Dame luck ensured terror-free 2009 so far: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI - Home Minister P. Chidambaram attributed a terror-free 2009 in India so far to dame luck and better coordination among intelligence agencies to sharing of information.

Honestly, it is because of dame luck that there has been no terror attack. I have to be lucky every time an attack contemplated is thwarted. The terrorist has to be lucky just once, the home minister said after delivering the 22nd Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment lecture here.

This year, Chidambaram pointed out, nearly 12 to 13 potential terror plots had been foiled because of timely intelligence.

Attacks similar to the blasts in Jaipur were planned. We have been able to neutralise them.

After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the home minister said a billion plus people felt humiliated and the country had been brought to its knees by a small band of terrorists.

The security establishment was in disarray and numerous questions were being asked. Had the intelligence agencies failed? Did the first responder, the Mumbai Police, prove to be totally inadequate? Was the famed National Security Guard too slow to get off the block? Chidambaram queried.

Did the leadership of the police let down its men? Did the security forces take too long to neutralise ten terrorists? Did the government fail the people in not mounting a swift counter-attack on the perpetrators of terror? These questions continue to haunt me and many others even today.

The home minister was quick to point out there was no room for complacency because of systemic changes brought in the security mindset and the revamp in the intelligence structure.

We should resist the temptation to exaggerate the gains that have been made through these changes at the top. The home minister — and by extension the government — is indeed better informed. The agencies involved are more alert, he said.

However, in my view, it does not mean that our capacity to pre-empt or prevent a terrorist threat or attack has been enhanced significantly. As far as responding to a terrorist attack is concerned, we may have enhanced the capacity to contain and repulse an attack, but I think that there is still some distance to go before we can claim to have acquired the capacity to respond swiftly and decisively to a terror attack.

In a few days from today, 2009 will come to a close, and I sincerely hope that we may be able to claim that the year was free from terror attacks. However, there is the danger of a terror-free year inducing complacency, signs of which can be seen everywhere.”