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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Terror laws

This refers to “Terrorism: tilting at windmills” (May 28). Indeed, the struggle against Islamist terrorism needs special laws and/or a new federal police in view of the ever-increasing terrorist activities in the name of jihad. Most of our police personnel are busy giving protection to our political leaders, 24x7. Praveen Swami’s three-point formula deserves serious thinking by the Prime Minister and the State governments.

J.P. Reddy,

Nalgonda (A.P.)

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Patriotism does not have a party tag in the U.S. and the U.K. So the U.S. or British model of fighting terrorism may not work in India. The Patriot Act may sound draconian but how else can a nation counter “the genocidal profanities of faith?” The U.S. experienced not a single domestic terror attack after 9/11. Its strategy of going after suspected home-grown terrorist cells and the people who fund and support such plots without waiting for another deadly terror attack, in fact, a policy of preventive detention, did work out well. Of course, in a land of extreme civil liberties, some “innocents” were picked up but promptly let off. The nation must play safe and cannot take a chance.

In our country, patriotism — and even terrorism — has a party tag. That was why our Prime Minister lost sleep when the families of terror suspects were being interrogated in Bangalore. As long as the ruling dispensation practises politics of minority-ism, no preventive laws against the Jihadi terrorists will be enacted. We have elections to win and communities to be indulged.

C.V. Venugopalan,

Palakkad (Kerala)

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