conventional methods of fighting terrorism may fall short .in future . The gaps need to be filled and for that a new policy and strategy are must. Home Minister has given an impetus to this idea .
This announcement made at the counter-terrorism conference on Thursday has wide implications and should send shivers down the spine of terrorists and their supporters within the Indian nation and even abroad . It seeks to cover all the dimensions of terrorism and counter terrorism operations needed in this regard.
In this current world scenario terrorism has grown in multiple facets , where the terrorist organizations, some known and others operating behind the shields of anonymity, have been attacking the nations in different ways. India has been in particular a target of such organizations for the past few decades. Some conflicts and sources of terrorism were inherited , others developed over the years, but the net result was that the nation bled.
India is in a peculiar situation . Home Minister has analyzed all the threats crisscrossing the land and space of the country. These threats can be met only by a synergetic approach ,and for that a national policy in countering terrorism is a national necessity.-
Let it be said that counter-terrorism was just a phrase , and there were fragmented approaches in dealing with the menace . it was considered an area specific problem and the measures were devised accordingly to deal with the situation . There was an inherent flaw in this kind of approach. It never imagined or worked to analyze the dangers and the ways to tackle the spillover effects . There was no single-minded approach toward tackling the growing menace of terrorism until Narendra Modi Government came to power in 2014. Modi changed the whole concept of dealing with this ever-expanding menace with his single line mantra: “ Zero tolerance to terrorism.
Home Minister aptly described the relevance of this strategic slogan of ‘Zero Tolerance against Terrorism’ , which he said “has been accepted not only by India but by the entire world. In the last 10 years, a strong ‘ecosystem’ has been built in India to combat terrorism.” He added that “ although much remains to be done, but if we take an overview of the work done over the past 10 years, it can be considered satisfactory.”
For him , the things don’t stop here . He wanted all other aspects of counter-terrorism to be covered in a comprehensive manner with a clear objective of taming the satisfaction in anti-terrorism operations to a new level . It is in this context that he announced that the Ministry of Home Affairs will soon introduce a National Counter-Terrorism policy and strategy to fight terrorism, terrorists and the entire ecosystem supporting them.,
For the past 10 years ,much of the structure has been shaped in giving a meaning to the zero tolerance to terrorism.. It depicted a faith that terrorism can be decimated . The approach yielded some of the stunning results with a grand success. Jammu and Kashmir , which was tagged and not so unfairly as a land where terrorism had come to stay , and it had become a hotspot of terrorism because of almost daily incidents of terrorism, killing and injuring people .Its dimensions extended beyond the terror-incident spots and the victims .The perpetrators of such acts made people to feel the fear in their homes and streets. The fear travelled to their homes ,seizing their mind and body. The Modi government has undone that fear. The biggest achievement of any counter-terrorism strategy is to eliminate fear as terrorists weaponize fear
Broad contours of the would-be counterterrorism policy have been listed, but the policy should be rich in drawing mechanisms to neutralize terrorism not only within the country but also all the threats emanating from cyber space and the physical boundaries .
