The first one
is the most obvious.
That two soldiers, both senior officers,
one retired and one serving,
should be involved in bomb-making and terror activities
indicates that it may not be a 'one-off '
as army vice-chief Lt Gen S P S Dhillon said recently.
It stands to reason that
if these two could conceal their true intentions
there could be others equally capable of deception.
Soldiers are trained in mayhem
and
what even a small group of officers
can achieve in this matter staggers the imagination.
This is why the armed forces
have to get to the bottom of this business
ruthlessly and very quickly,
regardless of whatever sensitivities are hurt.
Either the army stands for the whole of India,
or
it stands for nothing.
The second
and more sinister threat is the
spectre of competing fundamentalisms.
We have a number of jihadi organisations
involved in acts of random terror across the country.
Neither the intelligence
nor
the enforcement agencies
seem to know which way to turn.
And
now they face a threat from
the other side of the spectrum,
the avengers of hurt Hindu sentiment.
They too are willing to kill
and maim innocents in a quest for an insane sort of equity.
Most of us live in the middle,
where jobs, incomes, families
and personal ambitions are the central concerns.
But
when the extremes play
at this deadly game of turn and turnabout,
many of us are impelled to take sides,
emotionally at least.
So
we have here the makings of
a positive feedback loop of strike
and counterstrike which, if not stopped,
will deepen divisions and cause havoc.
The most depressing part of this scenario
is the almost total bankruptcy of the politicians.
There is no search for a way out,
only a babel of voices blaming one or the other.
The religious leaders have done little better.
Our various god men, too numerous to mention,
have not said a word so far.
A threat of this magnitude should unite them
all behind a common approach.
But
most continue to squat impassively on the sidelines.
The warning sign is on, the peril clear and present.
If the government doesn't wake up now,
there's a real danger that we'll be stuck,
for the foreseeable future,
in a swamp of competing,
equally irrational terrors.
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