SILICON VALLEY OF TERRORISM

India has a law that can declare anyone a terrorist. In the country’s view, this is an important tool in fighting terrorism. Perhaps, such a law would even make Stalin and Hitler cringe in their graves.

In August this year, apart from the much-talked about Indian annexation of Kashmir, the other suicidal move the Indian government made was the amendment to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), approved by the Rajya Sabha of the Indian parliament. The law gives unabated and unquestioned powers to the government of India to designate anyone as a terrorist. The Indian government is claiming that it is an essential tool to fight against terrorism. This law legalisesthe sharing of personal and financial information of the person designated as a terrorist with the western intelligence agencies. The law empowers the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India to conduct raids anywhere prior to the government's permission. Such a draconian law would make even Stalin and Hitler cringe.

Somebody being called a terrorist based on a mere whim is a dangerous and watershed development in India’s march towards self-destruction. That alone should trouble the Indian population because it is such tyrannical powers ofany government that are used more against its own citizens rather than in a region that doesn’t belong to that country, such as Kashmir. The RSS extremists are now cheering these actions in Kashmir but it wouldn’t be a distant day in the future when these tentacles will reach home and Indian cities and towns could be locked down for months in a row. Anyone protesting would be labeled as a terrorist. Their fate would be no different than those already arrested under this law. Some of the notable names include Dalit rights worker Sudhir Dhawale, research scholar Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao who was a poet, and many others like them.

Here is the funny part: India claims that with the help of this law, it aims to fight terrorism and that other countries such as the United States and Israel have similar laws to deal with the menace of terrorism. Sure, India joins those nations in legislating to fight terror because, like them, India is generating terrorism. And that has been the hypocrisy of it all. It is Orwellian doublespeak. To claim to fight against terror while actually generating it.

Aggression is the supreme international war crime because it involves everything that follows. For example, the creation of Hezbollah is a direct result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, starting in 1978. Israel attacked the Osirak base in Iraq, falsely claiming that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons. The Israeli attack was called Operation Babylon. It was after those attacks that Saddam started making the nukes. The sectarian violence in Iraq and the creation of the ISIS is a direct result of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The bombing of the mosque of Samarra (Al-askari Mosque) cemented the sectarian rift in Iraq. These and many other examples make one thing clear: aggression is the father of terrorism. Aggression creates terrorism. Terrorism isn’t a product of thin air.