The Hindu : Sinister designs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 03, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Sinister designs

THE DASTARDLY TERRORIST attack mounted by a suicide squad on the famed Raghunath temple complex in Jammu last Saturday, killing eight persons including three security personnel, marks a new cynical aspect of the foreign-backed subversive elements' diabolical design to trigger a communal backlash in the much traumatised Jammu and Kashmir. In the past, the jehadi groups have on several occasions singled out innocent members of the non-Islamic communities for attack — as for instance in July 2001 when Amarnath pilgrims were the target — with the same objective, but with little success. Now, in a significant shift, they have turned their attention on a place of worship and, by choosing a historic and popular temple in Jammu city to herald it, they have proclaimed their intention loud and clear. Although as a measure of J&K-centric terrorist challenge to civil society and governance the Jammu temple episode may not rank with the audacious attack on the Legislature complex in October 2001, what renders it much more ominous is its communal dimension and explosive potential, given the ground political reality in the troubled State.

What has apparently prompted the terrorists to play upon the communal factor by targeting a place of worship is the highly vitiated communal atmosphere nationwide on account of the recent developments on the Ayodhya front and in Gujarat, more specifically the Godhra carnage and the mindless revenge killings that followed it. In fact, they must have felt encouraged by the sort of communal backlash the Godhra episode (in which some 50-odd VHP activists travelling by the Sabarmati Express were burnt alive) had set off in Gujarat, with the Hindutva elements going after members of the Muslim community in a systematic way, murdering them, plundering their property and setting their houses on fire. It is of course a different story that all this happened under a benign and supportive BJP regime headed by Narendra Modi. In the J&K context, it stands to reason therefore that the best way to defeat the terrorists' insidious designs is to see that even a highly provocative strike like the one on the Jammu temple does not trigger a community-specific response. Viewed in this perspective, if the brazen manner in which the local Shiv Sena chief, Kalki Maharaj, assaulted the Hurriyat leader, Abdul Gani Lone, (while he was speaking to the media) is typical of the intolerance of the chauvinist forces, it is also the surest way of playing into the hands of the terrorists who are looking precisely for that kind of a spinoff from their Raghunath temple strike.

At a more general level, the Jammu episode must be seen as a wake-up call to the Governments at the Centre and in the State who need to brace themselves up for effectively countering a possible escalation in terrorist attacks as the summer gets under way. There are apprehensions, by no means unfounded, that splintered Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements have already sneaked into J&K and they will be joining forces with the militant groups already operating in the State. Clearly, whether it is stopping infiltration of terrorists or putting in place an effective intelligence mechanism or operationalising a combat strategy, the onus is on the two Governments which need to mount a well-coordinated and concerted action plan based on an agreed policy framework dictated by national interests. From this standpoint, if the State Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah's latest fulminations against the Atal Behari Vajpayee regime — throwing the blame for the continuing terrorism in J&K squarely on the Centre — are anything to go by, what obtains now is hardly inspiring. Worse, they seem to be working at cross purposes, even while sustaining the farce of being partners in the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre. That the Vajpayee Government itself has been singularly lacking in evolving a clear Kashmir policy, which is at the root of much of the imbroglio in recent times, is a different matter.

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