Listen to Julio

From amidst the heat and dust generated after the Wednesday bomb blasts, the lone voice that made any sense was that of Julio Ribeiro.

On CNN-IBN’s panel discussion with Rajdeep Sardesai, Ribeiro made two points in his characteristic no-nonsense and forthright manner. One, he said that the police force must be free from political influence and allowed to carry out its functions professionally and without hamper.

Two, he said that India’s minority community should be won over so that the ground support that terrorism needs to function is cut off, and the police can establish community support to provide itself with information and intelligence to preempt terrorist attacks.

Is there anyone who would argue with either of these statements?

If Ribeiro was just a TV talking head his views might not have passed muster, especially in the shrill mood of the moment where political one-upmanship, blame games, jingoism, and settling scores are dominating the narrative.

But Ribeiro is not a TV talking head. He is one of India’s most respected citizens. A Padma Bhushan awardee, he is a man of unquestionable integrity and rectitude, and the person credited for singlehandedly and conclusively ridding Punjab of terrorism in the mid-1980s when he was appointed director-general of police of the state at the height of its worst problems with insurgents. For a post-Operation Blue Star generation, it is hard to imagine how convulsed the Indian state was by the daily war of attrition carried out by the supporters of the Khalistan movement.

Here was a sizeable and extremely resourceful section of one of India’s most powerful states — a border one — that had taken it upon itself to mount an armed struggle against the nation if its demands were not met. What’s more, not only were our own security forces under the scrutiny of human rights watchdogs but world opinion was not unsympathetic to the cause of the Khalistanis, and massive funds were being routed into India to arm and support them.

Today’s terrorist does not have this international support, and even human rights groups have understood the importance of allowing security forces to deal with the menace as best they can.

In this scenario the words of a man like Ribeiro, who speaks from experience and who has proven his effectiveness, ought to be given far more importance.

That our politicians should lay off the police force is a no-brainer.

If you undermine, demoralise and manipulate the people who have to tackle terrorism, then you are not going to get either their expertise or their loyalty. Police reform should be our first priority.

However, it is Ribeiro’s second point that should be embraced with even more vigour, that of winning over the minority community so that the soil in which terrorism flourishes does not exist.

For a man who has earned the sobriquet of Supercop, and whose autobiography is called Bullet for Bullet, to expound the wisdom of winning people over and thus defeating the enemy is a profound and sublime assertion.

Ribeiro says the minority community should not be left to feel alienated or disgruntled, but rather co-opted to have a stake and feel assimilated within the nation if we want to put an end to terrorism.

And there is no reason why India Inc., civil society and the man on the street cannot play a role in this endeavour — regardless of the games politicians play.

Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer