Modi vs terror

Whatrsquos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi In the past two weeks in various speeches he has raised the standard of combating terrorism True this is the period in which horrific attacks were carried out in Paris Bamako and Beirut but nothing unusual has happened in India Indeed there has been no major development on the terrorism front in India since 2008 which saw the Mumbai attacks and the bombing campaign of the socalled Indian MujahideenWherever he goes his emphasis at least as reported in Indian newspapers seems to be on fighting terrorism In his Singapore lecture on Monday the PM launched a broadside against terrorism declaring that it could derail economies and said that countries read Pakistan providing sanctuaries to terrorists must be held accountable Speaking at the 18member East Asia Summit EAS in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday he called for ldquoa new global resolve and new strategiesrdquo to combat terrorism Later addressing the diaspora he termed terrorism as ldquothe biggest threat to the worldrdquoSpeaking at the 18member East Asia Summit EAS in Kuala Lumpur Modi called for ldquoa new global resolve and new strategiesrdquo to combat terrorism picPTIEven before the Paris attack Modi had flagged the issue when he told British parliamentarians that ldquothe world must speak in one voice and act in unison to combat this challenge of our timesrdquo and called for the adoption of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism at the United Nations ldquowithout delayrdquoFollowing the Paris attack the prime minister joined world leaders in condemning it and in an intervention during the G20 working dinner on November 15 he spoke out emphatically against terrorism Referring to the rise of the IS he pointed out that ldquoold structures of terrorism read LashkareTayyeba remainrdquo and that ldquothere are countries that still use it as an instrument of state policy read PakistanrdquoThis is surprising because in the last seven years Pakistanbacked terrorism has actually declined sharply A look at the statistics in the South Asia Terrorism Portal show that the bulk of what passes off as terrorist violence in India is related to the Maoists in central India and the various insurgents of the Northeast In Jammu amp Kashmir violence aided by Pakistan is down sharply As compared to 103 security personnel killed by Maoists and in the Northeast the total is 38 in JampK and eight in other parts of the countryThe story was similar the year before in 2014 Some 110 security personnel were killed in central India and the Northeast as compared to 51 in JampK and zero in other parts of India lsquoThose killed in other parts of Indiarsquo is an important category since this usually includes terrorists who operate under the direction of Pakistani parties But the last time this category meant something was in 2008 when 337 people died in other parts of India with 166 being killed in the Mumbai attacks and others in bombing campaigns in New Delhi Jaipur and AhmedabadNow it is well known that the Maoist violence and Northeast issues have domestic origins and are not quite connected to the global terrorism that the PM seems to be talking about JampK is a category in itself but it was just last week thatK Rajindra the director general of police said at a press meet that both crime and terrorism were declining in the state and that the instances of Islamic State flags were more an attentiongrabbing stunt than any indication of the spread of the Daesh ideologySo what accounts for Modirsquos overthetop attempt to become a world leader in fighting the terrorist menace everywhere In all fairness one part of it has to do with the events of the times notably the Paris attack But while it is one thing for New Delhi to condemn the attack there is little India can do to assist France and the international community to fight the Daesh since India is itself not affected by the Islamic State phenomenon Modirsquos prescription made in the speech to the East Asia summit that there was need to delink terrorism and religion is misleading because the Daesh indeed has everything to do with Islam or an interpretation of it It is important to understand the challenge of Islamism given the nature of Islam as a faith which adheres to a book which is considered the word of God and which does contain statements and declarations that have encouraged the Islamic State to enslave and behead people and visit all kinds of barbarity on themOne answer that comes to mind is that terrorism is proving to be a convenient handle for Modi to bash Pakistan Terrorism has clearly become the most important filter through which the Modi government views Pakistan As we have indicated this seems a bit odd given the decline of Pakistanbacked violence Indeed this fact could have served to engage Islamabad instead a loud campaign has been launched which does not seem to be getting much traction anywhereThe other is that it helps Modi to paper over his other failures notably in carrying out the transformative reforms he had promised the country and the world Given his outsize selfimage he therefore seems to be keen to use it to establish his standing as a global leader of consequence But he is ploughing a path which has been well trod especially on the issue of terrorism The global convention on terrorism that he has been raising time and again recently is a measure that India has been pushing in vain since 1996 and we are no nearer to it today than we were thenIf Modi wants the attention and adulation he received in the past year to continue he has to avoid the shortcuts of ringing declarations and slogans He needs to buckle down to the selfsame reforms that made India mdash and Modi as its leader mdash attractive to the global community in the first place