Foiling terror

The people of Mumbai have demonstrated, yet again, the quality of resilience they are famous for, in the wake of the terror attack on July 13. We salute them: by refusing to be cowed into withdrawal from normal activity, they foil one of the goals that terrorists seek to achieve. This is not enough.

All the goals that terrorists seek to achieve must be foiled through political coherence, conscious vigilance on the part of the people and restraint in speech and action by those in charge. Terrorists seek not just to blow up people and buildings.

Their aim is to destroy social unity, foster enmity between sections of the people, egg on the state and its forces into hasty action against sections of the population that would lead to their collective alienation and hostility, in whose fertile ground the terrorists would gather fresh support and new recruits.

Intelligence and effective policing are primary prerequisites to prevent attacks. However, if an attack does take place, it is important that the investigation that follows should not advance the terrorists' cause by jumping to conclusions on the identity of the perpetrators, leading to mistaken arrests of youths who, after going through the trauma of wrongful incarceration and the third degree treatment that does duty for interrogation in India, become converts to the cause of terror.

It is heartening to note that both the political leadership and the police agencies have refrained from pointing fingers and are busy collecting evidence before making pronouncements of guilt. That both Indo-Pak and Indo-US talks would proceed as scheduled is equally welcome - any change would have conceded the terrorists ground.

Responsible politics would unite the people against terror and against divisive mobilisation that helps terrorists. For people at large to produce collective vigilance, they need social coherence, to achieve which governance needs to be fair, efficient and non-partisan.

On all these counts, India's polity is sadly lacking. Facile accusations against the government and its leaders point to such failing. For society to unite against its common enemy, the politicians should eschew opportunistic schism.