Adit Jain - Perspectives

On the 3rd March, a dozen terrorists ambushed a coach carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team and in the process killed half a dozen policeman and injured several others. The initial reaction of several Pakistani commentators absurdly suggested an Indian conspiracy. As things subsequently turned out, the government acknowledged that the attack was executed by the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) a militant organisation closely associated with the Al Qaeda. This was the same group suspected of masterminding the Marriott bombing in Islamabad in September 2008. The LeJ was nurtured in its formative years by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies although no longer strictly remains in its control. Only a few weeks earlier, the government succumbed to the pressures of the Pakistani Taliban when it entered a deal to enforce Shariah laws in the Swat region – a part of the Malakand Division, about 300 kms from Islamabad. Buckling under the pressures of a relentless offensive by Muallana Fazullah who leads the

Recently, newspapers in Karnataka have understandably been loaded with condemnation of a terribly unfortunate incident that occurred in Mangalore. This involved the harassment of a group of women at a bar by some hooligans of an organisation called the Sri Rama Sene. The State government acted too slowly and perhaps did too little, to send an effective message that such incidences would not be tolerated. The fact is politicians are persuaded not by what is correct but by what they determine as political compulsions. The guilty rarely get punished by anything more than a rap on the knuckles, thus encouraging others to become adventurous. Instances such as this are apparently common in Mangalore, but rarely get reported. Only this time, the owner of the bar was related to a senior politician from a political party in opposition. This is a sad reality of falling governance standards in our country where basic human rights coupled with law and order, are subservient to the vagaries of the