The well co-ordinated and serial bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad once again highlight the fact that we have very poor intelligence infrastructure to tackle the growing menace of terrorism related activity in our country. Both the national parties need to come together now, before it is too late, to find a solution to this problem. Scoring 'brownie' points and pointing fingers at each other is not in national interest now. The matter is serious primarily because if the government does not take any tangible steps to tackle this menace then the people would loose faith in the establishment and would take the law and order in their own hands. This phenomenon is already being witnessed in many parts of the country - J&K, Rajasthan to name a couple, because of reasons not connected with terrorism.
There does not seem to be any disagreement in the two national parties that the issue needs to be addressed. However, there is no progress because of party politics. At this juncture there is an urgent need for some bi-partisan politics to restore the faith of the people in the machinery that is responsible to protect ordinary citizens from terrorism. The other scenario of people taking the law into their own hands under such conditions is very frightening and could lead to a situation where no one would be able to live peacefully, as envisaged in our Constitution.
This kind of activity cannot succeed without support from the local population in some form or the other. We need to deliberate on the reasons why the people who are privy to such information donot come forward. Some of the people are misguided but their relatives and friends must definitely be in the know when these people are involved in anti-national and anti-humanity activities. We have had terrorism in the past and have been successful in overcoming it through a combination of political, military, economic and police initiatives. The phenomenon that we now witness is unique in that it is an international phenomenon aided and abetted by some countries and supported by some disgruntled local elements. The solutions to tackle this are available with professionals in the anti-terrorism field. However, it seems the political will to rid the country of this menace is lacking.
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