Mumbai Terror: Super intelligent Indian ministers

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The moment a terror attack takes place in India and the news is out, it takes less than 10 minutes for the Indian ministers to announce that they know who did it.

" We know who did it. It is Pakistan" , they will say in a chorus, as if they had access to privileged information from some divine spirit.

Of course, the terrorists may have most likely originated from Pakistan. But, when a politician ( and especially Ministers ) start to speak the 'facts' with such immediate responses, it may mean several things.

1. He has the divine power to see the unseen - instantaneously, but after the event.
2. He is a doing the standard blame game public theatricals.
3. He is, as usual displaying his inherent stupidity.

BUT, what he don't want the Indian public to know, is this.

1. The failure of his government agencies and administration.

2. After 60 years of independence, till of date there has been no effort to reform the
Indian police and security apparatus. In spite of the fact that the current Police Act was drafted by the British about 100 years ago.

3. That politics and not national security has higher priority for the duffer politicians who come to power in India, so much so they have no time to bother about safety and security of the Indian nationals within and without the country.

4. That many a call was made to institute a commission to draw up a new Police act
to replace the 100 year old existing one, to cope with modern times of today.

So what have we here. The usual chanting and pointing fingers - WE KNOW IT , IT IS PAKISTAN....chorus start to flow, obviously to mask the real fact. which is the sheer dis-interest, the incompetence and negligence of the tardy government of the day. A good way to divert people's attention from them.

So much so, the terrorists have become used to this. They know for a fact that they can do what they want with impunity and as usual, nothing will happen till many innocents are dead and the blame game antics of the government ministers start to play out.

So far , nobody has asked these ministers and politicians, why, if they could know so soon who is behind all this, how come they did not know it an hour earlier and thus prevent the terrorist act in the first place.? ----- food for thought..eh.?

The comment posted by "Pluto" clearly shows that there are sane minds and logical persons also present in India. Today is Saturday the 29th of November, 2008, and I was watching the BBC TV, about an hour ago! It was at that time that the authorities in Mumbai announced that they had cleared the last hiding place of the militants, the Taj Palace hotel of the Tatas. But they were still combing the place room by room(more than 500 in all). This shows that the operation is still not finished, completely. Still within hours of the start of this horrible incident, PM Man Mohan Singh, in a speech to the Indian nation, had figured out a "foriegn hand" involved, condemning a "nieghbour," a clear reference to Pakistan in thinly veiled terms! Then the Foriegn Minister mentioned Pakistan by name, as the perpetrator of this atrocity! Besides "Divine powers," "blame shifting" and "stupidity," there is another major factor to be considered here! These ministers including the PRIME one, are first and foremost POLITICIANS! And with Indian local bodies elections already begun, and general elections due early next year, they made these utterly unfounded remarks to deflect public attention from their own inefficiency. Secondly, perhaps they also wanted to shift the blame from Indian Muslims to Pakistan, to prevent another Ahmedabad! If so then this reflects a failure of the Indian State. Since India is doing very well in economic and other areas, the first explanation, a re-wording of Pluto's assessment still only seems more plausable! Stability in India is in Pakistan's interest! This is so because Usama Bin ladin, and his Al-Qaeda's high command is still being given safe haven by Afghan Taliban, in Pakistan's Western tribal belt. So why would Pakistani establishment try to destabalise its Eastern neighbour, with whom it is trying to adopt CMBs (Confidence Building Measures)? By disowning Indian administered Kashmiri militants etc., Pakistan Government is already under pressure! Moreover, incidents of a similar nature are almost a daily occurance in Pakistan! As an example, when exiled Benazir Bhutto arrived in Karachi, there was a crowd of more than 150,000 persons lining the way to welcome her! She was standing on the top of a truck, for many hours! Luckily, she went down to a bomb proof room in the truck, and there were two huge bomb blasts, which killed hundreds instantly, while only the bomb shelter of the truck remained, and Benazir's life was saved on that day! But soon armed men started indiscriminate firing which lasted for many days, leaving thousands, dead. Finally, after a public meeting when Benazir, poked her head out of her car's sunroof, she was shot at and two bomb explosons resulted in her death! So the PPP won the coming election on sympathy vote! When incidents such as these happen every now and then in Pakistan, then why would Pakistan do the same to India? Let the incident of Mumbai calm down; and a full high level inquiry should then be conducted. Then if solid evidence emerges that the terrorists were from Pakistan, the Pakistan government has announced that it will deal with them using utmost severity! We are all first waiting for facts, backed by solid evidence, to come out, before any side makes any more silly remarks, or actions!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/3772374.cms

This singular inability is not caused by lack of information but a deep reluctance to share data and resources among the police and intelligence agencies and the pitfall of having a multiplicity of organisations, with separate command and control which, in essence, means the buck stops nowhere.

The most debilitating factor in the Indian intelligence war on terrorism has been the reluctance, and even refusal, to share information among the intelligence and security agencies. Along with an inept information-sharing architecture at the national level, this reluctance has proved to be the most critical flaw in counter-terrorism intelligence operations.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pluto

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/3772374.cms

This singular inability is not caused by lack of information but a deep reluctance to share data and resources among the police and intelligence agencies and the pitfall of having a multiplicity of organisations, with separate command and control which, in essence, means the buck stops nowhere.

The most debilitating factor in the Indian intelligence war on terrorism has been the reluctance, and even refusal, to share information among the intelligence and security agencies. Along with an inept information-sharing architecture at the national level, this reluctance has proved to be the most critical flaw in counter-terrorism intelligence operations.

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Yes, this is a positive assessment of the horrible scenario! There are rogue elements, criminals, vested interests, and cut-throat murderers wth some twisted ideology along with a disregard for their own lives, present in all parts of the World! I m relieved that some foriegn Government's involvement has not been proven, after more than 72 hours past the beginning of the incident. What I would like to say is that what are the state security institutions for. They get the loin's share, and first priority of India's central budgetary allocations.The RAW's counter insurgency section has said that it knew months in advance that Mumbai may come under attack of terror. They say that they had pre-informed the Maharastrian Government, the coast gaurd, and the Navy etc., of such impending attacks. All these different arms of Indian officialdom deny that they ever received such warnings. So now all the security departments are denying their obvious ineffiency,and trying to find some other "scapegoat!" At long last some high officials have felt responsible for this failure of the Indian state security apparatus, and have resigned. According to the BBC, "Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil and national security adviser MK Narayanan have submitted their resignations in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. The moves come amid growing pressure on the Indian government to explain why it was unable to prevent the militant strike in which at least 172 died. It is not clear whether Mr Narayanan's resignation has been accepted. The resignations come ahead of an all party meeting set for Sunday evening, which is poised to discuss new anti-terror measures in India - including new anti-terror laws, and the possible creation of new anti-terror agency. Hundreds of people took to the streets of Mumbai on Sunday to protest at what they say were government failures in the face of the attacks. Protesters say the authorities should have been more prepared for the attacks and also question whether warnings were ignored, and how long it took commandos to reach the scenes of the attacks. " This situation also begs the question that how come only 10 (most highly trained and prepared they may be) were able to hold at bay the toughest commandos of he Indian military for more than three days? As a speculative comment, it seems that there should have been at least more than a hundred of them. Then their intimate knowledge of there targets and the innermost guts of huge buildings and the city itself, speaks volumes about the fact that a huge local component aided and abbetted them. So instead of playing the blame game of cat and mouse, India needs to completely revamp it's interior security apparatus, to prevent such an incident's re-occurance. We are all waiting for the full story to come out. Until then it is better not to provoke international tensions, because no government can have complete control of all of the local mischief makers! And no other country benefits from striking such soft targets, instead of the stock exchange, and harbor facilities, etc., high value targets of military significance! But to what avail? None whatsoever, at this time!!!

I think that India has been too complacent during the past few years, when it's economy has been showing exceptional growth. I am utterly surprised at the lack of security preparedess, in light of what Pakistan has been going through during the past, after USA's 9/11! Only recently, a restaurant "Lana Caprice" and the Marriot hotel, both frequented by Americans, the British and also local elites were bombed to oblivion in Islamabad, not by Lashkar-e Tayiba, which is under ban these days but by the Taliban militants based in Pakistan's tribal belt. Al-Qaeda has also found shelter there! I qoute The Times of London, "Officials and analysts in the region believe that last week’s atrocities were designed to provoke a crisis, or even a war, between the nuclear-armed neighbours, diverting Islamabad’s attention from extremism in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and thus relieving pressure on al-Qaeda, Taleban and other militants based there. Pakistan has deployed more than 100,000 troops along its porous border with Afghanistan, where US and Nato forces are fighting against the Taleban, al Qaeda and other militants. Some 35,000 of those Pakistani troops are involved in the fight against al Qaeda and Taleban militants who have been sheltering in Pakistan’s northern tribal areas since late 2001.
Withdrawing those soldiers would undermine their progress, especially since Pakistan launched its biggest offensive to date against the militants in the tribal region of Bajaur in September.“The withdrawal of troops will give a huge space to the militants,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani defence analyst and former professor at Punjab University.

“The main objective of the militants involved in the Mumbai attack was to destablise the region… They will thrive in the event of war between the two countries [India and Pakistan].”
Doctor Antonio Giustozzi, an expert on Afghanistan at the London School of Economics, said Washington could weather such a crisis, but concurred on the militants’ aims.
“I think that the terrorists have made a calculation that aims to worsen relations between India and Pakistan and embarrass the Pakistan government, in the hope that the Indians make an uncontrolled response,” he said.
That, he said, would “strengthen the militants’ hand and compromise the campaign by Islamabad against extremists by diverting troops back to the Indian border.” "

Thus we can see that the Mumbai terrorists were from a World renowned group, who have already declared a war against Pakistan. But in my view, the way that New Dehli, almost played into the hands of these micreants, the lack of coordination between the various security agencies in tackling them, and the ease with which they were able to hold a great metropolis in grip of terror, should be a "wake-up call" for Indian authorities, and the response should be a better prepared security apparatus. Instead of blaming Pakistan it's cooperation should be sought, and better relation building should not be hampered. Only this will show the terrorists that they actually have failed in attaining their objectives!!!