Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
To the credit of India’s consistent efforts with the policy of Zero tolerance against terrorism, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the man behind the 26/11 Mumbai massacre is extradited to India and is now under the hammer of justice, aggravating the wrenching harrowing memories of terror attacks in India. This also surfaced many questions alive: are we prepared for new integrated strategic security risks something like of ‘Israeli pager attack’ breaking the backbone of Hezbollah without firing a single bullet in 2024 or the ‘New Orleans’ New Year carnage by former US Army veteran using a pickup truck having an IS flag or ‘car-ramming’ attack in Munich now becoming a terror phenomenon called as vehicle-ramming attack or vehicle as a weapon or VAW attack? Are we prepared for any foreign fuelled, financed and fabricated fundamentalist riots that ravage the Bangladeshi streets with violence and viciousness, or something like violence mapping the streets of Bengal aftermath of the enactment of the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025?
The less pondered report, the Global Terrorism Index- 2024 released by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), indicates that the deaths caused by acts of terror have increased by 22% since 2017 despite the number of such attacks falling by 22%, indicating the increase in their lethality by 26%. The report points out that Burkina Faso and Pakistan have ranked 1 and 2 respectively as the most affected countries due to terrorism, India at rank 14th is above Russia (16th), the USA (34th) and China (49th), signifying the inevitable threats level of uncertain security risks. Many such reports, both national and international warned that terrorism, extremisms, fundamentalism, separatism and secessionism are not eliminated or extinguished but only remain hidden under the carpet waiting to get integrated and invigorated and attack India as soon as the security apparatus of the state becomes fragile or lackadaisical.
The Canadian regime’s attitude of terminating the diplomatic ties after the Nijjar killing, the US indifference to India’s concern during the allegation of a plot to kill Pannu, and the recent security breach of S. Jaishankar during his visit to London, are a clear marker of global powers not willing to loosen the ‘pawn of Khalistani’, against India where nothing like Khalistan ever existed, nor will. The Western nations, mostly the members of the ‘Five Eyes Alliance’ in their bid to balance India are fuelling, financing, and fabricating this issue at the level of their domestic politics, to pressurise the Indian government as and when required to garner strategic leverage. India however, has done well not to allow any such foreign policy hawkish haemorrhage to impact either- its domestic determinants or foreign policy.
India, as in the categorical words of Professor S. D. Muni, never used the ‘regime change’ strategy in her foreign policy and democracy has always been the ideological preference in the construction and pursuit of its domestic and international policies, now found herself encircles by non-democratic imperialist and interventionist regional and global powers. The geographical positioning of India inside a cluster of non-democratic regimes accelerating towards radical fundamentalism and terrorism with the organised crime tycoons operating freely with the help of state apparatus is a natural threat to India’s political, social and economic sovereignty. India’s central position between the Golden Triangle and Golden Cresent is facilitating the extension of illicit drug trafficking from Punjab to the central valley of Kashmir and Himachal and from the shrinking ‘red corridors’ to the hills of Southern parts, is a deliberately crafted ‘Nacro-Terrorism’ strategy to weaken the Indian demographic dividend to turn the same into a disaster for decades to come.
Professor Satish Kumar, in his 2018 Annual Review of ‘India’s National Security’ lists the strategic thinking of Major world powers. U.S. under President Donald Trump’s first term inaugural address on January 20, 2017, has declared that “From this moment on, it’s going to be only America first” executed through “great rebuilding of the Armed Forces” to make US military dominance unquestionable. Russia under its “foreign policy concept” of 2016 has activated the “new look” to its conventional forces to rebuild strategic defence and offence capacity. China under Xi’s “Chinese Dream” is focusing on the modernisation and expansion of its automation defence capacities for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. But we are yet to have an integrated ‘National Security Strategy’ or doctrine to guide us at times of unforeseen crises, both internal and external. The Modi government has been proactive in strengthening the security apparatus of India to fulfil the long pending demand of establishing the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), however, the bureaucratic hindrance and official monopoly hinder, in the words of Prof. Harsh V. Pant, the development of “societal expertise on foreign and security policy” indicating the old problem of “absent dialogue”.
Apart from the external aggregated security risk, the pending political dynamite of ‘Delimitation’ has a direct bearing on the most influential elites of the society and their share in deciding what David Easton called ‘authoritative allocation of values’ in terms of power, prestige, wealth and ‘future of future’, is a ticking time bomb. The politics of ‘Demography Representation Delimitations’ as expressed by Prof. Ravi K. Mishra, is not just limited to the North-South divide in India, but it is a dividing, radicalised and communalised algorithm having the potential to explode the violence of varied frequency and amplitude throughout the nation, providing ample scope and space for the anti-national elements to manufacture the ‘passion’ and channelised that against the nation.
The Modi government’s constructed ‘National Security Architecture’ has successfully saved the masses from terror attacks but has diminished the pre-2014 memory of insecurity when bomb blasts within the country were threatening the lives of citizens endangering the unity and integrity of the nation. This security architecture now requires upgradation and strengthening to tackle the inevitable security threats in the age of ‘AI’ and Man- Machine modules, especially when we are encircled by the neighbours having ‘Deep States’ persisting on the dream & desire of destructing India.
(The author is PhD Scholar and Adjunct Faculty, working on ‘Democratic Policing’, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi)
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.