Join us on Orkut| Heart Breaking News | Ashmita on July 31, 2008 |
Security in the Hands of Headless Chickens?
There was an interesting debate being shown on TV today. Karan Thapar was holding a discussion with three (presumably) constitutional scholars/lawyers on whether the central government has the right to interfere in the states’ law and order duties when it comes to terrorism. Their argument revolved around the fact that the constitution places the right to control matters related to law and order within the purview of individual states.
Two things struck me about this debate. First, the debate was labeled ‘Does India needs tougher anti-terror laws?’. There is no doubt that anti-terror laws may help police forces, anti-terrorist teams, and intelligence agencies gather useful information. However, to me, this seemed to be jumping the gun just a bit. Because the first thing that occurred to me was where the hell are our police forces, anti-terrorist teams, and intelligence agencies? Some of them are doing good work to keep us safe, and I appreciate that very much. But for the most part, (a) the police is too busy making money through bribes to spend time on much else (according to a study by Transparency International India, the police is the most corrupt public service in India, and that’s saying a lot! And there’s no guarantee that they refuse take bribes from terrorists or terrorist-helpers), (b) it needs to be verified whether there really is an effective, coordinated and generally on-top-of-things anti-terror team apart from those shown in fictional hindi movies, and (c) our much touted CBI seems to spends way too much time prosecuting people at the government’s will, so we never really hear what they’ve done on the terror front. In fact, just a couple of days ago, we were regaled with news of how the state and national security teams are not even coordinated enough to get together for a team meeting. So to talk about whether we need tougher anti-terror laws when we don’t even have anyone to make use of them (and make sure they’re not misused) is kinda like trying to hit the bull’s eye on a dartboard without a dart. The fact that bombs are being strewn happily all over the place does not increase my confidence one teensy little bit.
Second, terror has been recognized as a worldwide phenomenon. Countries are forming partnerships to tackle this threat, and some are even speaking at how to strike at the root of terrorism by addressing what breeds extreme Islamism, which requires coordinated efforts by all countries. And we’re still stuck debating on whether this is a national-level or state-level concern? In fact, one panelist in the show was arguing heatedly that the constitution needs to be amended before the center can get involved. Red tape alert! This guy is actually suggesting that a bill be proposed, introduced, haggled over, and voted on (most probably, in several recurring cycles) before the center puts its might and resources behind keeping Indian citizens safe. With intellectuals like these, who needs politicians and enemies? Just the FACT that several dozen bombs have exploded or been found in three different states within the space of a week should be enough to convince anyone that this is an immediate threat that needs all the resources it can get.
Its not just this past week with all the bomb scares that this issue has arisen. Our country has been under near continuous terrorist attacks for the past several years. By now, there should be some viable force in full readiness to immediately tackle the recent threats. Instead, we have a bunch of headless chickens running around blaming everyone but themselves for this mess. All I know is that given the current circumstances, the last thing if I get is a feeling of protection from our government.
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3 Responses to “Security in the Hands of Headless Chickens?”
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I was wondering that one of my RSS (not the Hindu organization) feeds is missing, till I realized that the feed of Angry Indian is NOT working. Please look into the matter.
On topic:
The security in India is definitely headed by headless chickens. The center says that we sent notifications of possible blasts in Bangalore, then for Gujrat they said we had no intel. The CBI is a bunch of fools. The Arushi murder case kept on being dragged for days and days. What the hell were they doing for so long no one knows.
Then keeping to the CBI, I remember that there was news last month I guess where some cop who was suspended or transferred due to his negligence (or involvement) in a case was given a promotion, no protests, no one to say anything.
Please tell Angry Indian to look into the RSS (not the Hindu organization) issue.
Thanks for the feedback on the RSS feed!
The CBI, given its topdog status that is supposed to be on par with America’s CIA or Britain’s MI6, seems to me to be singularly incompetent. And one big reason, as far as I know, is that it is not held accountable by anyone to perform. To add to that, it now seems to be controlled by politicians’ whims and fancies. If no one else, the public should try to hold it accountable.
yes
this is an issue which has always been on fire ..
and till now we haven’t yet got any strict anti terror laws..
man if we want to fight, make the judiciary strong …
nicely written ..