“Terrorism In All Its Forms Are Amongst The Most Serious Threats To International Peace And Security”: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval
By
Saquib Salim, New Age Islam
31 March
2023
National
Security Advisor Ajit Doval, with his opening remarks at the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO), has reminded World leaders that “Terrorism in
all its forms and manifestations and its financing are amongst the most serious
threats to international peace and security”. Several political commentators
believe that the remarks were an indirect reference to Pakistan which also
happens to be a member of SCO.
National Security advisor Ajit Doval
addressing his peers at the SCO meeting in New Delhi
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The Western
Media reports Terrorism with a specific US-centric lens and their history of
terrorist attacks starts with the 9/11 twin tower incident in 2001. In
comparison, India has been facing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism since its
independence. Indian planes were hijacked and taken to Pakistan several times
between 1971 and 1999. In most cases, hijackers received evident support from
Pakistan. In US-centric scholarship, terrorism is not posing any serious threat
at present. But, from a global perspective, the terrorist threat is even worse.
The recent
Amritpal episode has brought back memories of the Pakistan-sponsored Khalistan
Movement of the 1980s. News of targeted killings of Hindus and migrant workers
in Kashmir can also be frequently heard. Many will ask why NSA Doval is making
this statement at a time when the number of terrorist attacks, and fatalities,
in India are at their lowest in the last four decades. Such people don’t
understand the very aim of terrorism.
Decreased
incidents of bombings, shootings, hijackings, and other overt violent
activities do not mean that terrorists are silent. To understand one has to go
back to the very definition of terrorism. Prof. Leonard Weinberg and William
Eubank in their book The Roots of Terrorism: What is Terrorism? Write,
“publicity and psychology are at the heart of terrorism”. ‘Terrorism is to
cause terror’ is a very superficial understanding of the term. “In fact”,
Weinberg argues, “terrorism is a kind of politically motivated violence in
which publicity — sending a message — plays a crucial role.” So, one of the
most important aspects of terrorism is to send a political message to a large
public.
One of the
fallouts of sending this message to a large public is that people feel
vulnerable. They start losing confidence in legitimate government. In 1996,
several Cricket teams did not play their allotted matches of the World Cup in
Sri Lanka as the threat of LTTE loomed large. It affected the economy of the
island country and its politics largely.
The most
important goal of terrorists is to publicise their point of view. Hijackings
are a case in point. They pay high dividends as media coverage takes their
message to millions of people without much effort. Hijacking to get Masood
Azhar released in 1999 gave him public attention he never enjoyed before.
So, if you
are arguing that since the 26/11 attack in Mumbai in 2008, terrorist activities
are on a decline, think again. (There have been attacks on armed forces during
these 15 years). Since then the internet and hence social media has
revolutionised communication methods like never before. Now they do not need a
larger spectacle of bomb blasts to attract the media. Cori E. Dauber and Kemal
Ilter in their essay, The Relationship between Social Media and Radicalization
argue that social media “platforms can, (therefore), significantly increase the
audience size for messages created by extremist groups”.
Dauber and
Ilter point out, “for the first time, terrorists can cut out the middleman -
they are reliant on no one else to get their message out. They don’t have to
hope that journalists will represent their message as they would have wanted it
represented, the groups can send out the message they want to be sent out, the
way they want it sent out because it will be seen unedited.”
Most social
media platforms are designed to keep people interested, which in turn means
that ‘more and more extreme material’ is catered to the users.
Now take a
pause. In 2023, Amritpal, without carrying out any bombing or hijacking, is
reaching more people through Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media
than Khalistanis of the 1980s could not even dream of even after several bomb
blasts. The target is to create panic among the general public and
radicalization a small group of people.
Kashmiri
terrorist Burhan Wani can be seen as the first Social Media terrorist India has
encountered. Like his predecessors, he did not need big attacks to catch the
media's attention. He used Facebook posts to reach out to vulnerable youth to
radicalize them.
India is
facing a threat where foreign-sponsored Twitter handles, YouTube channels, and
Facebook pages based in and out of the country are trying to create panic among
Indians, radicalize vulnerable youth and malign the national image on the International
stage. This is what terrorism is by the very definition.
“Peter
Kropotkin, a nineteenth-century anarchist, referred to terrorism as “propaganda
by deed,” a means by which small groups can attract attention to a political
cause, no matter what the cause may be.” Do I need to explain more that how
India is facing the threat of terrorism more than ever before and why as a
nation we need to prioritise the fight against the terrorists?
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/terrorism-international-peace-security-doval/d/129454
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