The Hindu Business Line : The security vs liberty debate

THE recent terrorist attacks paralysing the London transport system and the threats continuing to be hurled by various terrorist groups at Governments, particularly of Western countries, has once again brought to the fore the dilemma of harmonising two, and on the face of them, conflicting fundamental obligations of any Government: One, ensuring the internal and external security of the nation and the protection of the citizens from dangers to their lives and pursuit of their lawful and peaceful avocations, and the other, doing so without encroaching on civil liberties and human rights.

It is well-understood that any measure meant to be a stern deterrent against breach of security always entails curtailment of liberties in some degree.

Catastrophic or jihadi terrorism of the type that has reared its head in different parts of the world has forced even open societies and tested democracies such as the US and the UK to resort to legislation making serious inroads into the Bills of Rights that have long been the hallmarks of those polities.

The citizens and legislatures of those countries have also been mature and understanding enough to arm their Governments with whatever powers would be best-suited to combat the terrorist threats, even if that meant putting up with erosion of time-honoured liberties.

The UK and the European Union, which have so far desisted from harsh measures, are now geared up to "pull up this evil ideology by its roots" and go in for a new legislation of unprecedented severity to refuse entry to those who incited hatred and violence based on "perverted and poisonous" doctrines of Islamic terrorism (as the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair put it) and summarily deport such of those who were already settled in those countries and indulging in fomenting terrorism.

There is talk of compulsory storage of billions of records of personal email, mobile phone calls and texts, emanating from all citizens regardless of whether they were in the suspect list or not.

The EU is also planning the introduction of electronic fingerprints on existing identity cards, exchanging information on lost or stolen explosives and passports, and swapping advance airline passenger lists.

It will be a pity if lessons learnt elsewhere are lost on India.

B. S. Raghavan

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