An old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ hasn’t lost its utility infact it has acquired a whole new meaning when attached to the PM’s proposal of setting up a federal agency to combat terrorism. We don’t need a US Department’s annual reports to know that India is the worst affected country due to terrorism for we already now that. After attacks in Hyderabad, Banglore, Lucknow and now Jaipur, the terror map has extended to the whole of India. We have been unable to draw up an exhaustive list of terror outfits precisely because after each terror attack a new name comes up. After the Jaipur blasts a group called Indian Mujahideen took its responsibility, this name was previously unheard of. The name was intelligently chosen to camouflage its foreign links. Also the term ’sleeper cell’ has made its way to the intelligence reports. While the term may be new, India has a history of terrorist attacks.

We don’t need to go too far to know as to why have we failed to combat terrorism, for reasons are homemade. Here i have drawn up a list of reasons known to all of us:

-Lack of political will

-Poor policing

-Lack of a robust intelligence gathering system

-Absolute lack of coordination between the centre and the states

-Communal forces

-Lack of fast track and special courts to try accused in such cases

-An ever growing number of fundamentalists

An elaboration of the first reason is very easy. Lack of political will can be assessed by the fact that even on an issue which demands the coming together of the centre and opposition: we see a Federal agency Vs POTA debate. Why can’t the UPA and opposition sit and weigh the pros and cons of each other’s policies and seek a common solution of the matter? Simply because our national parties are busy listing the problems instead of finding solutions to them. All that they are interested in is scoring brownie points over each other even at the expense of national security.

As for the police it is busy raping women, drinking, creating scene on roads. Leave aside a few decent cops but including those the police is ill equipped in dealing with terrorism cases. Lack of funds(read:corruption), lack of means to gather intelligence signals leaves them handicapped in such situations.

There is no coordination between the centre and the states. The equation is somewhat different in case the party in centre forms the state government other wise the case is even more worse. There is little intelligence sharing between the centre and the states. While it is a known fact that we need a close coordination between the two. The reason is simple for the states have better access to information about the local sleeper cells and government has better means to tackle this.

The growing number of extremists in the country ensure lessons on hatred for the other communities have been taught to the young. Being vulnerable makes them easy target. These extremists misinterpret ‘Quran’ and this misreading fuels terrorism.

We need a federal agency on the lines of FBI, US. The main task of the central government has to build consensus on this matter. While the task is tough it is not impossible

Agreed that law and order is a state subject, national security is and ought to be everyone’s subject!