Getting China to relent on designating Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist is a major diplomatic victory for India. But New Delhi shouldn’t kid itself about having damaged Pakistan’s terror factory or treat this as another election trophy. Sustained pressure must be maintained on Islamabad to stop supporting terrorists.
Naxal attack exposes BJP’s national security campaign pitch as hollow
The attack on special police commandos in Gadchiroli in the middle of elections puts a big question mark on BJP’s campaign pitch on national security and claims of Maoist strongholds shrinking by 60 per cent. It’s a colossal intelligence failure, with no lessons learnt from past attacks, including in Chhattisgarh.
India doesn’t need a burqa ban. It’s just a pointless polarising issue
Unlike Sri Lanka, there is no immediate security crisis or terror challenge that calls for a debate on or a demand for burqa ban in India. The country is already witnessing an over-heated and vicious election campaign. Stop raising new and unnecessary polarising issues every day. Indian voters deserve better.
Far from it. The speed with which each “ achievement “ hits the campaign trail is breathtaking. It can create an impression that more than substantive outcomes, it is the bragging rights that are prized. When issues such as national security, normally governed by bipartisan consensus, are politicised and used for electoral advantage, they become fair game for the opposition as well. They also have a short shelf life. Gadchiroli will now make it difficult to draw mileage from a robust response to terror.
On 6th April, 2010, 76 brave men of the CRPF were killed by Maoists in Dantewada. A shaken Home Minister, appointed after 26 / 11, offered his resignation to the PM. 44 precious lives lost in Pulwama. Now this tragedy. One can only hope that each incident is studied threadbare, lapses identified, lessons learnt, SOPs improved. In any case, there is no case to build an electoral narrative around national security. That is the hard stuff citizens expect the government to keep doing 24 / 7, claim no credit for.
It is only in a very specific context, linked to public security, that a Muslim woman could be requested – very respectfully, ideally by a woman – to lift her veil.