The Red Fort attack has punctured the Modi government’s claims of national security dominance, of instituting peace and progress after the revocation of Article 370 and counter-terrorism preparedness
It took the Union government 48 hours to describe the Red Fort bomb attack as ‘terrorism’. For two days, the Narendra Modi government was dancing around the Red Fort car bomb attack, calling it a ‘bomb blast’; ‘a conspiracy’; a ‘horrific incident’ — anything but terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not cancel his visit to Bhutan after the first major attack in Delhi since 2012, but only said “conspirators will not be spared”, that too the next morning, once he reached Thimphu.
The conspirators had, however, already been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) Section 16 (punishment for terrorist acts) and Section 18 (punishment for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act). The UAPA is India’s principal anti-terrorist law. It is significant that India’s premier anti-terrorism agency, the National Investigation Agency, was handed over the investigation of the Red Fort attack.
The Modi government was unable to describe the Red Fort attack as ‘terrorism because it had tied itself in knots by escalating its security doctrine and the prime minister’s televised declaration that, “Every act of terror will be treated as an act of war against India.”
Now that firm evidence seems to have emerged of the attack being linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation, there was no choice but to call the act by its name: terrorism. However, that does not make the response of the government any easier. Operation Sindoor has set a new threshold for terror response, but adhering to that is no longer easy….
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After the truth-shower 