Partisan politics and implications for national security

Only Modi can do what Patel could, says Cho

http://newstodaynet.com/images/stories/2008/sep/11/pg7-cho.gif A memento was being presented to journalist Cho Ramaswamy at a symposium on politics and national security in Chennai on Tuesday.

Thu, 11 Sep, 2008 , 02:58 PM

‘No politician in this country thinks that Kashmir belongs to India. The protests by Muslims in the valley against the land allotment to Amarnath Shrine Board is condemnable and PDP leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is a ‘divisionist’ masquerading as a politician.’

This observation was made by Thuglak editor and political analyst Cho Ramaswami at a symposium on ‘Partisan Politics - Implications for National Security’, organised by Vigil Public Opinion Forum in Chennai on Tuesday.
The firebrand journalist further said Kashmir problem could be solved by enlarging the State by adding the nearby areas to it thereby making it a bigger State resulting in the change in demography, which would automatically force the Muslims to reduce their agitations, as they would become a minority then.

‘Sardar Patel would have done it had he been alive and Narendra Modi will do it and If Advani becomes the Prime Minister, I will urge him to make Modi as the Home Minister’, he added.

Cho called for an anti-terror law more stringent than the POTA. He cited the new anti-terror law enacted by the US in the aftermath of 9/11, which requires even the lawyers to part with information on terrorists.

He also averred that all the terror acts are executed with local help and a stringent anti-terror law would certainly help in curtailing the ‘helpers’ if not the terrorists. ‘Punishing the supporters itself would bring down the scale of terror acts’, he said.

The scribe came down heavily on Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and AICC president Sonia Gandhi for blatantly being soft on terror. He referred to the spurt in LTTE activities in the State, the elegy written by Karunanidhi for mourning the death of a LTTE leader and Sonia’s daughter Priyanka’s meeting with Nalini at the Vellore prison.

He also condemned the repeal of POTA, softness on SIMI and the prolonged postponement of hanging of Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru and said that the Congress party is the most and worst ‘communal’ party in the country, as it equates terrorism with the Muslim community as a whole, by such actions having votebank in mind.

He minced no words in telling that the so-called human rights organisations and activists are the greatest ‘curse’ on India, as they always bother about the rights of terror elements and never bother about the rights of the victims.

He also said that they have become a huge impediment in the country’s anti-terror measures. He concluded by saying, ‘the world will respect only a winner and not a failed nation and hence the people must vote for a change of government if they want India to be a winner’

Speaking on the occasion, former director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) Ajith Doval said, ‘Response capability is a must for any nation to deal with terror. The capacity to respond effectively with all kinds of threats posed by terrorists can be developed only when the elected representatives work with responsibility. India being a vibrant democracy, it must enact a very effective anti-terror law and the same must be executed and implemented with utmost conscientiousness’.

Explaining in detail the grave situation at the borders covering thousands of kilometers, Ajit said, ‘India has a huge land frontier and 94 per cent of its borders are close to hostile nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Nepal, while only six per cent is close to a friendly and harmless nation Bhutan.

The borders are extremely porous leading to infiltration of illegal immigrants and Islamic militants from Bangladesh and Pakistan and naxalites and Maoists from Nepal and insurgents from Mayanmar. China has very friendly relations with all these nations and in this kind of a grave scenario on the borders, it becomes imperative for India to strengthen the security of it borders with separate BSF for each neighbour’.

The former IB director dealt extensively with the hopeless situation of internal security touching upon the spread of Islamic terrorism throughout the country from Kashmir to Tamilnadu and the spread of Naxals in more than 14 States affecting around 175 districts with an average recruitment of 1000 cadres every year, He also condemned the anti-national activities of a few foreign funded NGOs and specifically the Wahabiism cultivated by Middle- East through funding, constructing and maintaining Nurseries and Madarasas.

He also came down heavily on the votebank politics played by the majority of national and regional political parties, particularly those in the UPA. He concluded by saying that ‘an effective anti-terror law will send a strong message to the terrorists and their helpers and it will also send a message of morale booster to the general public’.

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