Primary Threat to India Remains Home-Grown Left- and Right-Wing Terrorism
By Chietigj Bajpaee
While the fedayeen-style terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 drew attention to the recurring role of Pakistan-based militant groups in fuelling instability in India, home-grown left- and right-wing extremists continue to present a growing and potentially more significant threat to India's security. In the case of left-wing terrorism, the Naxalite (communist) insurgency represents a long-standing, well-entrenched, and widespread threat to India's security and governance structures. Meanwhile, right-wing terrorism, represented in a string of attacks attributed to home-grown Islamic and Hindu extremist groups, although in its infancy, presents a new and unfamiliar threat that has caught India's security establishment unprepared. The Mumbai terrorist attacks have revived the debate on upgrading India's anti-terrorism infrastructure. Whether these initiatives lead to a substantive improvement in the country's security environment or are mere token gestures to appease the electorate ahead of the country's parliamentary elections by May 2009 remains to be seen...
