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Minority despair will trigger new waves of terror: Chidambaram

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chief of the Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor at the Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa memorial lecture in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday warned of “new waves of terror” if the alienation of the minority communities was not addressed.

“There is the challenge of alienation of the Muslim community and, more recently, of the Christian community. The divide between Muslims and Hindus is taking new and dangerous forms — ghettoisation, social boycott, discrimination in employment and the blurring of lines between state and religion as was seen in Gujarat.

“Out of the hopelessness and despair of the Muslim community — and if not addressed firmly, the Christian tribal communities too — will rise new waves of terror. There is no other explanation for the phenomenon of graduates and engineers and doctors — born, educated and living in India — taking to the path of violence,” Mr. Chidambaram said delivering the Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa Memorial Lecture here.

The issue of economic transformation to sustain a high growth was “intricately” related to India’s place in the geo-politics of the region. India was living in a troubled neighbourhood. Its security, consisting of food security, energy security, financial stability, border security, was impacted by events in the neighbourhood.

The ethnic strife in Sri Lanka had pushed thousands of refugees across the Palk Straits into India.

The “near-failure” of the state in Bangladesh triggered massive migration. Myanmar, while “overtly friendly,” continued to give shelter to insurgent groups and Pakistan was “implacably opposed” to India. Nepal remained an “enigma.”

Both External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Mr. Chidambaram lauded Field Marshal Cariappa for ensuring the Army’s apolitical stance. In contrast, Pakistan tryst with destiny ended after 11 years of Independence and Myanmar’s democratic system collapsed after 14 years and the Army took over.

In Sri Lanka, when the crises accentuated it had to switch over in the late 1970s from the parliamentary to presidential form of government. “For continuation of the largest functional democracy, we have to salute the apolitical role of the armed forces,” said Mr. Mukherjee.

PTI reports:

Describing China as a “rival” and “unpredictable” neighbour Mr. Chidambaram said Beijing adopted a “negative stance” at the recent Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting and wondered whether it would accept India as an equal.

He said: “Across the subcontinent, we face the unarticulated challenge from an equal and perhaps stronger rival, namely China.” “From time to time, China takes unpredictable positions that raise a number of questions about its attitude towards the rise of India. The most recent example is the negative stance adopted by China in the meeting of NSG.”

Mr. Chidambaram said China had resolved boundary disputes with its neighbours except India.

Despite this “unarticulated challenge,” trade between India and China had been growing at a blistering pace and there were instances of cooperation and coordinated action between the two countries on several fora. “However, the nagging doubt is whether China will regard India as an equal or as an upstart and what will China’s attitude to India be if India’s economic strength begins to equal that of China,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

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