Dangerous waffling

First it was the magnificent lack of shouting with which Londoners dealt with a dreaded nightmare come true. Now we in India cannot help but...

First it was the magnificent lack of shouting with which Londoners dealt with a dreaded nightmare come true. Now we in India cannot help but stand on tiptoe to admire yet another side to Britain8217;s response to 7/7. The Blair government has wasted no time in acknowledging the problem and laying out its resolve to fight it, clearly and unsentimentally. The context is a fraught one: the alleged suicide bombers have been identified to be Britain8217;s own 8212; young men born and brought up and radicalised on British soil. But even as Prime Minister Tony Blair invites British Muslim community leaders to talk to him to find ways of uprooting 8216;8216;this evil ideology8217;8217;, he sets out the more urgent measures: new anti-terror laws aimed at tackling incitement to terrorism and stricter ways of keeping people who incite hatred out of Britain, while making it easier for those in the country to be deported. Note the lack of waffle in government response.

With terrorism becoming a common scourge, here8217;s an unflattering comparison. In India, unlike in Britain, the government has been sending out pretty irresolute messages. The problem stems from inadequate acknowledgement of the unique gravity of the problem. Terrorism is an unusual threat; it justifies abnormal means. Yet, the UPA government withdrew Pota, for instance, without even the cursory consideration of how that would impact

India8217;s fight against terror. Uppermost in the UPA8217;s mind was the imperative to undo a 8216;8216;BJP law8217;8217;. It may well be that the BJP-led government enacted Pota with bad faith 8212; to target the minority community 8212; but the solution to that could not be a knee-jerk response which may help the UPA score political points but could damage the national interest. It is this paper8217;s view that while we must guard against the misuse of the tough law, terrorism cannot be fought only with normal laws.

There is a lesson for us in Britain8217;s response to the outrage it suffered. The fight against terrorism must be clear-sighted and uncompromising. We politicise it, or communalise it, at our own peril.