If I were PM

Strategize, coordinate and empower - Pankaj Agarwal

To handle the most terrifying terrorist attack on India, a lot was expected from the government, specifically from the PM, who unfortunately has not been able to justify the skills and the education that he has received from one of the best universities in the world. As a finance person, he was expected to take tough decisions with well defined steps.

If were the PM in his place, I would do the following:-

1-      CBM (confidence building measures):- The first and the foremost step for the public. Public lost all the confidence in the ability to handle the terrorism and on a large scale to even provide any defense from outside. For attain this, communication is the key. I would have had "Message to the Nation" session every alternate day to explain the measures that government has taken and will be taking. Stop the rumor mill and public would still like hear some tough words from the head of the government.

2-      Coordination committee: Very importantly to set up the coordination committee. It was a complete failure of coordination, before, during and after the attacks. Before the attacks, despite having clear warnings with specific details, no measure was taken, as different agencies lack the coordination.

a.       Before: Federal Intelligence Agency; Equipped with powers to instruct various security agencies for the action and mainly responsible for the complete Intelligence, internal as well external of India. This is the agency that also handles the coordination of the complete operation like Mumbai attack. Second step is tough terror law and strict implementation. The definition of the terror needs to be expanded to include any activity that has implication for the freedom of the citizens of India.

b.      During: Every one was eager to meet with press, be it the police, army or NSG or politician. During such operation, only the designated person will be responsible to provide the information to media. The person internally gets the information from various other agencies involved in the operation. Even the politicians would be restricted to make unnecessary comments during the operation.

c.       After: Again the FIA takes the control and investigates the matter. CBI shall be part of the FIA to handle the internal security matters. As soon as the investigation is complete and the criminals are identified, put into the fast track dedicated courts, having the authorities equal to Supreme Court of India. For the convict of capital punishment, the unnecessary approvals from different functionaries will have to be bypassed and he will only be able to appeal to the President of India for mercy. For that also a set time limit; which shall not be more than few months will be enforced.

3-      When it comes to handling the cunningness of Pakistan, our PM has not given any message to Pakistan. This is what we do after every attack, warn Pakistan of dire consequences and say that we will not tolerate any attack on the people of India.

But this is exactly what is happening over the last decade and we have been tolerating it again and again. It will be difficult to attack on PoK terror camps in broad day light as Pakistan will use that as the excuse of diverting the army from NW frontier. It is still possible to attack the training camps running in Bangladesh, without any international fall outs. When it is a public knowledge that Bangladesh soil is now being used extensively for the training of terrorist, we can always take that option. Bangladesh has done many provocations in the past while they can not even stand in front of India. So an aggressive army operation, if possible, keeping Bangladesh army in confidence, to destroy the terror cams is necessary. This will also serve as the concrete message of action to Pakistan.

This will also help in reducing the number of refugees that we get every day from Bangladesh and they are also becoming a huge law and order problem, along with the vote bank. In parallel a combat in PoK using the NSG like skills would be needed. The group works underground to destroy the training camps and in parallel a socio political war is also initiated to see that each tribe in Pakistan starts demanding autonomy or self rule. Use the diplomatic and political war against the Pakistan so that Pakistan becomes another USSR story.

All this is only possible with a very strong coordination and empowered group. The Federal Agency shall not be under the political leaders, but it shall be responsible to the Chief of Army or equivalent.

This might seem to be an impossible task, but everything is possible in politics.