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Monday, April 13, 2009

The ghost of Kandahar

Everyone is gung-ho about the IC-814 hijack. From our PM to Rahul G, everyone is using this to take a dig at the BJP.

Tell me friends, what would you have differently if the Congress was in power? Sent aircrafts and special ops forces to an airstrip with antiaircraft missiles (with the hijackers inside the plane)? It's a shame that Jaswant Singh travelled with the terrorists (possibly he thought it might be a media op).

WHAT would you have done? Launched an Operation Entebbe?

Terror Stance - Oh my God

Rajnath Singh (BJP president) says that if BJP comes to power it would send its armed forces to Pakistan to crush terrorism. He has been gracious enough to add that we will take international approval.
Are we kidding everyone (the Indian electorate, Pakistani nationals, international community) in one shot? It was another matter if everyone was serious on terror, but this seems like a rather curious posturing. We'll talk to US, EU, take into confidence Middle Eastern countries, and the rest of the world, ask China to sit quiet and THEN we will send our troops.
Going to war is not going to solve any of our problems. Look around. America at least has a geographical security that relatively insulates itself from attacks.
I would rather have the government focus on internal security, revamp and modernize the corrupt Police force, ask traffic cops to do a real job for a living, step up border patrol, track black money movement and detect counterfeits, have a stronger terrorism law, scrutinize the activities of certain semi political bodies operating in India, and most importanly take the whole nation into confidence. But all of this calls for - unfortunately an extremely rare metal in the periodic table India uses today. War is easier (and may be messier) than all of the things mentioned above - and talk of war is the easiest.