INDIA’S POLITICAL leaders have long congratulated themselves on the absence of any home-grown al-Qaeda threat.
Until recently, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, often told foreign leaders that “although we have 150 million Muslims in our country as citizens, not one has been found to have joined the ranks of al-Qaeda or participated in the activities of Taliban”.
But this week’s attack is the latest in a series of incidents that has forced the Indian government to acknowledge privately that there may be Islamist militant groups within its borders. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, explicitly accused Pakistan of involvement yesterday, but Indian defence analysts concede it would have been near-impossible to mount such a carefully co-ordinated assault on the city without some degree of local support.
Ashok Mehta, a Delhi-based analyst, said: “Without help, the terrorists would not have known how to enter the hotels or where the exits are. This operation would have been well-rehearsed and there would certainly have been local guides.”
The idea of Indian Muslim involvement nevertheless remains taboo politically. Explaining why he believes Indian Muslims had not been recruited to al-Qaeda, the prime minister argued that it was down to India “being a secular democracy where all religions are free to practise their respective faiths without fear, without favour”.
But some believe the government has been dangerously complacent. A recent study shows Muslims have not benefited greatly from India’s extraordinary economic transformation.
Muslims routinely received worse education than Hindus, and ended in low-paid, casual jobs, rarely winning government positions. Literacy was lower, and 31 per cent of Muslims were living below the poverty line. – (Guardian service)