Singh is keen?

Smart politician that he is Lalu Prasad has guessed the time for waffling on terrorism may be over even or especially for politicians who try not to wear the national security card on their sleeve. Lalu8217;s call for an all-party meeting on terrorism is especially useful. If the Congress and the BJP can work together on as contentious, potentially divisive and complicated an issue as Kashmir8217;s and Jammu8217;s competing identities, there is no reason why they cannot work together on terrorism, over which there is no debate on who are the bad guys. Indeed, given the renewed and necessary debate on anti-terror laws and anti-terror agencies, and given that the Congress and the BJP have well-entrenched, solution- sabotaging public positions on these issues, all-party meetings are vital.

However, and unlike Amarnath that lent itself to political negotiation even at the final stage, responding to terrorism is ultimately the job of the government. The UPA must consult and try and keep the NDA on board, but the big ideas need to have the imprimatur of the government of the day. There really is only the prime minister in this government who can be expected to lead a reform of internal security. Newly empowered after the rich returns from his nuclear gamble, practiced well now in the art of taking on vested interests, enjoying the confidence of Sonia Gandhi, and able to call on experience gathered from his economic and foreign policy reform, Manmohan Singh8217;s last big job in this term should be changing how India polices its most dangerous enemies.

Most likely the job can only be started and not finished in the months left of this government. But there8217;s enough time to make a good start on reviewing intelligence agencies8217; manpower and technological deficiencies 8212; should IB have its own, separately recruited, specially trained officer cadre, for example? There8217;s time to ask every state and party for considered opinion on whether terrorism should be a federal crime and appoint a commission with a short timeframe to give a report on this. There8217;s time to improve basic investigative apparatus even while waiting for these big changes as there8217;s time to look at anti-terror laws. Such is the national anxiety on terrorism and such is the nature of the PM8217;s job that if Singh doesn8217;t push for internal security reform, his otherwise bright legacy as a reformer will be affected.