GURGAON, May 6:
Religious fundamentalism is a “potent incubator” for terrorism in India which cannot be countered with higher education or “cent-percent employment” and the country will have to face this challenge in the foreseeable future, Home Secretary R K Singh said today.
Delivering his key-note speech on the topic of ‘enhancing the effectiveness of national crisis management plan’ at a counter-terror seminar here, Singh said faith and belief is something which education, logic or liberalism has “not been able to shake.”
“This (religious fundamentalism) is not going to go away in a hurry. This is not going to go away when you have more literacy, when you have better educated population, when you have highly educated population. This is not going to go away when you have cent percent employment. That is a conclusion we have come to,” he said.
The top bureaucrat, who handles crucial assignments in the internal security domain of India, said investigators involved in solving terror cases in the country will have to seek answers on this subject as they proceed with their task.
The first incubator of terrorism are reasons that lead to insurgency and militancy in India, he said.
“The second incubator which gives rise to terrorism is religious fundamentalism. Now that is a very potent incubator and that is something that is going to be with us for sometime.
“Initially, when I started, I thought religions mellow over time…That was my understanding that when they start off the religious fundamentalists (are) non-compromising but over time they become mellower and create latitude amongst practitioners to recognise that there can be other ways to reach God and that he can get education towards greater understanding of other groups,” Singh said. Singh said, “Unfortunately for the past 10-15 years I found that this is not correct. I found that many people who are terrorists…Many of the fundamentalists are very highly educated…That surprised me.
“I thought that with education will come enlightenment but that didn’t happen so this hope that with the spread of education, with spread of liberalism, with the changeover from fundamentally rural agricultural economy to an industrial service economy which makes for greater mobility you will have less fundamentalism (did not come true),” the Home Secretary said.
“These were the tenets I started out…So we will now have to think again and now what is the implication for this…What I am talking about is not philosophy,” he said at the seminar organised by the elite counter-terror commando force National Security Guard (NSG) at its garrison in Manesar.
“It is something which all of us should be doing… looking at the root cause of this (religious fundamentalism). What is the implication of what I just said?…The implication is that this is not going to go away in a hurry. Now what is the reason for this? One conclusion that we draw is that this threat is something that we have to be prepared for and this threat is something we have to live with.
“What is the reason for this, why does this fundamentalist strain manifest itself again and again that is something which I think we will have to think about very carefully…There can be different explanations for this,” Singh said while addressing senior police and military sleuths who are participating in the seminar from across the country.
Singh cited the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 as one of those perpetrated by a group of terrorists who were religious fundamentalists.
India’s response in countering the 26/11 terrorist attacks “could have been better,” he said.
The Union Home Ministry now, in coordination with other security agencies, is trying to plug those loopholes and secure vulnerable routes that were used by the terrorists to come to India and execute the attacks, which went down in the history of the country’s security establishment as a big learning lesson, he added.
“What we saw (during 26/11) that this group (of the ten terrorists) was highly motivated because of religious fundamentalism and that they were not afraid to die…And they die together. They don’t have any compunction…They will kill…Their objective was to kill as many people as possible,” he said.
Singh also said the recent trend of terror attacks in India where bombs were placed with timers and numerous innocent lives were lost could be carried out in the future too.
“There is a second type of terrorist which will not normally confront you (sleuths). They will plant bombs with timers and disappear. We are going to see more of these type of attacks and this is more worrisome,” he said.
It is very difficult to detect the movement of these terrorists, Singh said while referring to the home grown terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) which has carried out a spate of bombings in the country, because “they (IM terrorists) move in ones and twos and they have local linkages and places for shelter within the country.”
Singh also made a candid admission during his speech when he said that a “lot of explosives was getting leaked.”
“Unfortunately, the material for making bombs is easily available despite our efforts to make it more and more difficult. Unfortunately, there is a lot of leakage (of explosives) happening because our mechanism for inspection…And officials to check this are not doing what they are supposed to do.
“I think it has not permeated into their (officials) consciousness that the theft of explosives is not happening only for making money, but it has a terrorist dimension too,” he said.
Singh said “a lot of leakage” of explosives was happening from the volume which is being used in the mining sector and even for digging of wells.
He said the Ministry of Home Affairs was getting the states to check this and is urging them to monitor the movement of explosives, escorting these during transport.
India lies in the most “difficult neighbourhood of the world,” the Home Secretary also said.
“We are next door to the epicentre of terrorism. The US and Europe are very lucky, they are far away from the epicentre and incubators of terrorism,” he said.
This, Singh said, compounds India’s challenges on the security front.
“Our challenge will be further when withdrawal of NATO forces takes place from Afghanistan. The problems will multiply. All the terrorists, Taliban etc., will turn their focus towards us,” he cautioned the officials.
He also invited the attention of the audience towards activities happening in the Middle East.
“There is another movement we have to take note of in the Middle East. You will find democracy is asserting itself. Unfortunately, what is happening is that this movement for democracy is throwing parties with fundamentalist characteristics.
“We will have to wait and see how they work out and I am sure your calibrations will focus on these challenges,” he said in his concluding remarks to the police and security officials.
The Home Secretary said that rehearsing the crisis management plans, to find a way out in emergencies, with states who are important stakeholders on this subject has not been happening as much as it should have been. (PTI)
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