Senior National Security Officer about India's Response to terrorism

neeraj:Why can't we have a policy and law against terrorism that should be political party, central government independent and only managed and controlled by a central agency like RAW and special designated courts to manage terrorism related cases? Thanks, Neeraj
Prakash Singh: All that is possible. Wish we had a leader like Putin or Ho-Chi-Minh or even Mao.

chandra:Why dosent India strike on Terror camps? what are use of Agni missles if not used for such things??
Prakash Singh: Weak leaders, devoid of guts.

KRao:In many countries facing the scourge of terrorism, like USA & the UK, one terrorist attack is all it took for the countries law makers to wake up and deal with the situation. Do our law makers lack the courage? By not addressing this are they not becoming silent accomplices to this menace?
Prakash Singh: Our leaders will wake up only when a couple of MPs get killed. As long as the common man is getting killed, they are not bothered.

Sunil:Sir, you have been active in the service and you seem to agree with common people like me that we should combat terrorism more aggressively. So does it mean that senior personnel from security forces such as yourself are advising the government to take this approach, and the government is not doing it ?
Prakash Singh: Government does not listen to people like me. They like chamchas.

indian:Is it not shameful that chinese guys hack our websites... In the era of technology revolution why we do not push for strong technical capabilities in lines of NSA ( unkil TOM)..
Prakash Singh: Even Pakis hack our sites. We lack the aggressive instincts

Sunil:Sir, where in the system is the first weak link ? Is it that we do not have enough intelligence, or is it that the government is ignoring such intel ?
Prakash Singh: Weak links are - inefficient police, poor intelligence, court delays, hypocrites who masquerade as human rights activists and of course, leaders who cannot see beyond their nose.

Jassi:How serious is the threat of Naxal movement and why the government not talking about it. ? Do they also have foreign support.?
Prakash Singh: Threat is serious. Government is doing a lot of talking. Action is not commensurate. They have foreign linkages.

kaviean:You mentioned in an answer "Detect them, try them and hang them." so, you believe in blood-for-blood? Do n't we have any other option to stop terrorism...afterall Mahathma Gandhi is the father of our nation...
Prakash Singh: Gandhigiri will not work against terrorists. It worked against the British, who were a civilized people. Terrorists are monsters.

Amal John:Sir, I would like to know whether we have the capability to protect our country from terrorism.
Prakash Singh: Yes we have the capablity. But unfortunately our leaders do not take the necessary hard decisions - clear policy, firm laws, prompt conviction, prolonged detention, appropriate action against sponsoring neighbour

Ashwin:Is it possible to maintain one single main database having information about all the fellow citizens for each state. So that it becomes easy to track the outsiders.
Prakash Singh: We should have a national register of citizens. That would make the job of tracking easy.

Ajai:why are we not being pro active and always reactive ?
Prakash Singh: We need strong leaders who would place national security above every other considersation. Unfortunately we have leaders for whom votes and office are more important.

sachin:What this Central Govt going to do about Terrorism? Congress has ruled India for last 50 years , why they r not able to act on terror?
Prakash Singh: We don't have a policy to deal with terrorism. We have no law to deal with terrorism. Very few terrorists are convicted. Those ordered to be hanged are not sent to the gallows.

ABHINAV:what holds us on being tough...lack of will or lack of sight...
Prakash Singh: Lack of will. We are strong nation burdened by weak leaders.

deepak yadav:Why are we called a soft state, is it just a pplitical word used by parties against each other ot does it have some relevence?
Prakash Singh: We are called a soft state because our response is soft. We only condemn the terrorist, announce financial relief and that is the end of it. No strong steps are taken against the organization or the country sponsoring terrorism.

chan:How will india stop terrorists coming into the country and indulging in such devastating activities? What immediate steps should government take to avoid terrorist activities in india?
Prakash Singh: Detect them, try them and hang them.

tapan:So what is the constraint there in hot pursuit or responding to terrorism the way Israel does ?
Prakash Singh: No constraint, so long as you have the upper hand. Could be done vis - a- vis Bangladesh.

neeraj:Should we adopt policy to eliminate terrorists leaders on foreign soil like MOSSAD?
Prakash Singh: Why not, but you need a leader like Putin for doing that.

Saswata Gupta:Sir why cannot we do surgical strikes ? Look at Israel - if such a small country can do it with all enemy states around it then what are our decision makers afraid of ? Our intelligence is expected to know the exact locations of the terrorists in Bangladesh and POK. So why cant we take the other powerful countries into confidence and strike. It will put our country into a war situation for sometime but after that atleast for sometime the peace will be there because these terrorist training & logistic support camps are to be rebuilt.
Prakash Singh: The last time we could do a surgical strike was when the Indian Army was mobilsed on PAK border in the wake of attack on Parliament. NDA leaders unfortunately developed cold feet. Pakistan has since then made considerable progress in misile technology. A surgical strike could be carried out against Bangladesh which has about 200 camps sheltering terrorists from India.

neeraj:Can't we have policy like other foreign intelligences like MOSAD to eliminate terrorists on foreign soil. Like Dawood, IC-814 hijackers Maullana Masood. Whats wrong in it? What we are waiting for? They attacked our parliament and killing people all over India and our puppet PM like Manmohan singh with no guts to be a leader are saying the existing law is enough to handle terrorism. If it is enough then why terrorism can't be stopped and still people are getting killed? America has destroyed whole afghanistan when terrorists killed around 2000 people there even most of them were not even US citizen. It is shameful that our PM is having sleepless night when a terrorist's brother is jailed for killing people and he has sound sleep when innocent people are dying. Indian is shining, India is next super power in Asia, India is having growith rate of 8% so going to be a top 15% richest nation by 2015 while people are getting killed in India like there is no Human life value. Todays story on IBNLive ......A tribal labourer and his four-year-old daughter were thrown off a bus because they were Rs 2 short on their ticket fares. Both of them died on the spot.....Every Indian is angry and sad when we hear such news...akhir hum log kare kya? Thanks Neeraj
Prakash Singh: We have a very weak leadership which is obsessed by political consideration of continuing in power. National security consideration takes a back seat. Hence these problems. RAW should be more aggressive. Our leadership has blunted its sharpness.

viswanath a:Do you think is it High time to revive tough laws like 'POTA' ? How can intelligence inputs be strengthen to tackle terrorism ?
Prakash Singh: We need a law tougher than POTA today. The situation is much worse. Intelligence will have to become professional. Presently, they are spending much of their time in political intelligence concerning the adversaries. RAW has been almost castrated, thanks to Mr. Gujral and some other prime ministers.

Balbeer Tiwari:do you think increas in terror attacks is due lack of center govt intention to tackle the issue?
Prakash Singh: Terrorist incidents are increasing because we are soft in dealing with them. We do not go to the root of the problem and are diffident in exercising diplomatic and other pressure on Pakistan and Bangladesh. Besides, we have no stringent anti terror law. The terrorists have no fear of operating in India.

Prashant Kumar Gupta:Is resilience to terrorism, the only answer to we Indians?
Prakash Singh: No, terrrorism should be firmly combated. We need to give a strong response. Unfortunately, that is not happening, and so we have a recurrence of such incidents.