Analysis: First understand the dynamics of terrorism, then fight it

The one question that is constantly being asked by every Mumbaikar is why the police were not able to prevent another terrorist attack in the city. Many commentators on television channels have vented their anger on the police as well as the political leadership.  The Opposition leaders, including LK Advani, have blamed the government for a “policy failure”, without spelling out what they would do which this government is not seen to be doing.

Having tasted terrorism in the Punjab between 1986 and 1989 I think I have some firsthand knowledge of the subject. The type of anger I notice here is the same as that Hindus in Punjab used to exhibit at the height of terrorism there. At first, not understanding the dynamics of terrorism, I thought that if we made a list of the various terrorist groups and their foot soldiers and eliminated or captured them, we would put an end to the menace!

Alas, we were wrong.  Terrorist leaders and their followers if caught or killed, are soon replaced by other brainwashed young men. In fact, many criminal elements also join the fray. 

We soon learnt that the only real answer to terrorism is the classical response advocated by people who had experienced it in other parts of the world — go after the brainwashed cadre with single-minded determination and kill or capture them but, simultaneously win over the hearts and minds of the community to which the terrorists belong.

It is only when the Jat Sikhs in the villages of the Punjab turned against these boys that we could wave goodbye to terrorism in that state.  Something like this has to be tried out with the Muslim community in Mumbai. Most Muslims are self-employed artisans or traders and they have nothing to do with the terrorists or their cause. 

The Mohalla Committee Movement has been attempting to bring Hindus and Muslims to understand each other by constant meetings in their own localities.  The movement has also associated the police with this venture because unless the minority community feels confident that the police will not take sides and will not be unjust they are not likely to come round.

It is absolutely impossible for any police or government in the world to prevent a terrorist strike of the type that occurred in Mumbai on 13/7 unless there was pinpoint intelligence available.  Such intelligence is likely to come by if citizens, mainly of the minority community, have more confidence in the police.

This brings me to the second part of this article and that is the willingness of the police at the thana level to take heed of gossip or information passed on to them. Unfortunately, the police force is not the same as that which was in 25 to 30 years ago. Corruption has become more endemic and even some senior officers have fallen prey to the menace.

There is a general fall in values concomitant with the falling morals in our society. Much of it stems from political corruption emanating from electoral politics. When politicians insist on running the force by dabbling in transfers and other establishment matters you have a situation when the control slips out of the hand of the man who should be in charge i.e. the commissioner of police.

The proposed police reforms had concentrated on this one ill that ails the body politic. If we can separate the politician from daily policing and appoint only the best people at the top of the hierarchy the delivery system would certainly improve exponentially.

On 13/7 the police did perform much, much better than they did on 26/11.  The only criticism I heard was that they were not able to control the crowds at the sites of the blasts.  This is a perennial problem in the country and not only in Mumbai.

Since the use of force has to be avoided the only solution I can think of is to use loudspeakers to announce constantly that there is a danger of another explosion and also that the scenes of crimes need to be preserved for tracing the culprits.

I have heard demands that home minister RR Patil should be asked to resign. This demand should be ignored for the simple reason that Patil could not have anticipated or prevented the attack.

What is required is a quick response and the capture of the culprits as early as possible followed by exemplary punishment in quick time. Our judicial process takes ages to accomplish what it is meant to even in such serious cases!

What Patil should do is not to cave in to the demands of his colleagues for transfers and postings. Patil himself is not known to be corrupt, like some previous home ministers. But Patil tends to deal directly with junior officials which he should refrain from doing because that disrupts the hierarchical structure and shakes the very foundations of police discipline.

Another public demand is that VIP security should be trimmed so that there are more policemen on the roads rather than pandering to oversized egos. The chief minister had taken his decision but had put it on a hold because of unreasonable pressure from sundry politicians. He would be appreciated if he overruled these gentlemen and went ahead with his resolve to take away these status symbols.

—The author is the former Mumbai commissioner of police