The Hindu : Front Page : We’ll have to consider new strategy to tackle terror

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Saturday, Oct 13, 2007
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We’ll have to consider new strategy to tackle terror

Special Correspondent

For, terrorists have the advantage of surprise: Manmohan

“Let there be no mistake about our resolve to meet this challenge head on”
Peace process with Pakistan has not slowed down

NEW DELHI: A day after the Ajmer blast, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country would have to think of a different strategy to deal with terror strikes.

“Terrorists have the advantage of surprise. Therefore, we have to think of a different approach to deal with them,” he said, replying to a question about recurring blasts, at the HT Leadership Summit here on Friday.

Although he did not elaborate on this observation, which suggested a different thinking in the government, the Prime Ministersaid: “Let there be no mistake about our resolve to meet this challenge head on.”

Admitting to a difficult internal security situation, he called upon people not to despair. “We have to mobilise all our resources and defeat their machinations. There is no lack of firmness and purpose.”

Dr. Singh disagreed with a suggestion that the peace process with Pakistan had slowed down due to Islamabad’s internal problems. As neighbours, it was inevitable for both countries to pursue the quest for friendly relations, he said.

“In the past three years, we never had such an intensive dialogue on all outstanding issues. If the process appears to have slowed down, it is not due to internal problems in Pakistan. I do not want to comment on their internal affairs,” he said when a Pakistani journalist asked whether the process had slowed down or even halted in recent months due to the turmoil in Islamabad.

“We are committed to finding pragmatic, practical and viable solutions. I have spoken repeatedly that the destiny of India and Pakistan is closely interlinked. And without it, we can’t think of a prosperous South Asia.”

Asked by the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad about the perception that economic reforms had come to a standstill, Dr. Singh said, “Economic reforms are not just what you have in your mind. They are much more. We need to reform our infrastructure, our education system and the public health delivery system. There are credible steps being taken.” At the same time, he admitted to problems in carrying out reforms in the financial sector.

Responding to the former Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office N. K. Singh’s suggestion that the high growth rate was subject to the risk of global recession and slowdown, Dr. Singh said that as India had become more integrated with the global economy, it would be affected by developments in the rest of the world. “But these are acceptable risks.”

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