Letter from the Editor-In-Chief - Oh No, Not Again
December, 2008
The shock of the October bomb blasts at Guwahati is still fresh in the minds of the people of the region. Before this shock could even fade out of the minds of the people, we see yet another major terrorist attack at Mumbai, the financial capital of India.
Nearly two hundred lives were lost in the three day battle. What the incident indicates is that our policies, intelligence and alertness regarding terrorism has failed.
We from Eastern Panorama have been repeatedly writing on terrorism and have even pointed out the locations of specific terrorist camps at Bangladesh. We have also pointed out that the disease called ‘terrorism’ is spreading its wings all over the country and needs to be curtailed.
The incident at Mumbai has exposed many things:
Firstly, the intelligence of the country is too weak and uncoordinated and the system has collapsed. Such a high number of major explosions in so many different parts of the country could not have happened if this was not the case.
Secondly, the existing law on terrorism is outdated and needs to be strengthened and more power must be given to the defense personnel.
Thirdly, the politics of terrorism continue to be preached by our major political parties, i.e, Congress and the BJP. This is unfortunate and a shame for the nation. Even for a day, the ruling and the opposition can not unite.
Fourthly, Pakistan has already started a proxy war against India. The sooner our politicians understand this, the better it is.
Lastly, the apeachment policies of political parties must come to an end and total awareness on terrorism at all levels should be implemented so that our youth do not become soft targets of these terrorist groups and it should become an absolutely impossible task for them to recruit cadres in the country.
Analysis and debates are on. As per the announcement made by the central government to the states, it plans to take measures to ensure that such incidents don’t ever take place again. No soft action can really help in solving the issue, nor can we blindfold ourselves and say that this is a small incident. The remark of one of the ministers of Maharashtra was very shocking. He actually said, “Such small incidents keep taking place.” This only indicates how soft he is on terrorism.
Thank God, good sense has prevailed in the minds of the government and Mr. Shivraj Patil the Home Minister of India has resigned and Mr. P. Chindambarum has been appointed in his place.
The sacking of Mr. Shivraj Patil is long overdue. It is also very difficult to tell if the change of guard will bring any changes in ground realities but it will definitely help in quelling the anger of the people of India.
We from Eastern Panorama are deeply saddened when we are compelled to run more and more cover stories on terrorism. The frequency of such cover stories is something that really upsets the entire editorial board of the publication. We salute the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to fight this proxy war and extend our condolences to those who have lost their near and dear ones.