Kalam advocates national approach against terrorism

NEW DELHI: Even as a section of the political class is accused of displaying a marked reluctance to put the blame for terror attacks where it belongs, President APJ Abdul Kalam on Monday emphasised the need to ‘transcend individual differences of opinion and address the issue with a sense of unity’.

The presidential assertions are significant as they coincide with — as some quarters believe — an ongoing, concerted attempt to ‘de-emphasise’ the threat of terrorism. As part of this, some sections have been demanding a reapprisal of the government’s strategy for tackling the menace of terrorism.

Warning that the constant threat of a low intensity proxy war and terrorism have become a disturbing feature of national life and “a new face of war”, the President advocated a “national approach” to eradicate terrorism in all forms and to provide security to citizens.

While addressing the nation on the eve of the 60th Independence Day, the President referred to the recent Mumbai blasts and said the phenomenon of mindless violence was “continuously increasing”.

Seeking intense cooperation among political, scientific, administrative and industrial communities, he said the time has come for them to comprehensively take stock of the entire situation in all sectors of security.

Commending a three-phased approach to comprehensive security, the President suggested to the government and to both Houses of Parliament to formulate a Citizens Security Bill with a national campaign for eradication of terrorism.

He also suggested formulating an energy independence bill and adopting a resolution that India will be transformed into a safe, prosperous, happy and socio-economically developed nation before ’20.

Seeking synergising of multiple agencies for preventing and dealing with terrorist activities, he said “we need to evolve a National Campaign for Eradicate Terrorism (NCET) in our nation with a mission-oriented integrated management structure and people’s participation.”

“It has been recognised that terrorism does not take place without any planning. This may be originating from a master plan with global umbilical connectivity extending to homes or hotels and guest houses,” Mr Kalam said.

He said the NCET would facilitate working together of the intelligence and security machinery, both at the state and the central level, to achieve desired objectives besides acting as an alert and dynamic movement which would prevent hotels and homes being used as a shelter by terrorists and extremists.

The President said the states could consider introduction of national identity cards and implement the National e-governance grid for all governemnt to government, government to citizens, business to business and business to citizen transactions within two years’ time.

Emphasising that accelerated development has to be integrated with peace missions, the President said the economic security of border regions would itself become complementary to territorial security required in these zones. Highlighting the urgency to fight terrorism, the President said “when evil minds combine, good minds have to work together and combat.”

“While we have the basic structure in the form of law, police cadres, intelligence agencies and judicial system, we need to reinforce them with required updates with a code of conduct.

Every citizen, every group, every religion and every political and executive system should allow the law to function without interference,” the President said. This is being seen as a presidential disapproval of any attempts to communalise anti-terror actions by the security agencies.