'Terror boards bus to Pakistan'

NEW DELHI: With home minister Shivraj Patil acknowledging that confidence building measures (CBMs) with Pakistan are being misused by the handlers of terror groups and the security agencies finally acting against terror outfits’ attempts to infiltrate the armed forces, there are serious doubts about the ability of the Manmohan Singh government to sort out crucial internal security issues.

In what appeared a clear setback for the attempts of the UPA government and their accomplices in the liberal spectrum, the home minister was on Tuesday forced to admit in the Lok Sabha that terrorists are taking advantage of the Indo-Pakistan travel links. He went to the extent of saying that the terror groups are misusing the “warmth in ties”.

The minister’s statement is sure to prompt those sceptical of the orientation of the peace process to demand a rethink. Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke about cross border terror soon after the Mumbai attack, he has returned to the “It-will-be-sad-if-the-peace-process-suffers” soundbyte.

A feeling that the country, traumatised by terror attacks, will not countenance any soft-peddling of the issue must have prompted the home minister to inform Parliament about the worst-kept secret that the new bus and train services are being misused by terrorists.

There have also been reports that many of those who came to watch the Indo-Pak cricket match in Chandigarh — some even hoped that the mistrust between India and Pakistan could be bridged by the match — never returned to Pakistan. Intelligence agencies have been claiming that 11 of them were, in fact, terror operatives.

The admission that terror groups have succeded in infiltrating the armed forces will also strengthen the case of those who have been demanding a more coherent approach to internal security issues. The regime’s ability to address the issue has already become suspect as the defence minister denied any such possibility on Tuesday.
With the military intelligence officials on Thursday arresting the two CRPF jawans who have been aiding terror groups, the government is worried over its political fallout.

There is little expectation of the regime taking an unambigous line on terror’s local sponsors as many of the secular parties continue to bat for leaders of local terror groups like Abdul Nazar Madhani in Parliament.

When Opposition members raised the issue pertaining to the VIP treatment for the Comibatore blast-accused Madhani and the visit of CPM MP T K Hamsa to the Coimbatore jail to meet him, Sitaram Yechury led those who defended the action. It be recalled that the CPM-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF joined hands to pass a resolution supporting Madhani in the Kerala assembly.

With a section attempting to project police actions against terror operatives as a move against a particular community, the “secular” parties have begun treating terrorism as a garden-variety electoral issue.And many of its leaders are seeing anti-terror campaigns through the “secular-communal” prism.

Although identity-based parties have the elbow room to play such insidious politics, the Congress may find it difficult to back this theme in the long run. The party’s past experience suggest that such moves end up as electoral disasters.