Southern States - Karnataka

India can retaliate against terrorist attacks: Krishna

By Our Staff Reporter

Bangalore June 22. The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, said on Saturday that India had a right to retaliate against a terrorist attack and go after terrorists wherever they were, to end the menace, as the U.S. had shown the way when it waged a war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He was delivering the inaugural address at a symposium on "Terrorism - threat to civil society and security of democratic institutions" at the 65th Conference of Presiding Officers here.

Mr. Krishna said the U.S., which had not understood the difficulties faced by India, had now realised the dangers of terrorism after the September 11 attack.

On the "panic reaction" by the U.S. asking its people in India to return to their country because of the threat of war between India and Pakistan, Mr. Krishna said that it had affected the Indian economy.

Referring to the incident in which an unidentified aircraft flew over the White House, prompting the U.S. administration to ask those in the building to leave immediately, Mr. Krishna asked whether it would be right if the Indian Government asked Indians to leave the U.S. He wondered why the U.S. treated India shabbily, blowing out of proportions even small disturbances. It should not paint a grim picture of insecurity in India, he added.

He criticised the Union Government for asking foreign tourists not to go to Jammu and Kashmir, and said it had affected the economy of a once prosperous State.That State had now been abandoned, he said. Those who stayed in New York hotels were normally advised not to stir out after sunset, for fear of attacks, which was not the situation in India, he noted.

Mr. Krishna made a fervent appeal to the developing countries to take steps to face terrorist attacks in the form of suicide bombers.

Terrorists, who had no rules to abide by, might attack commercial and business centres such as Mumbai or Bangalore to disrupt the economy, he said.

Recalling that the former prime ministers, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, were victims of terrorism, Mr. Krishna said present-day political leaders faced a strange problem of whether to accept the security provided to them or not. If they accepted security, they would be accused of not being approachable. If they did not accept it, they would be open to terrorist attacks, he pointed out.

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi, said terrorists sought to subvert the democratic process and weaken the popular basis of the free world through attacks. The liberal atmosphere of the Western world had unwittingly become a breeding ground for terrorist outfits.The West turned a blind eye to their growth, complacent in its belief that the targets of attack were elsewhere. That proved to be the greatest undoing of the liberal disposition of Western democracies towards subversive organisations, he added.

Mr. Joshi requested the presiding officers and secretaries to pass a resolution at the conference on the lines of the one passed in Parliament condemning the terrorist attacks on Parliament House and the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly building. He urged them to take the issue to the people to strengthen the nation's resolve to root out the scourge. That was how they could redeem the responsibility as representatives of the people, he said.

Welcoming the gathering, the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, M.V. Venkatappa, said that over the years, India had been subject to internal terrorism. Thankfully, the crisis in Punjab was over, but terrorists were operating in different parts of the country, he added.

Condemning terrorism, which, he said, was typically indulged in by ideological extremists, Mr. Venkatappa asked whether Indians attacking one another in the name of religion, caste, region, or languages could not be described as terrorists.

The Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, P.M. Sayeed, and the Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council, B.L. Shankar, were present.

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