This year alone two Bollywood flicks (Baby- Jan 2015 and Phantom-Aug 2015) replete of patriotism and valor offered an alternative manner of neutralizing terror assets used by Pakistan’s secret intelligence service ISI to avenge the blood-boiling 26/11 Mumbai attacks. While the audience responded differently to both the movies what is noteworthy here is the percolation of the idea of extrajudicial killings of the overseas terror assets deep into India’s society.
Similar sentiments were echoed in 2014 by the present Indian PM, honorable Shri. Narendra Modi during one of the campaigning phases of the 2014 elections. His questioning tone to the then ruling Congress regime on their inability to press the Pakistani government on convicting the 26/11 terror masterminds was duly applauded by a vast swathe of the Indian public.
After all, secret intelligence services around the world from the American CIA to the Israeli Mossad have pursued the path of overseas extrajudicial killings to penalize enemies of the state. Although there are questions regarding the effectiveness of Indian Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) the very idea of overseas extrajudicial killings becoming a part of Indian household talks is a compelling development.
Democracy vs Justice
Among all the states that ones formed the colonies of Great Britain, India, particularly, evolved astonishingly well as a force of regional stability and triumphantly espousing the spirit of democracy. If one separates the White majority commonwealth nations like Australia, NewZealand and South Africa, for instance, the rest of the nations once ruled by the Empire are either failed states or nations sapped by military despots. India has commendably evolved as a world’s largest democracy.
Democracy requires a nation to behave responsibly and restrain the urge of merely reacting to an event. Perhaps, the reaction to the 26/11 Mumbai attack would have been to militarily penalize Pakistan for its involvement. However, responding to the event is about gathering sufficient evidence of Pakistan’s involvement and pressing for the conviction of perpetrators by showing faith in Pakistan’s rule of the law. India sensibly chose to respond rather than to react!.
While enough of dossiers containing the alleged involvement of Mohammad Hafeez Sayeed, and Zakhir-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi in 26/11 Mumbai attacks have been shared with the Pakistani authorities justice has been so far denied to India and its patient yet angry citizens. Both the perpetrators are freely pursuing their lives without any fear of conviction or prosecution, thus talking a lot about Pakistan’s broken judicial system. This is raising anger in India not just among the Intelligence Bureau circles but the normal public too.
Costs of Covert Intelligence Operations
Considering Pakistan’s broken judicial system and deteriorating law and order should India take the matters in her own hands? Should RAW be used to covertly kill terror masterminds on foreign soil like the CIA and Mossad? Perhaps, that’s an ideal way of dealing with an undemocratic state like Pakistan.
But will that make India any safer? Will that nullify the threat of future terror attacks? Perhaps no!. America and Israel are already paying the price of overseas extrajudicial killings in the form of abduction, rape, beheadings, and torture of their citizens who perform the roles of aid workers, doctors and employees of NGOs in volatile conflict zones. In much of the Latin American nations, Americans aren’t welcome owing to the CIA’s regional misadventures in the 70s. The Jews are being actively targeted in many European nations that are strongly influenced by the Salafi groups.
Last year, the honorable Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu even appealed to the Jewish population in Europe to return to Israel as the government was concerned about their security or the lack of it in Europe. Similarly, Indians are powering the economies of numerous nations across Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Some of these nations are already conflict zones or are closer to the conflict zones.
For instance, Middle East houses 7 million Indians! This game of covert extrajudicial killings may potentially expose millions of Indians to a wave of brutal violence and harassment. Perhaps, Pakistan too wants India to pursue the path of covert extrajudicial killings so as to tarnish India’s democratic credentials. They may continue to provoke India to do just that so as to endanger the safety of millions of Indians living abroad whom we cannot practically protect.
Glorious and famed overseas extrajudicial killings of the terror suspects by CIA and Mossad have failed to make their homeland and civilians living abroad any safer. There is no assurance that even India would achieve any meaningful results. Why don’t we simply surprise Pakistan by showing continued faith in their judicial system? It may take a long while, yes, but then it would bolster the chances of Pakistan espousing some form of democracy.
Remember, it’s only by helping Pakistan resurrect her democracy can India permanently nullify the threat of future terror attacks from the Pakistani soil. Are we ready for it? To restrain after all is not a sign of weakness but a hallmark of wisdom.
Image Credits: Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
