Boston, Paris, Istanbul, London - What's next?

From Australia to USA, a common problem faced by security and intelligence agencies is how self-radicalized home residents or itinerant visitors, even if under surveillance, evade watch and commit terrorist acts without any overt help from outside handlers.

Vappala Balachandran, Former Special Secretary, Government of India spoke on this issue at the Synergia Forum in April 2017. He said: “All over the world there is a feeling that the new branch of terrorists are ten steps ahead. Now, how does the rest of the world respond? The whole pattern of terrorism all over the world has changed. In India there is a reluctance throughout at the political level, whether it is this government or the previous government, who denied there are indigenous militants. In a mature democracy like ours, a huge country like ours, we have to acknowledge that there can be indigenous militancy. Now this is the dilemma. It is not only in India but in the West also. Terrorism has nothing to do with patriotism.

Strengthening America by providing appropriately of what is required to intercept and obstruct the terrorist is being actively done there. A number of new powers are given each and every second. Radicalism is not a crime. Radicalism alone, without the use of violence, does not constitute a crime. But what is the solution to this? We keep playing the lone wolf, and I've told the media also; a lone wolf is a point for a single white male supremacist attacks in schools.

In India, unfortunately, there is not one security agency that specializes in only internal security or terrorism. We've got so many big corporate bodies in India. In USA this is partly private funded and a portion is given by the government. Right now what’s happening in India is that everything comes under the police. The nature of the constitution is such that nobody but themselves are allowed to do it. What they are trying now is the intelligence bureau and the state police, it is in a hierarchical issue. Intelligence Bureau will not tell anyone at the local level. Now when you have that kind of cooperation, it is not that the local IT man in Bangalore or whatever can say something and get away with it. It is monitored at the higher level to see that the cooperation is purposeful. This is what I have been trying and they have been quite successful. Now when we see how terrorism is handled in other countries, in USA assisted by 16 Federal agencies, unlike ours.

The advantage that giving combined training is that you develop a common outlook on what is terrorism. All the examples of various initiatives around the world, possibly one underlying issue. When an individual engages in terrorism that is a certainty of punishment in all those countries which have been used as examples.