Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday stressed that India is still “vulnerable” to terror attacks, but sounded optimistic about the country’s internal security and even hinted at the reduction of troops in Jammu and Kashmir. Chidambaram, however, caused a din during a debate on internal security in the Rajya Sabha by talking of Hindu and Islamist terrorists in the same vein.
On Kashmir, the home minister indicated that the Centre is willing to pull a significant number of troops out of the state. “Problems in J&K are not over, there is still infiltration, but we have given more and more duties to the state police,” he said, adding that 12 terror attacks have been foiled while terrorists have successfully struck twice so far in the year. But the moment he referred to Hindu and jihadi terror, there were protests by the BJP lawmakers.
“The government maintains zero tolerance for terrorism inspired by religion, may it be Islam or may it be Hindu,” Chidambaram said in his reply to the debate.
At this, BJP members, including Prakash Javadekar and SS Ahluwalia, said the usage of ‘Hindu terrorists’ was not a correct thing.
“When the investigation is on, how could you say it would reveal [the names of] Hindu terrorists,” said Javadekar.
Ahluwalia questioned how Chidambaram could generalise the entire community for an alleged act of a few individuals. But home minister refused to budge, stressing that religious fanaticism was being used to justify acts of terror.
On Ulfa, Chidambaram said the government would speak to the outfit if the rebels publicly “abjured” violence.
