After many years, the US has acknowledged Pakistan’s double game (not that they were not aware of actualities), China is capitalising on it, but we fail to learn

As another set of serial blasts ripped through Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar, Dadar West and Opera House (reportedly on Ajmal Qasab’s birthday), news channels exploded – “23 Killed and 141 Wounded”, “NSG Hub in Mumbai Put on Alert”, “Army Reaction Teams in Mumbai on Alert”, “NIA Team Rushes from Delhi”, “CFL Team Sent to Mumbai”, “Team of BSF Experts Flown to Mumbai”, “Leaders Appeal for Calm”, “Sonia, PM Condemn Attack”, “Stay Calm, Stay at Home”, “We Will Not Tolerate Terrorist Attacks”, “Pak PM, President Condemn Attack”, “Obama Offers Help in Investigations”. A former CM is projected on TV expressing horror even before the present CM of the concerned State – the games we play!

You already know the topic of this weekend TV debates. Very soon you will hear “Terrorists Plan to Derail India-Pakistan Dialogue”. Same old pattern, same old response! Headlines after a week will read “Obama/Hillary Issues Tough Message to Pakistan”. End of story!

Should there be any reason to carry on? After all only common men are hit and they are too many with predictions of India’s population stabilising only around 2030. Besides haven’t we announced adequate compensations to the dead and injured? So what if their kith and kin keep guessing when the cheques will actually arrive. Shuja Pasha having cognac with Mullen will tell him, “See this time it is Indian Mujahideen, we have nothing to do with it”, despite the LeT backing it and even as ISI carves one more notch on the pistol butt.

After many years, the US has acknowledged Pakistan’s double game (not that they were not aware of actualities), China is capitalising on it, but we fail to learn. Not our fault really because isn’t time at a premium – scams, black money, OBC quotas, forthcoming UP elections et al ! Then we have already sanctioned the NATGRID, no matter if intelligence itself is a casualty. After all we get enough intelligence from foreign countries. Does the cutting edge of the security sector including CAPF (Combined Armed Police Force) have the wherewithal to optimise the NATGRID? No, but where is the hurry. Let the NATGRID come first. Later we will think of how CAPF can use it. After all the Maoists insurgency is a minor issue, statements of they being the biggest threat only being political.

Let us be clear that terror strikes in India are going to increase as the ISAF/NATO, US forces withdraw from Afghanistan and Pakistan leans more and more on China. Pakistan’s ISI and military will keep upping the ante, artfully calibrating our level of tolerance, which remains exceedingly high if only the common man is hit. It is going to be more and more difficult to point the finger at Pakistan. After all it is not without reason that they started placing armed modules pan-India way back in 1992-93. The terror fabric developed ‘within India’ is ripe for exploitation and our excellence in corruption and vote bank politics would have given them Indian identities long ago. Can we identify this fabric down to the very yarn and take measures to protect our citizenry? Do we have the political will to do it? That million dollar question was something being discussed by senior officials unofficially at a recent internal security seminar at the India Habitat Centre. Remember M.J. Akbar’s article post-26/11 terrorist strike. He wrote: “Why the dismay over a trawler bringing terrorists all the way from Karachi when every second day a trawler from Karachi touches Mumbai loaded with drugs, courtesy the politician-police nexus. Pakistan has learnt the art of denial and ambiguity from China and is not about to change its policy of terrorism.”

The term non-state actor is a misnomer as they cannot survive without state patronage. Don’t go by misleading sincerity of Pakistan’s toothless polity. India has to fight its own war. Pakistan is controlling our fault lines. We should be controlling theirs. Do we have the will to do it ?

The views expressed herein are the personal views of the author.