The Hindu reports:
The Bharatiya Janata Party has cancelled or postponed a number of rallies planned for the next several weeks, following a perception that terrorists could target Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani.
What was the cause ?
Credible intelligence information was personally conveyed to Mr. Advani by National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan on Monday evening.
The Pioneer went further to say the NSA had specific information on suicide squads.
So?how did the nation react to this news ?
Some?in the media took some cheap pot shots at the BJP decision to once again remind us how petty and partisan the mainstream media. The others pretty much glossed over this rather serious piece of intelligence.
In fact to best appreciate the lackadasicial attitude of the nation towards National Security consider this. On a day when the nation’s shadow Prime Minister was warned of a possible suicide squad and the principal Opposition has had to pull back on legitimate political activity under the threat of terrorism not a single mainstream newspaper carried an editorial on the UPA Government’s abject delinquency on pre-emptively fighting terrorism.
In fact it is amazing how glamour has replaced substantiative issues in the mainstream media. Sania Mirza’s decision to not play in India saw the Telegraph carry an editorial, the Indian Express had two op-ed pieces on Sania, the Hindu found space to talk about Hamas and the U.S. Presidential Primaries, the Times of India carried yet another editorial on Sania while the Hindustan Times while addressing Terrorism retrospectively in the context of the IC 814 hijacking sentences raised few questions about the Manmohan Singh Government’s Anti-Terrorism record.
Offstumped Bottomline: As the Manmohan Singh lead UPA Government continues to play lip service to Anti-Terrorism it is disturbing that the nation has lulled itself into a complacement stupor on the threat of terrorism. The mainstream media is guilty of great disservice to the nation by not holding the UPA Government to account for its dismal record in fighting terror. As the bogey of terrorism returns to haunt it is time the government stopped drawing false comfort and explained to the nation how it plans to pre-empt terror.
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[...] http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/02/06/the-bogey-of-terrorism-returns/#post-comments [...]
Reminds me of something Al Gore had said — the planet is warming up, half our cities may flood and our papers are obsessed about Paris Hilton.
Someone needs to ask what’s going on here.
It’s not just terrorism, but most other serious issues that “don’t make sellable news” to our mainstream media – the state of our agriculture and food security, the looming energy crisis and climate change, our appalling lack of employable college graduates, the state of our primary health care, just to mention a few…
And these are some of the problems where there’s a broad consensus about the solution!
Many developed – both traditional and and newly-developed – countries solved these problems ages ago – it’s surely not rocket science!
The fact of the matter is and everyone of us should accept this is that the government has no plans whatsoever to counter any terror strikes. Its amply clear from the way the blasts convictions are handled and are being handled. Be it the Mumbai blast or the hyderabad one, the government is floundering and essentially sitting tight on its back. The communists have always said terrorists are good people gone astray and they will bring them back to mainstream by giving them copy of Das kapital.
What makes this whole scenario worse is that the government knows that terrorism is such a vital issue but is acting like a ostrich. People also have short memories and even if some blasts occur it remains in the news for atmost a week and then everyone forgets and move on. The government is well aware of this and hence they find it futile to pre-empt terror . Unless and Untill everyone realises including the media that terrorism is the most important issue facing us today and ask for questions nothing will happen. There will blasts and attacks in future too and we will talk about it for a few days and then move on.
ah, finally ‘Akhand Bharat’ has been achieved. Opposition leaders cannot campaign anywhere between Kabul and Dhaka!
imagine the audacity of the Manmohan Singh govt which is gonna seek a reelection while admitting that its not even safe to campaign in this country! surely anyone who votes for them will be a moron.
It is actually a masterstroke of Sonia. Now that a precedent has been set, any political rally in the country can be called off due to security reasons.
I am willing to bet that no Congress rally will be called off, but quite a few BJP and BSP rallies will be.
Does anyone know when was this happened ?
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=223&page=12
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2008/02/bogey-of-terrorism-returns.html
Praada Verna
ALSO READ THIS COMVERSATION BETWEEN 2 Jihadis on this . Jihadis will embolden and request more young to join Jihad as government will take care of their families in case of their death . And also read what Jihadsi think of INDIa and its leaders
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2008/01/family-pension-for-jihadis.html
I think Manmohan Singh’s security should be given to Advani, given that the Jihadi network likely has no idea who he (MMS) is, and even if they do, he is so fragile, weak and non-existent that there is no risk to him.
I think there is a Sonia ( & consequently Congress )angle to this issue.
Its highly likely that it could be she who has engineered this whole drama about the threat to Advani and Modi. After the Gujarat debacle she would not want Modi and Advani to go anywhere near the masses.
And using MK Narayanan the NSA was the final touch due to the believability factor being high.