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Shaping of 2006
(Courtesy: Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.)
Warm welcome to the viewers and readers of the first Newsletter of the year 2006! Once again, we pledge ourselves to serve you to the best of our limited ability and imagination. We will sincerely appreciate suggestions and guidance to make the Newsletter, as it is said, professionally more useful – albeit within our given resources. We do, however also remain keen on catering to those non-security-related well-wishers, who have been standing by us magnanimously all these years.
In the last issue, we tried to put across how we had fared in 2005. It may, therefore, be apposite at this stage to ponder over what beckons us in the year 2006. We could do no better in this than bring to you some thoughts that we share.
Let us read:
"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bands – your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be."
‘PATANJALI’
Great Indian Philosopher
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Bangladesh: An Assessment
Terrorism raised its ugly head in Bangladesh in 1999 with a massive bomb blast in Jessore. Since then bomb blasts have rocked the country with sickening regularity. It were, however, the serial blasts at nearly 500 places across Bangladesh on August 17, which sent alarm bells ringing. The extraordinary coordination of the blasts demonstrated the organizational strength of the militants who masterminded them. But with Tuesday’s suicide bombings in Ghazipur and Chittagong, terrorism entered a lethal zone. With the emergence of human bombs, terrorism has taken a new diabolical dimension and this should be a wake-up call for not just Prime Minister Khaleda Zia but for the entire political system as well as the civil society. By targeting the pillars of democracy like administrative buildings and judiciary, outfits like Jamaat ul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) want to subvert the modern, democratic parliamentary system and replace it with what is their skewed vision of an Islamic state. The terrorists have virtually declared a war against the state and it is imperative for the government to give them a befitting reply. Now the situation has deteriorated to an extent when government alone cannot handle it. There is an urgent need for a collective endeavour to fight against the enemies of the nation, which seems to be the objective.
The Asian Age – December 3, 2005
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Islamic world admits it is in deep crisis – Analysis
Leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries met in Saudi Arabia last week for an event billed as “The Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference”. Speakers acknowledged that the Muslim world was beset with challenges on an ever-widening range of issues. It is suffering from a deep-seated social, economic and religious malaise with which it has so far proved incapable of dealing. In the words of the summit’s final communiqué: “The Islamic nation is in a crisis”. The outcome was a 10-year plan that amounts to nothing less than an attempt to modernize Islam or, as one of the conference papers put it, to “revamp existing mindsets”. Three panels examined the problems in detail. One looked at political and media issues, another at economics, science and technology, while the third considered Islamic thought, culture and education. The panel on Islamic thought attacked “reckless fatwas by people who were not qualified to speak in the name of Islam” and stressed the need “to establish a moderate Islamic discourse which is bound to time, place and circumstances and one that is explained in contemporary language”.
Guardian News Service
Hindustan Times – December 16, 2005.
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Safe no more
The Bangalore attack should make it clear that the terrorist war is not about Jammu and Kashmir. It is a war against India. The conflict has deep roots and the targets define its nature: institutions of higher learning, centers of economic growth, symbols of our open society and democratic culture. There are plans that have been foiled – the attack on a nuclear power plant near Chennai, an IT company in Bangalore, the RSS headquarters in Nagpur – all targets with no military significance. The attackers to provoke communal riots and to draw a pall of fear over the country are too numerous to be listed. These new brains are ordinary human beings convinced they are doing something extraordinary for their religion and country. In Pakistan, the Lashkar is supposed to be a proscribed organization since 2002. But the impunity with which it operates is visible to all those who see it at work in the areas affected by the earthquake. Pervez Musharraf and his government know well that unless outfits such as the Lashkar are terminated, there can be no forward movement in Kashmir. But somehow it is not. India’s only option is to continue to fight ruthlessly to eliminate such vermin who are not just the enemies of humanity, but civilization as it is understood by the world.
Hindustan Times – December 30, 2005.
D. C. Nath, IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Director, IB (MHA), Govt. of India
Editor-cum-Executive President & CEO
International Institute of Security and Safety Management
New Delhi, India
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