Reign of terror

In times of terror, when everyone is something of a conspirator, everybody will be in the position of having to play detective,” so said Walter Benjamin. We know that the point of terrorist attacks is to suspend normality and plunge citizens into a heightened state of alert and anxiety — the low intensity attacks in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and bombs defused in other towns were a direct hit on everyday life.

But the legal fiction called “the state” promises security and protection as primary among the array of stock responsibilities — and the incapacity to provide people with a reason to believe in a strong and competent law and order apparatus can corrode the exchange in deeply damaging ways. There is no question that this administration has all too often been caught unawares by acts of terror — each of these blasts has revealed uncomfortable truths about our intelligence coordination and preparedness. Certainly, a liberal democratic state must not undermine its own workings by resorting to heavy-handed extra- constitutional counter-terrorism measures. But by allowing the perception of vulnerability to spread, the government risks a different kind of backlash and civic unrest. Countering terror must not descend into clumsy notions of redress against a wider group, or make people regard each other warily.

Certainly, many of the proposed national security measures could shade into excessive surveillance and authoritarian state action — but there is a vast middle ground between this inexcusable cluelessness and a nightmarish security state, and categories should not be muddied. These terrorist attacks must jolt the state into some demonstrable action, some indication of taking the threat seriously enough. There is no ideological defence for ineptitude — there is no reason we should not have technology and networks (with strong local bases) to identify and act on suspicious information, and to cite lack of coordination between Central and state agencies is an appalling state of affairs. With this slack-jawed response to terror, the Indian state undercuts its own rationale.