No one is immune from terrorism: Nirmala

Mysuru, Mar 7: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said terrorism is like a non-communicable disease. After releasing the book ‘Facets of Terrorism in India’ by retired Intelligence Bureau chief RN Kulkarni here on Wednesday, she said terrorism may not be contagious but it spreads before we can figure it out.

“The whole issue is complicated and it hits each of us, not in a systematic fashion but like guerilla warfare. It’s well organised and cannot be predicted. Due to technology, information flows at an unprecedented speed. Even big powers are not off its radar,” she said.

Sitharaman said every country fears terrorism and no one is immune from it. “For the past 70 years, India has been facing problems from organised terror groups. The Pakistani armed forces have been regularly using non-state actors to spread terror. They’re as organised as the army as they are provided all resources. They can attack from anywhere in the country, not just the border,” she said.

Sitharaman said while Pakistan is asking for proof of the air strike on terrorists’ camps at Balakot, the opposition in India too is questioning it. “In a democracy, you must trust the government. The government should give answers, but not so many that it exposes the whole country. We have to draw a line. Democracy itself will be threatened the more we try to open it up,” she said.

“If some action had been taken in the past, we would not have faced these situations now. We should have taught our attackers a lesson after previous incidents. The surgical strike succeeded in targeting the nerve centres of terrorism. No action was initiated even after 11 years of the Mumbai attack,” she said.

‘Modi should be re-elected’

She said on the day of the Pulwama attack, her emotions were no different from other countrymen. "Grief, anger, outrage and questions of why we can't do anything troubled me," she said. In an interaction with intellectuals here, she said if the BJP government is not re-elected, the country may move back by 50 years.

"Today, our country is in safe hands. Since June 1, 2014, our cabinet has taken a decision a day for the country’s development,” she said.

Earlier, BL Santosh, National Joint General Secretary (Org) said under the Modi rule, the term ‘politician’ is respected. "India moved forward under Modi. No leader other than Modi could have taken risks like demonetisation, surgical strike or air strike," he said.

‘Fish out of water’

Congress without power is like a fish out of water, said Nirmala Sitharaman. Interacting with booth-level workers of four parliamentary constituencies (Mysuru, Hassan, Chamarajanagar and Mandya), she said: “The Congress doesn’t understand that ministries like defence can work without middleman. Working for national interest is something the Congress does not understand. After they couldn’t sustain their campaign against the Rafael deal, they have started saying the government failed to provide jobs and look into welfare of farmers.”