It is well known that behind every act of terror anywhere in India, there is an undeniable Pakistani hand. Also, each terror strike finds the Central, as well as, the state government unprepared to prevent them. After the usual flurry of activity and pledges to counter terrorism with greater seriousness and determination, it is business as usual until the next strike explodes in the face of the authorities. The administration has earned a reputation for inaction, want of coordination in intelligence gathering and sharing and failure to train and motivate the police forces to prevent such attacks in future. With full knowledge of the disarray in the ranks of the politicians, the police and the intelligence agencies, the terror outfits which lie in wait for such opportunities, have a field day and commit more and more heinous acts targeting innocent civilians, without fear of being stopped and caught.

Some in the opposition, frustrated over their failure to topple the Government and force an early general election, have not hesitated from making terrorism a partisan issue and indulging in political blame-game. One felt astounded to hear an utterly frustrated and political imbecile like Sushma Swaraj make a fantastic allegation that the Central Government had engineered the terror strikes in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in order to deflect attention from the cash-for-vote scandal and in an attempt to win over estranged Muslim votes. She forgot that the worst terror strikes had taken place during the BJP-led NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, including attack on Parliament, and none from the opposition at that time had insinuated BJP's hand in the blasts. She stands isolated even in the NDA ranks and none in the BJP has said a word in her support, none imagining she could stoop so low in pursuing partisan blame-pointing.

On analyzing the situation one finds that the behaviour of some of the opposition parties has created conditions for growth of terrorism by indulging in agitation on the flimsiest of pretexts and diverting the attention of the police to preserving peace from routine law and order enforcement, which is their primary constitutional responsibility. The scarce manpower resources of the police and intelligence agencies are diverted to other than their primary task and, in the process, are also stretched beyond limits. The terror cells lying in wait for such opportunities become active and mercenaries are able to move about freely with their deadly cargo of explosives and fuses and timer devices and plan strikes on an elaborate scale without being detected. Instead of joining hands with the authorities in tackling the national menace and threat to the country's integrity, some political parties and their frustrated leaders not only refuse to cooperate, but also create hurdles in the way of the agencies charged with counter-terrorism responsibilities.

In order to escape the blame for exporting terror to India, for which it has been repeatedly criticized internationally (the latest to do so is Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama), Pakistan sometime ago adopted the policy of creating terror cells within India so that the operatives become home-grown terrorists. In most terror strikes, the investigations have revealed the links of the plotters to Pakistan with home-grown militants being sent for training in Pakistan, Afghanistan and even Bangladesh, where Pakistan's notorious Inter Services Intelligence has established big operational bases. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has publicly accused ISI of fomenting trouble in his country. The challenge he faces was under lined by the suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, behind which is an unmistable Pakistani hand.

The Pakistani agency has succeeded in creating Indian versions of organisation, such as, the Lashkar-e-tayyaba and harkat-ul-Jihad-Islami. They are now manned entirely by Indian recruits and are being projected as the Indian Mujahideen. The banned Students Islamic Movement of India is a major provider of recruits for jihadi activities and scores of its leaders and activists have received training in the use of armsinside India at the hands of trained Pakistani operatives, as also in Pakistan. By Indiansing the jihad, the ISI intends to achieve a set of objectives, one of which is to deepen the religious divide and make Muslims more aggressive in their dealings with the apparatus of the state. It manages to keep the terrorist activities at high pitch without direct Pakistani involvement and Islamabad escapes the blame from the US and other countries and directions to act against the jihadi organisations on its own territory.

The assessment in the Union Home Ministry presents a worrying picture of the situation in the neighborhood, where terror outfits aimed at India are being trained and armed. There is no alternative to stepping up intelligence collection and dissemination and increasing internal vigilance. The risk of terror strikes ahs been increasing with the deteriorating political situation inside Pakistan and Afghanistan. The situation in Bangladesh in not very encouraging either with HUJI successfully using its bases in that country to launch operations against India. The Let, Jaish and HUJI have developed deep tentacles and are aided by cooperation from home-grown terrorists. There is no set pattern behind the blasts having taken place in BJP-ruled states because the Government has information about similar strikes being planned in Mumbai and Delhi. Further, the so-called Indian Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for the latest series of blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, also has warned that it is planning similar strikes in other Indian cities also.

It has been noticed that Pakistan's dependence on SIMI is growing, as it is part of the ISI's network to make the Jihad in India local, so that the involvement of Pakistani nationals is kept to the minimum, except for planning and initial training. Motivated by Osama Bin Laden, SIMI has been influenced by a vision of an Islamic State and finds democracy and elections to be anathema. It remains wedded to the "reinstatement" of the Islamic Caliphate. In early 2003, confessions of two detained SIMI operatives, Obaid Ullah and Mohammad Arif led the UP police to suspect that ISI was looking to actively work with SIMI. In late 2002 Maharashtra police seized 30 CDs containing speeches of Masood Azhar, Chief of Jais-e-Mohammad with clippings of communal riots in Gujarat from SIMI offices in Aurangabad. This propaganda material was meant to inflame communal passions by instigating Muslims to revot against the Government which had failed to prevent atrocities being committed against them.

Yet, whatever may be the level of Pakistan's involvement, the Indian State cannot fail in its primary responsibility to fight terrorism and protect civilian lives. The recent blasts have revealed colossal intelligence failures at the Central and state levels. Surprisingly, a reluctance to admit failure by central and state governments come in the way, of sharing responsibility and affecting improvements in intelligence gat erring, as well as, policing. The frequent meetings of state home secretaries and Chief Ministers achieve little, except highlight the states' grievance about lack of adequate manpower and equipment to deal with the increasingly difficult law and order situation and funds to build, train and equip an expanded police force.

But, there is no explanation forthcoming for intelligence failure to track the movements of the terrorists and get information about their modus operandi and plan of bomb blasts in order to be able to prevent the same. The "I-told-you-so" attitude of the Central agencies is unhelpful as such warnings are so vague that they do not add anything to the scanty information which the states may have been able to gather on their own.

Most terror outfits talk of avenging the "atrocities" committed against Muslims during the Gujarat riots because the state has failed to bring the culprits to book. The BJP Government of Narendra Modi has actually shielded the culprits and frustrated attempts to bring them to justice. The likes of L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj are silent about this and instead of accepting the BJP's culpability in the case of Gujarat, are blaming the Centre for its "failure" to curb terrorism. Such politicking and refusal to accept blame cuts at the root of a coordinated all-party strategy to curb terrorism. Instead of cooperating in curbing the menace, these politicians are interested in scoring debating points and consolidating the Hindu vote to help them at the next General Election.

The Centre should shore up its intelligence and give timely and accurate information to the state about terror networks and their activities including probable attacks. The idea of a new federal agency to counter terrorism should be pursued even if it involves amending the Constitution. The states should be firmly told to discharge their constitutional responsibly of preserving law and order, make no alibis and not indulge in partisan politicking. The Centre should assist them in every way possible.

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