'Lack of political will making India terror target'

KOLKATA: India continues to be a terror target because there is a lack of political will to take and execute firm decisions, an apolitical organisation dealing with national security said Tuesday.

"We are considered a soft nation because we lack the political will to execute firm decisions. We continue to be terror targets because there is a belief among people that they can get away after attacking. Terrorists continue to be alive even after effecting massive attacks," Seshadri Chari, National General Secretary, Forum for Integrated National Security said.

"The US never witnessed any terror attack after Sept 11, 2001, but India has not been able to prevent their recurrence which shows the difference of political will between the two countries in combating this menace," added Chari.

He, along with other experts, was speaking at an event organised by FINS to mark the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament House.

Observing that there were threats from several quarters to India's external and internal security, Chari called for the formulation of a comprehensive integrated national security policy to combat the threats.

He also called for a comprehensive anti terror law. "Terrorism is a crime against humanity and needs to be dealt with through a stronger set of laws. The existing laws are not stringent enough to create terror among the terrorists."

Former Director-General of the Railway Protection Force B.P. Saha, however, said the existing laws were strong enough but the country needed determination to implement these laws against terrorists stringently as well as expedite the legal process involving them.

'Lack of political will making India terror target' - The Economic Times

You bet it!

Until the CONGRESS PARTY goes down there will not be any POLITICAL WILL to bring down those who are responsible for the atrocities being created and funded from across the border in all the three directions of INDIA.

Very well but. But this still doesn't look threatening enough for this government to take just action. I wonder whether this article even made them bat an eyelid.

Agreed, but which other political party hase the will?

if congress won't stab them on back with the help of cong news network nearly all of them , the other parties have that will .

The past history proves you are wrong. All the political parties are made up of the same bumkins like the Congress.
- Dec 1999: IC 814 hijack - the BJPs response made us look like a weak nation. They were fumbling like idiots.
- Dec 2001: Parliament terror attack - we did not retaliate, just poodlefaked.
- Feb 2011: Orissa (BJD) gave in to 14 demands of the maoists when two state govt employees were kidnapped.

Please give me one instance, when any political party has taken resolute action in a crisis.
Sadly Indira Gandhi was the last politician who always took decisive action to retaliate.

Very unfortunate that Indira was the last PM of India who took decisive action to retaliate .
btw , there must be some one in Indian politics , which you think can take such action nowadays ?

The guys in power barely rely on us - the common, mainstream Indian, for support.

Why the hell will they represent our will? Whatever you call indian politicians, all are very shrewd people.

Voting should be made compulsory - but of course Congress would never want that to happen, and BJP is locked in its own struggles to ever present a coherent front against congress.

New party+thinking is required.

I would actually like to hear what concrete steps he had in mind about anti-terror laws? Given that most terrorists die or are ready to die while others like the Maoists which have caused ten times more violent deaths than any other category of terrorism including wholesale loss of territorial control would rather die fighting than get arrested; what laws can create "terror" in heart of terrorists?

The basic problem is the lack of professionalism of our security and police forces

You can't just keep touting political will when our police forces are no where near the standard of say FBI in terms of forensic investigation and due process. Numerous cases of wrongful arrests and detentions that have come out again and again doesn't foster faith in the police work that people are doing.

What is needed is political will to implement police reforms as well as bureaucratic support to implement it.This includes doubling our state police forces as well as their salaries. Implementing a police complaints cell in every district that can take action against corrupt and errant officers. And providing professional training in detective and police work so that they actually arrest the right people and their case doesn't fall apart when it goes to the court.


And the US didn't prevent all terrorist attacks on its soil. Or maybe Seshadri Chari is referring only those acts committed by Muslims which again there was the Nidal Hassan shootout at Fort Hood in 2009. There have been a number of terrorist acts in the US from white supremacist groups or lone offenders who go out on a shooting rampage for some percieved reason. The Kansas, Arkansas shooting was one such example.

Infact, in the FBI database, terrorist acts by Muslims have been only around 6% of the total attack between 1980-2005
FBI — Terrorism Report 2005

The River Journal

And lets not forget the fact that US spent 4 trillion+ USD and suffered attacks on US citizens and soldiers outside of US soil as well.

I know that Seshadri Chari being an executive member of the BJP will obviously target the govt. of the day, but terrorism has been politicized for far too long and its time to target it holistically with concrete workable proposals rather than empty rhetoric of "political will". Given that forum he represents FINS argued against the nuclear deal, it needs to build back its credibility of being objective first.

Long time no see EJAZ BHAI......

Hope you are fine.

This has been debated before. India isn't a soft target simply because there is no political will. I'm not sure what political will to execute firm decisions vis a vis domestic terrorism even means. For the most part this is mistaken with draconian laws... basically something that eventually screws the country over.

This also has very little to do with politics. Those of you who think merely changing the government party will solve this problem are deluding yourselves. Just because the BJP is more bellicose doesn't make them more effective. The crux of this problem is structural. The true causes making India a soft target are lack of modern governance, dilapidated law and order structure, disorganized intelligence services, lack of basic infrastructure, lack of effective means of identification like biometric systems etc etc. The reason the US has been able to prevent attacks since 2011 is because we excel at all the abovementioned factors.

The critical lack of political will is actually in the realm of structural development. As long as India maintains its third world infrastructure nothing is going to change.

No one...there is no one. Probably Modi appears a man of action, but his communal record and that of his party does not endear him to the national electorate.