O J's Corner : Reflections

Punjab showed the way
to crush terrorism

Judging by the way terrorism is getting recycled once its head is blown off in New York, London, Madrid, Baghdad or Kabul, one would think an ultimate solution would evade even the super-power.

Terrorism and the war against it are part of a vicious circle, none outsmarting the other.That is a helpless plea of the gentle public.

If one asks K P S Gill, former Director-General of Police, Punjab, he would definitely find a weapon to deal with the merchants of death. Act ruthlessly against them. That is the only thing that will work against terrorists.

Create fool-proof security measures, with careful attention to details, constant supervision of arrangements and plugging loopholes.

But what is the situation in Mumbai? There is not a single closed circuit television structure in public places, railway stations, bus stations, key installations and the like.

In London, every movement in public places is videographed. The details are there in the archives. The footage is dished out when there is a need for identification of a suspect.

One cannot breathe outside of the CCTV network in London. After the explosion on buses and in tubes, everything is supervised. Big Brother is always watching.

No wonder there has been visitations of paranoia on the police and the public alike. But the police never took a chance, even if they went wrong. One careless complacency may result in the loss of hundreds of lives of innocent people.

People sitting in ivory towers blame US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for resorting to military adventurism in the name of tackling terrorism. Sure, they were not playing to the gallery. But they were acting tough on terrorism.

Much of the harsh words come from jihadis clothed in the form of ideologues against world leadership in whose domain anyone can open their mouth and speak his mind. These jihadis do not allow anyone to say a word against them in their domain. Foreigners are outrightly condemned.

It is worse than totalitarianism that is reigning in regions controlled by holy war outfits.

In the late forties and fifties there was nobody in Punjab who could have foreseen the advent of terror. Punjab had just emerged from a nightmare of communal violence. An estimated half a million had been killed and millions of others were displaced in what was probably the largest enforced transfer of population in the history of man. These were all in the name of upholding Faith.

Finally, it was demonstrated in Punjab that no one can hoodwink the security-enforcer. The only weapon was undiluted ruthlessness in dealing with acts of terrorism.

Take the case of the Mumbai situation. A lot of wide-mouthed political bullies are keeping a low profile for now. When and if the Government acts tough, they would come out with open support for the perpetrators of violence in the name of breach of human rights. If humans are not allowed to live, where can one secure rights? Let the motto be humans first. Rights should go hand in hand with duties.