The menace of Terrorism

Terrorism set its foot in India in the sixties when the Naga rebels took to arms against the Indian Union. It continued to spread in the Northeast for two decades, gaining and loosing its buoyancy from time to time. In the eighties, Sikh terrorism surfaced in Punjab. The Indian State had hardly neutralised Sikh terrorism when it emerged in the Kashmir valley. At present, two Indian Provinces are suffering from this menace. The Bodos and the Ulfa in Assam and the numerous outfits in Kashmir continue to combat Indian forces and massacre innocent people at will.

India is an extremely heterogeneous nation state. There are innumerable regional identities that compete with each other to not only to find representation but also to dominate the provincial and national government. Our heterogeneity is the primary reason for the adoption of a parliamentary form of government. The Prime Minister must sustain his majority in the Parliament. His majority depends upon the support of members of parliament who represent different regional identities, communities, casts and religions. Chief Ministers of states too rule with the support of members of legislative assemblies who represent different sub regional identities. Had we adopted a presidential form of government, this dependence would have been unnecessary. Consequently, these regional and sub regional communities would feel left out from the democratic process. Unfortunately, democracy is a game of patience and people tend to run out of it at the slightest provocation. Communities feel that their aspirations are not being fulfilled. They feel that their representation in different organs of the government is inadequate. Their share in the distribution of power, distribution of wealth, distribution of resources is less than their numbers in the Census. It is this sense of getting less, being left out or being represented inadequately that breeds impatience. This is the time that militant and impatient elements within such identities force their way to the forefront. These elements feel that the democratic process will take too long for their aspirations to come true. So why not push the peaceful, patient loyal democrats in the background and force their way forward. Why not adopt aggressive strategies to get what they want and get it quickly. They feel that bargaining within the democratic framework has failed even if they have not tried it properly. Therefore, they must push for their demands aggressively and violently. Hence, agitations are launched. They will block all the traffic, stop trains from plying by sitting on the railway tracks. Finally, they issue orders for the entire city or province to close down. No work n government offices, no schools or colleges, no daily wagers on the roads, no transport. Its a curfew which the militant organisation has enforced on the State. The common man is so peace loving that he complies. not because he accepts the views of the militants but because he wants to save his establishment from being set ablaze. This is the beginning of terrorism. At least in India it has been like this. The situation gets out of hand when militancy assumes communal overtones.

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