Joint Threat
| Date :16-Jun-2019 |
By ANSHUMAN BHARGAVA
“The war against terrorism is a joint responsibility of all civilised and democratic forces and they must bury their personal interests for the larger humanitarian cause.”
“Today there is nothing like their terrorism or terrorists of that or this country; India has long been crying hoarse, alerting countries to understand the problem.”
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi recently met Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and agreed that terrorism was a ‘joint threat’ that needed collective and focussed action. Modi is the first foreign leader to visit Sri Lanka after the horrible terror attack of April 21 that killed over 250 people and was claimed by the Islamic State. His visit is being seen as India’s affirmation of solidarity with the neighbouring country in its hour of crisis. The Prime Minister’s Office described his visit as ‘important, signifying the strong bonds of friendship with a valued neighbour’.
“I am confident Sri Lanka will rise again. Cowardly acts of terror cannot defeat the spirit of Sri Lanka. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My heart goes out to the families of the victims and the injured,” Modi later tweeted. Before his departure, the Prime Minister interacted with members of the Indian Community in Sri Lanka at India House and emphasised the important role played by them in strengthening bilateral relations. He also appealed to the diaspora to contribute to India’s development. India’s image, he said, had changed a lot in the last few years. The growing incidence of terrorism globally has united countries. Today almost every country is a sufferer of terrorism and this naturally derives a consensus between them. This global unity and understanding of the threat terrorism pose to civilisation, needs joint action. India’s global ascendency in recent times and her diplomatic successes have made her issues heard globally. The US has suffered, France, England, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Russia have suffered; tomorrow it can be China too.
Terrorism and violence, when perpetrated by religious dogmatism, don’t see the barriers of boundaries or peoples. Anyone not aligning with certain views can be a potential target. It is a war between civilisation versus anti-civilisation. Anyone standing for a reason, light and progress can be a victim of regressive forces which see every non-follower a heathen, who is fit to be butchered. The Sri Lankan episode is an experience for other countries too which all need to up their internal security arrangements. With its loss of the Middle East, IS will look for new grounds for survival and relevance and can make the vulnerable nations their prey base. They will continually try to garner and influence new recruits and youngsters to bolster their activities and for this, they will need to build their networks inside countries, with local people. Thus better the internal mechanisms countries build, better they will be able to prevent the chances of a big strike. Most developing countries still lack advanced technology of interception and surveillance and inter-departmental coordination of a high standard.
This leaves loopholes in the system that terrorists make use of. Simultaneously, it is also required of nations of the world to unite and put up joint resistance to the ill motives of IS and other terror groups by sharing Intelligence and technology. The war against terrorism is a joint responsibility of all civilised and democratic forces and they must bury their personal interests for the larger humanitarian cause. Today there is nothing like their terrorism or terrorists of that or this country; India has long been crying hoarse, alerting countries to understand the problem.
Now that terrorism is rapidly spreading its wings, the world is realising it is not just an India-Pakistan issue, but a global problem that touches all lives. It must be understood that fighting terrorism is not just a battle of arms— it is an ideological battle too – the battle to establish sanity over bigotry, reason over religious parochialism and human progressiveness over regressive machinations. It is an effort to dislodge the attempt of a group to uphold a certain religious belief in its most uninitiated and inchoate form. To counter its influence, it is important to build a stronger narrative around human unity, camaraderie, love, peace, harmony and progress.
The forces of goodness have to trump the advances of evil. That’s the way to go, that’s the way the world has progressed, and for that, we have to unite. Never in the history of humanity did we need so much unity of the humanitarian forces as now. And if we don’t realise the humanitarian crisis and act smart today, the world will be left in tatters in the near future. Our leaders must rise above their political affiliations or religious bondage and think like statesmen, because if terrorism spreads and penetrates further, their children will also be affected for wherever terrorism exists, the whole ecosystem gets devastated and there are cascading effects on society, education, healthcare, culture, trade and prosperity – a wound that is not healed in decades.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and even Pakistan – everywhere we have the spectre of devastation because of prolonged armed conflicts and violence. And this happens mostly due to indecisive and powerless Governments and the lack of consensus and unity in the voices of sanity. If those who can act, won’t do so, we are bound to be doomed, because power is not just about maintaining peace but also to fight it out when peace is in peril. Smaller countries must take cues from India on how to fight terrorism in covert operations and surgical moves without going for any large-scale military escalation, which is an unwise decision in today’s volatile global scenario. Localised attacks are more intense and effective and this can prove handy for smaller countries with limited resources to sanitise their internal hideouts by micro-operations. India has been living with terrorism for decades and the bitter experiences have also taught her a lot which other countries can learn from through greater bilateral bonding.
Sri Lanka has bounced back, but more importantly, it has to ensure that such a dastardly act doesn’t happen again in its land. Learning from the Sri Lanka experience, every country must pledge that no terror outfits in any form survive in their territory.
Through sustained combing operations, clampdowns on terror modules, arrest of suspects and intense vigil of suspicious movements inside the country along with guarding the borders well, countries can and should up their anti-terror mechanism and do more than just showing the intent. By the way, if Governments are more alert and sincere in their war against terrorism, it will be very difficult for outfits like IS to make inroads in countries and establish their network that is competent enough to mount an attack.