The Hindu Business Line : No end to blasts!

The recent Hyderabad blasts have shown once again that people at large are generally at the mercy of those who believe that spreading bloody chaos and mayhem in society is one way of achieving their objective, which is destabilisation of the Indian state. Admittedly, the phenomenon is not all that surprising - in any society for that matter - in view of the worldwide spread of terrorism. Indeed, in India, terrorism is not only of the jehadi type, which reached its peak with the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York in September, 2001. The Naxalite variety is also in the ascendant, as is being manifested on a regular basis these days by reports of attacks on railway lines, railway stations, police outposts and even district jails.

A difficult task

Some people might argue that such incidents of violence should not be given too much importance in a society territorially as vast as India on the ground that it is just not feasible to be physically present everywhere in order to stop anti-social elements from doing their heinous work.

While this is acceptable on practical grounds, it cannot mean that everyone sits back and tries to ignore tragic events like the Hyderabad explosions because of the argument that terrorists cannot be stopped all the time. But then why have law-enforcement agencies, et al? This is where an up-and-about administration comes in, and it must be said that not enough is being done by the authorities concerned to make the commission of dastardly acts by enemies of Indian society more difficult than is presently the case.

On the contrary, the feeling one gets - as an average citizen - is that our lives are today solely dependent on the whim of those who are determined to disrupt normal life by planting bombs and explosive devices in crowded places in big cities and small towns. Indeed, one will perhaps not be wide off the mark with the suggestion that, these days, terrorists of all sorts are intent on making as big a "splash of blood" as possible, which probably requires more time and planning, which perhaps explains the time-gap separating any two big incidents.

To say this is not to insinuate that those entrusted with the onerous job of tracking down such terrorists and eventually busting their plans are not doing their work. Of course they are, and it will perhaps be fair to say that for every tragic incident that does take place at least one or perhaps more are prevented - solely because of the work done by the security agencies.

`Best' not good enough

The point here is that though the preventive forces are doing their work to the best of their ability, the "best" that they are capable of in the present circumstances is perhaps not good enough to deter the terrorists from continuing with their mission, and even expanding their network.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is reported to have said that his Government knew that something like the explosions was coming but did not know when the bombs would be detonated and where. Clearly, unless these details are known, there is no point in anticipating a terrorist strike because such anticipation (even based on concrete information) helps little to prevent the loss of innocent lives and damage to property.

If "sleeper cells" were responsible for the blasts in Hyderabad, one shudders to think of the damage and destruction that other such cells can wreak on the country at moments of their choice.

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