Mumbai Terror Strike: It Is Not India’s 9/11

New Delhi: India has lived through several major terror strikes during the past two decades in different parts of the country, including a major attack on Indian Parliament to kill important leaders. Ordinary people continue to suffer pain and anguish non-stop on this account. (Photo above courtesy Associated Press: Foreign tourist saved from an attacked Mumbai hotel.)

(Meanwhile Army commandos moved into the luxury Oberoi and the Taj Mahal hotels to flush out terrorists holed up there. A militant holed up inside Oberoi Hotel told a news channel on Thursday that seven attackers were holding hostages. ‘There are seven of us inside hotel Oberoi,’ he said. To see Mumbai video coverage pl visit http://broadband.indiatimes.com/toishowvideo/3762676.cms)

Latest reports here…

India has faced many such challenges bravely, and there have been several “9/11s” before. Now the country has also learned a cardinal lesson that these terrorists are the creation, direct or indirect, of bigger international forces/players. And only the big players can really stop the carnage.

Since terror attacks are not showing any signs of abating despite eight years of international “war on terror”… India has decided that it should pay more attention to self-preparedness and the relief and healing measures. The favourite word “revenge” has been taken out of the dictionary.

For the USA and the West some understanding of “terrorism” and “militancy” began only after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. That was the first time when Americans suffered pain and devastation, as a consequence of terrorism, at a personal level.

Before that the repeated reminders from India during the 1980s and the 1990s (when Sikh and Kashmiri terrorists were killing innocent people) about rising terrorism fell on deaf ears and the leaders and the media in the West trivialized the whole issue. At that time there was a strong conviction in the USA that terrorism could happen only ‘elsewhere in the world’.

There is a growing belief that during the past eight years the myopic/dangerous and extremely self-centered policies of the Western leaders have complicated the issue no end.

Imagine the time when the Indian parliament was nearly crippled by armed terrorists a few years ago, but it merited scant attention of the Western leaders/media.

Instead of sitting down and seriously discussing the issue of militancy and terrorism with world leaders, even the American president-elect Barack Obama is merely talking of sending more and more troops to Afghanistan. The question being asked now is: How is he different from President George Bush?

There is a general realization that ‘War on Terrorism’ needs to be fought with brains not brawn alone. Terrorists are moving in a clever fashion. In Mumbai they have sent a clear signal that they are now looking for the “US and British” citizens to attack. This is, possibly, to win sympathy of non-US and non-British people.

Frankly, the world is getting tired of the Bush-era adventurism and was hoping that the change in the US leadership would bring some sanity back with a changed foreign policy stance. But there are serious doubts now. And to top it all there is the looming dangerous worldwide recession ahead, that may create serious inner civilian conflicts and unrest far dangerous than terrorism.

While we mourn the death and destruction at Mumbai and elsewhere, we must study whether State terrorism and Ideological/Business/Religious terrorism are closely linked and how they form an unending and vicious circle. In the propaganda war no one is sure who the real terrorist is!!!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: TMV International Columnist Swaraaj Chauhan is a veteran New Delhi journalist who lives in India.]