visuals of heavily armed gunmen firing at the Sri Lankan team bus began to flash on TV screens, the government’s concern over similarities to the Mumbai strikes would be accentuated by the nightmare of a highprofile terror attack in India in the midst of an election.
The attacks might have made the terror threat to India a little more of a political issue going by home minister P Chidambaram’s suggestion that IPL be put off. His point about security being stretched during elections is valid enough, but it is not improbable that he might have pondered the political fallout of a terror strike.
Chidambaram would perhaps be correct in preferring caution over risk with the so far unwritten belief that sporting events are out of bounds due to fear of a popular backlash now breached. Just one incident on the lines of the Lahore attack could put paid to Congress’s claims that the government had shored its defences against the threat of terrorism.
Well-placed sources dealing with security said while the government had displayed some urgency since 26/11, measures taken were hardly foolproof. A deeper, more systemic reflection on internal security was yet to unfold. In fact, the decision to put on hold a maritime security advisory board and the appointment of a maritime security advisor suggested old turf fights had not been snuffed out.
In such a situation, the mega cricket blitz might become an obvious target for groups like Lashkare-Taiba which had sought out western victims during the 26/11 attacks. With the Pakistani establishment capitulating to jihadis on its own territory, there may be fewer checks on anti-India groups. In the event, US pressure on Pakistan would be no guarantee either.
Though BJP’s ham-handed attempt to reap a political dividend did not pay last November, another strike would see the saffron camp ramping up its rhetoric about UPA turning a blind eye to terror. BJP could be expected to ask what the government had done since the January 2004 anti-terror pledge former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had got out of Pervez Musharraf.
Since the 7/7 Mumbai train bombings, India’s efforts to get Pakistan to act against terrorism have not borne much fruit, with last year’s suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul signalling a fresh spiral. Some have argued that the obsession with the India-US nuclear deal and survival in Parliament took attention away from other concerns.
The attacks might have made the terror threat to India a little more of a political issue going by home minister P Chidambaram’s suggestion that IPL be put off. His point about security being stretched during elections is valid enough, but it is not improbable that he might have pondered the political fallout of a terror strike.
Chidambaram would perhaps be correct in preferring caution over risk with the so far unwritten belief that sporting events are out of bounds due to fear of a popular backlash now breached. Just one incident on the lines of the Lahore attack could put paid to Congress’s claims that the government had shored its defences against the threat of terrorism.
Well-placed sources dealing with security said while the government had displayed some urgency since 26/11, measures taken were hardly foolproof. A deeper, more systemic reflection on internal security was yet to unfold. In fact, the decision to put on hold a maritime security advisory board and the appointment of a maritime security advisor suggested old turf fights had not been snuffed out.
In such a situation, the mega cricket blitz might become an obvious target for groups like Lashkare-Taiba which had sought out western victims during the 26/11 attacks. With the Pakistani establishment capitulating to jihadis on its own territory, there may be fewer checks on anti-India groups. In the event, US pressure on Pakistan would be no guarantee either.
Though BJP’s ham-handed attempt to reap a political dividend did not pay last November, another strike would see the saffron camp ramping up its rhetoric about UPA turning a blind eye to terror. BJP could be expected to ask what the government had done since the January 2004 anti-terror pledge former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had got out of Pervez Musharraf.
Since the 7/7 Mumbai train bombings, India’s efforts to get Pakistan to act against terrorism have not borne much fruit, with last year’s suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul signalling a fresh spiral. Some have argued that the obsession with the India-US nuclear deal and survival in Parliament took attention away from other concerns.
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