A few days back when scientists inched closer to reviving an Australian frog species that has been extinct for the last 30 years, they also revived the world’s fascination for de-extinction -- a concept that has walked the thin line between science fiction and reality. Bringing to life species that have been wiped off the face of earth is a dream many geneticists have pursued for years. In India, too, many are dreaming that dream.
“If India were to aggressively pursue it, there are at least three extinct species that can get a shot at coming back from the dead,’’ says Sandeep Sharma of the Washington-based Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “High on the list is the Asiatic cheetah that went extinct in India soon after Independence. The others are the pink-headed duck and the mountain quail. There are a few pre-historic species, too, but then it might get too ambitious.”
Indian geneticists have been attempting to clone the Asiatic cheetah – a favourite animal of the Mughal emperor Akbar who reportedly had an army of 1000 cheetahs accompany him on his hunting expeditions. But efforts to recreate the majestic predator have encountered several roadblocks. “The biggest hurdle is procuring the cell-line of the cheetah and defining protocols for somatic cell transfer. Once this happens, we have a realistic chance of reviving the cheetah in India,” says S Shivaji of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
Somatic cell transfer involves creating a clone embryo with a donor nucleus in a laboratory and is considered as the first step in reproductive cloning. India has recently imported a few cheetahs whose cell lines, says Shivaji, CCMB is trying to get. After that, it would be a case of attempting again and again – success rates in reproductive cloning are just about 5% -- till an Asiatic cheetah cub is born. Nobody knows when this might happen. “We are still not sure what factors combine together to create the 5% success rate,” says Shivaji.
De-extinction itself is a subject that has drawn diverse opinions. Those opposing it say that if a species went extinct over a period of time -- Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest propounds this is nature's way of balancing itself -- is it prudent to re-introduce it in an ecosystem where some other species may have taken over its role? Ulhas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society says it makes no sense at all. “De-extinction is unlikely to work because factors that caused the original extinction continue to operate.”
However,de-extinction proponents continue to be gung-ho about its prospects. “It should not be an either/ or question,” says Ryan Phelan, executive director of US NGO Revive & Restore which recently organized a much-publicized conference on the subject along with National Geographic and TED. “It's really an all one continuum. What's good for extinct species will be great for endangered ones.”
If man does indeed succeed in playing god, it might just be Jurassic Park all over again, hopefully minus the horror.
Battle Between Sects Of Islam Gets Ugly In Cyberspace. ‘Follow the Sahabi, ignore the Wahabi’, ‘Gutter ki gund, Deoband’ and ‘Sufism is not Islam’. Downright derogatory, these are just a few of the hundreds of community pages spewing venom on social networking sites against subscribers of various Islamic schools of thought, which have angered community elders and scholars.
While the Muslim community has remained divided on different ideologies and busy in establishing one’s superiority over the other, the battle for the first time is now being waged in cyberspace, and the rhetoric of one-upmanship has only become shriller.
The groups embroiled in this ‘holy tussle’ include individuals from the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat, Wahabis, Barelvis and Salafis also known as the Ahl-e-Hadith.
City intellectuals and clerics have come together to decry this alarming trend, which they say is taking a dangerous turn. This could lead to sectarian violence as seen in Pakistan, they fear. “This is damaging and could spiral out of control leading to violence as in Pakistan which is a bad example of violence between sects. People with limited knowledge are indulging in this,” Mufti Ziauddin Naqshbandi, a leading cleric from the Jamia Nizamia seminary, told TOI.
Surprisingly, many expressed helplessness even as they said little could be done to contain the trouble as content online could not be regulated. They said that it was a natural outcome of social media.
“While there is room for difference in opinion, this is like washing dirty linen in public but we have to get used to this. However, the educated lot is refraining from such things,” Anwar Moazzam, city-based academician, said.
The attacks, however, are not just restricted to schools of thought but are also against noted scholars of Islam subscribing to different ideologies. For instance, videos on Youtube claim to have laid bare the inconsistencies in their arguments. Syed Waseem, an IT professional said: “There are ‘Zakir Naik Exposed’ and ‘Tahir ul Qadri Exposed’ videos on the net which thousands have watched. The comments about them are very offensive and some cannot even be repeated.”
Head of department of Arabic at the English and Foreign Languages University Syed Rashid Naseem Nadwi said since these battles are fought online, they should be quelled online. “A team should be constituted whose job would be to persuade these individuals to give up such dangerous activities by posting in such communities.”
Ideological conflicts have often taken a dangerous turn. Last June, 27-year old Mohammed Abdullah from Moinabad lost his life due to differences with committee members of a mosque. In another incident, tension prevailed at Kurmaguda when a speaker at a mosque allegedly criticized adherents of an opposing school of thought.
Delay in disposal of consumer petitions at district and state levels has dented confidence in redressal mechanisms and could pave way for rampant violation of consumer rights, say activists.
A glance at data from the AP State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission reveals that 5,980 cases were pending in the state at the end of 2012. At 1,502, the number of pending cases in the three consumer forums of Hyderabad was the maximum among all forums till date. The two forums in addition to the first district forum in the city were established in 1995 and 1998 respectively due to the rapidly mounting number of cases.
“According to the Consumer Protection Act, a petition should be disposed off in 90 days. But rarely do cases get disposed in the stipulated time frame owing to long drawn interlocutory arguments and several adjournments,” said a retired government employee who has been fighting a consumer case pertaining to the land he bought more than a decade ago.
The rising cynicism among consumers regarding their rights is evident from the declining number of petitions filed over the years, point out activists. In 2012, only 755 petitions were filed as against 1,137 in 2011 and 1,190 in 2010 in the state. The disposal rate of the cases too has dropped since 2009-10 whereas in the 1990s and early 2000s, it was almost 100%. Of the 1,502 pending cases in Hyderabad forums, 1,435 were accrued between 2010 and 2012 alone. Activists say that the trouble lies with the implementation of the Consumer Rights Act.
“Consumer rights should be protected irrespective of the size of a transaction. The Consumer Act is more than sufficient to protect us but its implementation is not proper,” said S Chandrashekar, an activist.
Activists added that apart from lack of awareness, there is also a lack of clarity. A raging debate now is whether an RTI applicant, by virtue of paying a fee of Rs 10 for information, should be treated as a consumer. The confusion was brought to the fore in a recent instance when an RTI applicant from Nalgonda appeared before the district consumer forum appealing against non-disclosure of information by a government body.
When the forum quashed his appeal, he approached the state commission to determine if he qualifies as a consumer. “But we could not clearly reply to his query,” said a source in the commission. But there have been orders in the past where RTI applicants have been regarded as a consumer.
In 1973, writers Salim-Javed redefined the grammar of Hindi cinema by introducing the angry young man into the popular narrative. The success of Zanjeer prompted Telugu cinema thespian N T Rama Rao to remake it as Nippulanti Manishi the following year and the film went on to become a Silver Jubilee hit.
Forty years on, Ram Charan Teja has good reason to be nervous. Stepping into the shoes of Big B and NTR is after all, no child’s play. Which is perhaps why he chooses to describe his version of Zanjeer (titled Toofan in Telugu) as Zanjeer re-imagined, not Zanjeer remade.
Blame it on a DNA-obsessed industry, the expectations from Ram Charan are humongous. After all his father is Chiranjeevi, a veteran of 149 films. Even though he has temporarily retired to play a politician in real life and spends more time these days being the Union minister of state for Tourism, Chiranjeevi is any day more at home mouthing clap-worthy dialogues. Sample his one-liner at the launch of the first look of Toofan in Hyderabad on Monday : “This is like the silence before the storm, Toofan is about to come.”
Chiranjeevi also made it a point to emphasise that his son has bettered him because while he took 13 years to do his first Hindi film, Ram Charan has managed it in six years. Almost suggesting that Bollywood is the ultimate trophy in a south Indian hero’s cabinet.
Indeed, the urge to make it big in Bollywood has seduced many a big hero from the south Indian film industry. The first serious foray into Bollywood was made in the 80s by the two Tamil superstars – Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth.
But while Kamal started with a bang with Ek Duuje Ke Liye, his career in Bombay gradually settled down to a level where he was not getting projects (barring a Saagar) that would excite the consummate actor in him. Rajinikanth’s innings in Bombay was nothing to write home about. In hindsight, both lacked the skillsets for tasting long-term success in Hindi cinema – which essentially meant the right Hindi accent and north Indian looks.
The Telugu heroes – Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh – too followed suit, again to taste average success. The reason none of them set Bombay on fire was because they did not bring anything new to the table, something that a Bombay hero could not do. Moreover, all of them suffered from the label of a Madrassi hero, that Bollywood and the audience north of the Deccan gave them.
Malayalam superstars like Mohanlal and Mammootty never made any serious attempt to do too many Hindi films, their attempts at best half-hearted. It came to be accepted that south Indian stars cannot shine in Bollywood.
Of late, heroes like Rana Daggubati (with Dum Maro Dum and Department) and Dhanush (with Raanjhnaa) besides Ram Charan have decided to give Bollywood a shot. The big hurdle is their stardom that restricts them from experimenting with roles. None of the heroes can for example do a Prakash Raj, for who it does not matter in which language he is playing a bad man in. As an actor, it is easy for him to cross boundaries something a star cannot, because of the money that rides on him.
Because Zanjeer is an Amitabh Bachchan movie revisited, there are bound to be comparisons between the Vijay of 2013 and Vijay of 1973. Not that Ram Charan is new to the pressure of expectations. Being Chiranjeevi’s son, an entire generation still relates to him as the Megastar’s son, comparing how he dances, fights and emotes to the way his dad would. Already, in keeping with south Indian cinema’s tradition of anointing titles, he is being referred to as ‘Megapowerstar’ – a combination of his father and uncle Pawan Kalyan’s prefixes.
Taking on a huge project like Zanjeer was a smart decision because Ram Charan has ensured that he will not go unnoticed in Bollywood. If he flops, there is always Hyderabad. But if he manages to impress on debut, he could find some interesting and challenging roles coming his way from Mumbai.
For now Ram Charan says he intends to focus on Telugu movies, unwilling to keep his feet in two boats and risk a fall.
It’s easy to scoff at the idea of a Third Front, but given the political ground realities in the country it is not as ridiculous as it is being made out to be. With the big national parties either on the decline or showing no signs of growing – the average vote share of the Congress has remained static around 27 percent and that of the BJP around 22 percent since 1998 – and regional parties entrenching themselves firmly in states, the locus of political power has become more scattered over the last two decades.
There are indications that the idea of a big national party anchoring stable alliances at the centre and being their dominant voice may have run its course – the Congress’s experience with its allies in the UPA and to some extent the BJP’s running problem with partners like the JD(U) are cases in point. Of course, the UPA or the NDA are not going to wither away in a hurry, but the fact that both are looking ideologically and structurally indistinguishable, the climate is right for a third political formation.
Let’s do some number crunching. Of the 543 seats, the Congress and the BJP take on each other directly in only 116. The big states where the direct contest will take place include Madhya Pradesh (40 seats), Rajasthan (25), Gujarat (26), Chhattisgarh (11), Delhi (7), Uttarakhand (5) and some other smaller states and Union Territories.
As many as 136 seats will witness tough multi-cornered contests. These include Karnataka (28), Assam (14) and Jharkhand (14) and Uttar Pradesh (80). The NDA and the UPA square off in only 61 seats – Maharashtra (48) and Punjab (13). In 40 seats the Congress is not a contender and in 106 the BJP’s presence is weak. In 95 seats neither the Congress nor the BJP is a strong player – the states include West Bengal (42) and Tamil Nadu (39).
As the numbers suggest, the great electoral battle of 2014 will not be between the Congress and the BJP as it is generally perceived, it will be between the national parties and the regional ones. This is the logical consequence of the electoral fragmentation of the country. The situation creates ample scope for the creation of a non-Congress, non-BJP front. It’s rather ironical that there has been no serious effort in this regard. So what is the problem?
The potential constituents in this formation are neither ideologically disparate nor bitter adversaries fighting it out over a common political turf, ensconced safely as they are in their respective states, nor do have any particular fascination for either the Congress or the BJP. So why does everyone laugh it off when someone like Mulayam Singh Yadav talks about a Third Front? The real problem is not the core idea of a new coalition but the leaders and parties advocating it. They have proven to be unreliable as a unit and towards each other so many times in the recent past, that they have virtually made the Third Front a sad little joke.
Speaking at Sangli in Maharashtra on Sunday, Mulayam said the days of single party or single-party dominated governments are over and it’s high time like-minded parties came together. It appears he is dead serious about it. He is believed to have deputed party leaders Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Agarwal to scout for potential allies in parties such as the BJD, the Trinamool Congress, the DMK, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Asom Gana Parishad. Some other parties have made favourable noises in support of the idea.
But one can safely say that the latest bid at the Third Front is headed nowhere. It’s obvious that Mulayam is desperate because he wants to be the prime minister. He wants to lead a coalition with enough numbers to dictate terms to the BJP or the Congress and bargain for the top job after the elections. His potential partners have seen through this – has anyone noticed that the Left Front is lukewarm to the Third Front? They realise Mulayam could dump them anytime he finds them uncomfortable. This has happened before many times.
But yes, the Third Front is workable. It just needs proper planning and a new set of leaders to execute it.
On January 17, the top brass of Indian security and Intelligence huddled to review the threat perception to vital installations. Only a day before, there had been a terror attack on a British Petroleum gas facility in Algeria that left dozens dead. Concerned over the emergence of a new terror tactics, the counter-terrorism brains recalled the fidayeen attack on 26/11 that woke India up to the very real threat to political and economic symbols of the nation. The meeting discussed and debated security at the potential targets knowing that 2,500 terrorists, being trained in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, were ready to wage war against the world’s largest democracy...
For all purposes, he looked like a Kashmiri. Tall, fair, bearded and wearing a pheran made of dark fabric, he was a familiar figure in Srinagar’s mosques where secessionist preachers spat fire and venom against the Indian state. It was his job to identify them, have them followed and find a suitable place to abduct them. Usually, it would be one of the crowded bylanes in Srinagar’s shopping areas where an unmarked white Maruti van would suddenly appear, and men with scarves around their faces would hustle the preacher into the vehicle. In Kashmir, where terrorism is like mercury that dips and rises according to the heat, these operations are routine. Only, the tall man in the mosque was not a Kashmiri terrorist or Hurriyat sympathiser, but a trained Military Intelligence (MI) operative. Neither were the masked kidnappers agents of terror, but part of a crack MI unit that specialised in whisking away potential threats. The suspect would be taken to a secret location and interrogated for leads. “If anyone spoke to me in Kashmiri, my cover would’ve been blown,” he says with a humourless laugh. “I can barely speak three words of it.”
Translating the language of terror is the main challenge facing India’s Intelligence agencies today. They have warned twice in February through “high priority” dispatches that soft locations —hotels, schools and security camps in Srinagar—could be in the crosshairs of Pakistan-sponsored Islamist terrorists.
It is unlikely that Hafeez Saeed and his ilk are familiar with Winston Churchill’s “attacking the soft belly policy”, but seems to be one being adopted by them to sow fear and panic.
In a country of 1.2 billion, with over 1,60o cities and towns, 19 nuclear power plants, 35 major hydro and thermal power projects, 18 oil refineries, 28 major ports, over 7,000 railway stations, 62 domestic and 22 international airports, 21 high courts, myriad public buildings and monuments big and small that are all symbols of what India stands for, are vulnerable to terror attack. India’s sprawling Intelligence and police network—which is constantly acting under political pressure —has so far kept terror casualties to a minimum. In the last decade, actionable Intelligence thwarted over 4,200 terror attempts on Indian soil while neutralising at least 2,600 terror modules.
The MI, similarly, has been preventing infiltration attempts, attacks on India’s 52 cantonments, ordinance depots, military academies and other army buildings. The challenge for the Indian Intelligence apparatus is diminishing Humint (intelligence gathered through informants), and an increasing dependence on technical surveillance.
India, a soft target
According to the 2012 Global Terrorism Index compiled by the US and Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, India ranks first among countries most vulnerable to attacks by Islamic terrorists.
In October last year, Delhi Police prepared a list of 460 important and vulnerable places that could be attacked by Pakistan-based terror groups.
The state of high alert in security establishments was triggered by the substantial amount of arms and ammunition recovered from terrorists. In the last 20 years, over 12,600 kg of RDX and 31,500 kg of other explosives, including 4,660 rockets, were recovered from various modules plotting to carry out attacks in India.
Security analyst Ajay Sahni believes terrorists are looking for soft targets in India because their own capability has been eroded.“They are looking for unprotected areas. Although there is threat to nuclear establishments and sensitive government buildings, there are several layers of security arrangements I’m sure can’t be penetrated,” Sahni said.
However, Major General (retd) Afsir Karim differed on the issue of soft target contending that lax security arrangements in oil refineries are open invitation to terrorist groups like LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“If you pass by Mathura oil refinery, the poor security is appalling. The terrorist groups are looking for such opportunities. We should not blame anybody else for such poor security and Intelligence, but ourselves,” Karim said, adding that the political establishment was slowly killing the security and Intelligence apparatus required to prevent such attacks.
Analysis of Intelligence alerts issued in the last year revealed that nuclear establishments, hotels, offices of Indian Space Research Organisation, oil refineries and power projects remained prime targets of terror outfits.
The challenge before investigators is getting to the root of the origins of the plot and the perpetrators. There have been four targeted attacks on India’s vulnerable rail networks since August 2000, killing 280 innocent passengers. While two cases were solved, investigations into two other incidents, including the 2001 blast in Rishikesh-Hardwar-Delhi Passenger train, remain a mystery.
Among major terrorist attacks since 2001, at least eight cases are still under investigation. They include the April 2001 explosion in Memnagar, Ahmedabad. The modus operandi and terror outfit behind the blast are yet to be identified. Similarly, investigation into the December 2002 BEST bus blast in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, failed to yield any result.
Crowded locations have always been easy targets for terrorists. “There are plenty of such locations in all cities and towns of this country. The target could be a market, a shopping mall, a carnival or a theatre. It is in these places that the terrorists seek to inflict maximum fatalities and thereby greater focus on his actions and cause,” said an officer who has handled counter-terrorism work.
Metro and railway stations and bus terminus too fall in the same category of crowded locations when it comes to potential terror targets.
All static military formations in the country, whether they are based within a cantonment or otherwise, are considered serious terror targets in the country, for the potential damage and the message it could send across the whole nation.
Among the other military institutions that figure among the targets of anti-India forces are the Chennai-based Officers Training Academy, Dehradun-based Indian Military Academy, Pune-based National Defence Academy, Ezhimala-based Naval Academy and Dindigul-based Air Force Academy.
These training institutions apart, terror groups may also target military formations such as the Command Headquarters of the Army, Navy and the Air Force, and other smaller formations spread across the country, apart from the naval bases in Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Visakhapatnam, and the innumerable air bases.
India’s religious centres such as temples, mosques, churches or gurudwaras continue to be under constant vigil. Topping the target list is the hilltop Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu and Kashmir that has been on the terror radar for a long time now.
Terror groups definitely want to target key installations of India to inflict maximum damage. The disaster that such attacks could cause is not just calamitous, but could also cripple the economy.
Indian intelligence agencies have assessed that such terror attacks could happen at installations such as hydropower projects, dams, oil exploration sites and installations offshore, atomic power plants, and even the stock exchanges, be in Mumbai or Delhi.
A terror attack on a dam could flood smaller states and Union territories. Similarly, strikes at hydropower plants could cripple electricity grids that could have an impact on both civilian lives and economic activity.
Strikes on nuclear power plants not only pose a threat to India’s capacity to meet its energy needs, but also are an environmental hazard of mammoth proportions that could take years to mitigate.
Ineffective counter terrorism?
If the threat is so real, then why is it that India has failed to implement a proper structure when other countries, especially the US, have managed to put together a centralised system to prevent another 9/11?
“The FBI’s budget is $8 billion, while our NIA, which is mandated to fight terror, gets only $12.53 million. It is hundred times more and we still compare ourselves with the US. They have spent trillions of dollars on internal security and look at our budget. It is embarrassing. Our political establishment is giving illusions of security but not the real security,” Sahni said.
All we need to do is simply convert the FBI budget in Indian currency, and the figures speak for themselves. While FBI, a department, gets Rs 43,000 crore annually, India’s total internal security budget is only Rs 59,000 crore. And that includes expenditure for all agencies, security forces and grant to state governments as well as procurement and modernisation of police force to secure the nation.
India has three primary agencies —IB, RAW and NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation)—to gather Intelligence and pass it on to security agencies. Besides, NIA was raised in 2008 to carry out operations to neutralise terror elements. There is a proposal for a National Counter Terrorism Centre on the lines of US NCTC.
In the states, special task forces and anti-terror squads are tasked with anti-terrorism operations. They are supposed to work in coordination with the Central agencies. However, cat fights between agencies are common.
There is also open turf war between STF and NIA over territory. A senior official said there is a general feeling within STF that NIA is trying to use Intelligence generated by STF to claim credit. NIA says STF is reluctant to coordinate to crack terror cases.
Adding saffron terror to the terrorscape has politicised the issue. Furthermore, in Kashmir and the North-east, the turf war between the army and the local law enforcement agencies is so intense that information is not shared at all, allowing snarks to make hay.
But, Sahni argues that there is fine difference between structure and a working structure.
“USNCTC is toothless, although it is backed by organisations like CIA and FBI. We don’t need Rambos to prevent terror attacks. We need general policing and general Intelligence gathering mechanism,” he said.
Sahni recalled the analysis of CCTV camera footage of VT station in Mumbai during 26/11, in which a policeman is trying to shoot the terrorist Ajmal Kasab using an archaic gun. “He couldn’t fire straight. Today, the majority of state police personnel can’t aim the gun properly. It is embarrassing.”
Intelligence crisis
The first line of defence against terrorism is actionable Intelligence. However, raising human assets in border villages with the objective of gathering information on suspicious activities of terror groups is an uphill task.
Counter-terrorism along the border requires a local network of informers who are paid at each army post. Army officers complain of informers not just taking money from different posts trading the same information, but also that some of them are police informers who get paid by the cops for the info he has just shared with the Army. “In many cases the informers work as double agents,” said an MI source who has worked in Kashmir. “So we just pick him up, keep him for a few hours and set him free. This is worse than jailing or torture simply because he is then suspected by terrorists of having shared information with the Army. In many cases, they are bumped off,” he said.
Terrorists are aware of virtual drought in Humint pool and reliance on technical intelligence. An officer said terrorists have become smarter now and they avoid communicating through phone and email.
What next?
Despite the criticism the police and Intelligence agencies face, there has been no major terror attack in Mumbai since 26/11 and none in Delhi since the 2006 Sarojini Nagar blasts.
“We are fighting against odds,” said a former top police officer who retired recently. “We must be doing something right. There are areas in Delhi like Batla House where the cops have been told not to enter by the home ministry,” he said, adding, “You can imagine how demoralised the police are.”
The feeling is similar among ATS officials who are unwilling to stick their neck out for fear of being jailed for trying to arrest terrorists. “One of them dies in an encounter, the human rights organisations cry foul and an inquiry is instituted,” said a Special Cell officer.
Penetration of terror cells or groups sympathetic to their cause is the most difficult task. According to officials, this is getting more and more difficult since the modules have become increasingly watchful, making the role of technical intelligence that much more important.
In 2006, the IB tech Intelligence unit intercepted calls to Muridke in Pakistan from Bagalkot in Karnataka. The caller, Habib, was picked up in a joint operation and explosives recovered. Subsequent interrogation revealed that he was planning to attack reservoirs and power installations in Karnataka.
Similarly, terrorist Zubair was netted by the Intelligence unit last year while trying to pass on sensitive information related to defence establishments to his handler in Delhi.
Of the recent major successes for Indian Intelligence agencies in their counter-terrorism operations, the Hyderabad-Bangalore joint operation in August 2012 is touted as one of the best.
It was the arrest in Hyderabad of a small-time Bangalore-based rowdy that led to the busting of a terror module in Karnataka that was planning major attacks on civilian targets across the state.
He spilled the beans during interrogation, thereby helping the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka police to carry out a joint operation to crack the terror module. It was a six-month job that ended with the arrest of 11 terror suspects in Bangalore and Hubli on August 26, 2012.
The module had allegedly prepared a hit list of top Indian politicians from both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to bump off, apart from taking out some vital military installations based in south India, based on directives from LeT and HuJI handlers based in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Thus the cat and mouse game between the terrorists and the Intelligence establishments continues. Part of the Intelligence is psychological warfare. A former operative who worked in the North-east during the worst period of insurgency recalled interrogations being carried out, filmy style, under a naked bulb and two chairs with a table in between. Large portions of the walls of the room would be covered with flesh and blood, indicating fiendish torture. The
suspects, seeing the gore, would be so terrified at the pain that awaited them that would start singing immediately. “We didn’t even have to ask questions,” said the officer. “What they did not know was that the stuff on the walls was pieces of meat and blood we got from the local butcher, which we then smeared on the walls.” In real life, the flesh and blood are only too real.
UNDER THREAT
Tamil Nadu
- Kanyakumari: Vivekananda Rock
- Kudankulam: Nuclear power plant
- Madurai: Meenakshi Temple
- Kalpakkam: Atomic power plant
- Mettur: Dam
- Avadi: Heavy vehicles factory
- Chennai: Harbour, MAC Stadium, Officers Training Academy
Kerala
- Thiruvananthapuram: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
- Kochi: Cochin shipyard
- Mullaperiyar: Dam
- Ezhimala: Naval academy
Karnataka
- Bangalore: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Chinnasamy Stadium
- Indian Institute of Science
- Karwar: Naval base
- Kaiga: Nuclear power station
Andhra Pradesh
- Shriharikota: Satish Dhawan Space Centre
- Nalgonda: Nagarjuna Sagar Dam
- Visakhapatnam: Naval base
- Charminar
- Golkonda fort
- Tank Bund
- Rajiv Gandhi Int'l Airport
Odisha
- Balasore: DRDO missile testing centre
- Puri: Jagannath Temple
- Konark: Sun Temple
Maharashtra
- Harbour
- Naval base
- Mazagon Dock Ltd
- Bombay Stock Exchange
- Offshore oil installations
- Railway system
- Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
- National Defence Academy
- Nuclear power station
Goa
- Naval base
- Shipyard Gujarat
Gujarat
- Akshardham Temple
- Atomic power station
Madhya Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
- Court complex
- Sankat Mochan Temple, airport Uttarakhand
- Indian Military Academy
Bihar
- Officers Training Academy
- Buddhist centre
Himachal Pradesh
- Tibetan government in exile
- Nathpa Jhakri hydropower project
- Bhakra Dam
Punjab
Haryana
Rajasthan
- Oil refinery
- Tourist spot
Jammu and Kashmir
- Vaishno Devi Temple
- Baglihar Dam
Delhi
- Parliament House
- National Defence College
- Metro Rail
The many faces of terror
LASHKAR-E-TAIBA
Founded by terrorist Hafiz Saeed in 1990, LeT runs recruitment and training centres in Muzaffarabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan and Quetta in Pakistan. Over 2,000 franchisees of the terror outfit are controlled from its headquarters in Muridke.
Banned by Pakistan, US, UK and India, LeT uses charity organisation Jamat-ud-Dawa as a front.
TARGETS: India, US, UK and Chechnya
MODUS OPERANDI: LeT was the first to carry out fidayeen (suicide) attacks in Jammu & Kashmir, targeting security forces and non-Muslim civilians through two sub-groups—Jaan-e-Fidai and Ibn-e-Tayamiah.
STRIKES
December 28, 2005: Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore, 1 killed
October 29, 2005: New Delhi serial blasts, 61 killed
March 7, 2006: Varanasi serial blasts, 27 killed
November 7, 2006: Mumbai serial blasts, 200 killed
November 26, 2008: Attack at Taj, Oberoi and Mumbai CST, 166 killed
JAISH-E-MOHAMMED
Responsible for the audacious fidayeen attack on Parliament in 2001, Jaish-e-Mohammad was launched in 2000 by Maulana Masood Azhar, following his release in the IC 814 hostage swap deal on December 31, 1999. Jaish is aided by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and has links with other terror groups.
TARGETS: India, Westerners in Pakistan and Afghanistan
MODUS OPERANDI: Jaish actively recruits cadres from PoK and Jammu & Kashmir to carry out fidayeen attacks.
STRIKE
December 2001: Parliament attack
INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN
An extension of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), IM came into the spotlight in 2007 with serial blasts in Varanasi and Faizabad. Founded by Bhatkal brothers Yasin and Riyaz, IM is the first home-grown terror outfit. IM is reportedly funded by LeT and Saudi Arabia-based Al Bashir.
TARGET: India
MODUS OPERANDI: IM extensively uses IEDs made of a mixture of RDX and ammonium nitrate, which is wrapped in a polythene sheet supported by a semi-circular wooden casket to give direction and thrust to shrapnels, thus inflicting maximum damage. A signature tiffin box and bicycle has been used by the outfit since 2007. The group also has a tradition of sending emails to TV channels immediately after blasts to claim responsibility.
STRIKES
August 25, 2007: Two blasts in Hyderabad leave 42 dead
November 23, 2007: Serial blasts at Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad civil court premises. Fifteen killed.
May 13, 2008: Nine blasts in Jaipur, 80 killed
July 25, 2008: Eight low-intensity blasts in Bangalore. Two killed.
July 26, 2008: Seventeen blasts in 10 Ahmedabad localities claim 53 lives
September 13, 2008: Five blasts in three Delhi localities leave 24 dead
February 13, 2010: Bomb blast at German Bakery in Pune. Seventeen killed.
December 7, 2010: Blast at Sheetla Ghat, adjacent to Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi. Two killed.
July 13, 2011: Three blasts at Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Kabutarkhana in Mumbai. Twenty six dead.
September 7, 2011: Blast at Delhi High Court. Fifteen killed.
August 1, 2012: Five low-intensity blasts at Jangli Maharaj Road in Pune. One injured.
HIZB-UL-MUJAHIDEEN
Another franchisee of anti-India groups financed by ISI, HM was raised in 1989 in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan to carry out terror activities in India. With a cadre strength of at least 1,500 modules, the outfit is active in Bandipora-Baramulla, southern division for Anantnag and Pulwama districts and Rajouri.
TARGET: India
MODUS OPERANDI: The outfit has its own news agency—Kashmir Press International—used as a propaganda mouthpiece. It also has a women’s wing called Banat-ul-Islam.
STRIKES: HM provided logistical support to Pak-based terror outfits LeT and Jaish for several attacks in the valley. It also aided in the Delhi High Court attack.
HARKAT-UL-MUJAHIDEEN
Earlier known as Harkat-al-Ansar, the outfit was rechristened in 1997. According to Intelligence sources, HuM was responsible for hijacking IC 814 in December 1999. The outfit headed by Fazlur Rehman Khalil has strong ties with Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
TARGET: India, USA, UK
MODUS OPERANDI: HuM was probably the first group to use hijacking to make a terror statement in India. Armed with logistic support from Al-Qaida and blessings of ISI, HuM has been recruiting and training youths in the Kashmir valley.
STRIKES
July, 1995: HuM and Al-Farn kidnapped and killed five Westerners.
December, 1999: Hijacked IC 814
January, 2002: Kidnapped and killed American journalist Daniel Pearl
June, 2007: Two Indian soldiers killed in fidayeen attack
HARKAT-UL-JIHAD- AL-ISLAMI
The first Deobandi militant outfit founded in the 1980s to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan is backed by Tablighi Jamaat. Headed by Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the terror outfit was earlier known as Jamiat Ansarul Afghaneen (JAA). It changed identity in mid-1990 to aid the separatist movement in J&K.
TARGETS: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, UK and US.
MODUS OPERANDI: Supported by SIMI, HuJI penetrated western Uttar Pradesh and recruited hundreds of sleeper cells in the early 2000s.
STRIKES
October, 2005: Fidayeen attack at STF office in Hyderabad kills one
November, 2007: Aided serial blasts in Varanasi in which 25 were killed
July, 2008: Aided serial blasts in Ahmedabad which killed 56
AL- AKHTAR TRUST
An offshoot of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al-Akhtar is registered as a humanitarian organisation, but is used primarily as a courier agency to deliver arms and ammunition to various terror groups in Pakistan.
TARGETS: India, UK and USA
MODUS OPERANDI: Al-Akhtar provides financial support to terrorist groups in J&K. In the last few years, it changed names at least four times to disguise its anti-India activities.
STRIKES
According to Intelligence sources, Al-Akhtar financed the operation that led to the killing of Daniel Pearl.
Bajaj is back with a vengeance in the 100cc segment. Can their Discover 100T make it big in this ultra competitive commuter segment?
The Discover launched back in 2004, becoming for Bajaj commuter bikers what the Pulsar is to performance bikers. The Discover meets conventional bike users requirements, and has improved steadily over the years. The Indian market certainly has evolved in this decade, but some basics remain, with a section of practical 100cc loyalists steadfastly refusing to embrace larger capacity bikes.
Does the 100T work well on the road?
Design
The 100T comes with several parts finished in black. Its side panels lend relief in silver, matching well with the footrest mounting sub-frame sections.
The 100T’s halogen equipped DC powered headlight is bright and flicker-free even at low rpm. Riders are greeted by a handsome, round analogue speedometer and the easily read console includes a prominent fuel-gauge. The 100T provides comfortable palm grips, and its switches work with positive feel also offering a pass-light flasher. A striking asset on the 100T is its massive, forward set fuel-tank that imparts secure inner thigh support. The motorcycle seat is lightly stepped and noticeably long. Large side-panels flow smoothly into the swooping tail-fairing section.
Overall quality is good on the Discover 100T, as is fit-and-finish.
Performance
The Discover 100T can be started via a kick-lever, or electric start button. Bajaj has provided the 102cc, four-stroke, carburettor equipped bike an auto-choke to aid easy starts. Bajaj has fitted in twin spark-plugs (DTS-i) and four-valves. The engine produces a healthy 10.1bhp at 9000rpm, while maximum torque produced is 0.94kgm at 6500rpm. Power surges through a cable driven clutch, and five-up, smooth shifting gearbox. Clutch feel is just right, positive and light.
The 100T accelerates with willingness unlike any 100cc, four-stroke commuter bike in India. Throttle response is likewise brisk for a 100, and there’s adequate bottom end grunt. Open the throttle, and power feeds in sharply with rising revs. Our test figures prove the 100T is quicker than any Indian 100, at par with most 125’s and even faster than quite a few. The 100T takes 6.56 seconds to pass 60kph from rest, and recorded a creditable, true top speed of 104kph on test with us.
Ride, Handing and Braking
The Discover 100T is held together by a dual-cradle frame, with a rectangular section swingarm. There’s telescopic fork front suspension and a pair of gas-charged rear shock absorbers. Its upright riding position proves comfortable over long distances, and there’s a nice feeling of sitting in your bike, not on it.
Handling is nimble. Ride quality is plush, good for the class, although Bajaj has used an obsolete ‘ribbed’ tread pattern tyre in front and a similar old-school tyre at rear. The 100T corners well at speeds under 50kph, but push beyond this, and both tyres soon run out of traction.
The 100T drum brakes work well, with reasonable feel, helping us stop the bike from 60kph in 25.37 meters during brake testing.
Economy
The Discover 100T ranks amongst the most fuel-efficient bikes in India. We got 60.3kpl when testing the new Bajaj for economy in real world city riding conditions. This improved to 64.5kpl when riding the bike on relatively less congested highways, the 100T feeling relaxed when cruising along in fifth gear.
Verdict
Bajaj has pegged the Discover 100T at a slight premium over its 100cc rivals. It’s however easy to see why. The 100T looks more upmarket than a 100. There’s no dearth of extras, its four-valve, DTS-i and five-speed engine offering best-in-class performance, and proving frugal as well. Comfort and handling are part of this package too. Bajaj’s new Discover does belong to the top of its segment.
There was a time, many decades ago, when onion prices could decide who won or lost the elections. But those days are gone — incumbency is on the rise despite persistently high inflation.
It is now widely believed that welfare programmes and handouts have driven election results in the 2000s. This belief, no doubt, is driving the race for greater and greater giveaways both at the Centre and the states.
The Centre has gotten into the act for the next elections, with the latest item on its menu of schemes being the food security Bill. But will the welfare scheme deliver at the polls next year? No. For, voting behaviour is now being driven not just by promises and current conditions, but by expectations.
The voter has evolved from one till the 1990s who judged on the basis of what he currently had, steadily towards one who is evaluating on the basis of what he will get. That drove UP election results, that will drive the state elections in a few months, and that will also drive the impending parliamentary elections.
In other words, electoral behaviour is no longer a quid pro quo between the electorate and the political entities, but one where preference is determined by credible promises leading to believable expectations.
And that is why when growth increases, promises are more credible and incumbents are rewarded. This is the story in state after state. As long as things can be expected to improve, all promises appear more credible and incumbency advantages rule.
The reverse is, of course, also true. When growth falls, as it is currently, promises will seem less credible, and so the food security Bill introduced at a time of falling growth will have limited positive spin-offs in the coming elections.
But that can be changed, more easily than many believe is possible. To underscore the point. Recall the early success of NREGA and how the expectation that it will expand, deepen and cover the country was made possible due to improving growth during the time. UPA-II is an outcome of that.
Limited Bandwidth
But, currently, not only is growth falling, so is investment. On the other side, the efficacy of welfare programmes is also not improving. Important programmes, such as the NREGA, are stagnating. All of this is sending a very important signal: the UPA's ability to deliver on the promises it is making and will make in the coming months is quite poor.
And this signal needs to change. Things may appear worse for the UPA. The government cannot do much about inflation, nor will it be able to do much about the growth this year, neither can the law and order conditions change for the better within a year.
Also, welfare will also have lower efficacy at the polls simply because the world, including the aam aadmi, knows that the government has little resources left. But there is an even bigger tool that can address all this and more.
Recall that the food security Bill was cleared with minimal debate. Or, for that matter, how the crime Bill amendment was cleared with even lesser deliberation. In both these cases, all that was required was a strong unequivocal message from Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. In both the cases, their advisors had assured them that poll results would be affected if they did not act decisively.
All Hands on Deck
Investment can be ramped up far more easily than many believe is possible. Stuck projects can be eased if ministers and ministries are forced to move the files. Construction projects can be accelerated. Road projects can be auctioned out within a few months.
Internal trade can be opened fairly easily and will have its own investment consequences. The public sector can also quickly put in place much-needed expansion plans in areas ranging from energy to engineering. And these are merely a few items. Every ministry has some project files where it is the only hurdle left.
And, therefore, a strong and unequivocal message from the top: get rid of the hurdles that the UPA and Congress ministers themselves have put up. The response will be immediate.
Projects getting cleared will automatically have a positive domino effect across the economy. Finally, as this activity picks up, automatically growth expectations will increase and so will the credibility of the government in delivering on its welfare promises. And, perhaps as important, the UPA shall finally be able to regain the growth and investment mantle from Narendra Modi.
The UPA-III is yet a possibility. But the days of old and tired cliches are gone. The electorate is changing rapidly in its awareness and expectations. It is willing to reward incumbents who deliver on their promises. And it judges them on the credibility of these promises.
A year is still left and investment can be that most important tool for the otherwise seemingly lost battle for the UPA-III.
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