Essay on “Anti Terrorism Day – 21 May” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Anti Terrorism Day – 21 May

May 21 is observed as Anti – terrorism day since 1992 to mark the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A suicide bomber killed Rajiv Gandhi on this day in 1991.

Life History of Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi (August 20, 1944 – May 21, 1991), the eldest son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi, was the 9^th Prime Minster of India ( and the 3^rd from the Gandhi family) from his mother’s death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on December 2 , 1989 following a general election defeat. Becoming the Prime Minister of India at the age of 40, he is the youngest person to date, to hold that office.

Rajiv Gandhi worked as a professional pilot for Indian Airlines before coming into politics. He was married to Sonia Gandhi, an Italian national he met, while in  college. He remained aloof from politics despite his mother being the Indian Prime Minister, and it was only following the death of his Younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 that Rajiv was convinced to enter politics. Upon  the assassination of his mother in 1984, Congress party leaders convinced him to become the new Prime Minister.  

Rajiv Gandhi led the Congress to a major election victory in 1984 soon after, amassing the largest majority in Parliament. He had the public image of being young, modern and Mr. Clean – an honest leader free of machine politics and corruption. He began dismantling the License Raj  – government quotas, tariffs and permit regulations on economic activity- modernized the telecommunications industry, the education system, expanded science and technology initiatives and improved relations with the United States. He was also responsible for sending Indian troops for peace efforts in Sri Lanka.

Rajiv Gandhi remained the Congress leader till the elections in 1991. His last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur in on May 21, 1991, a village near Chennai, where he was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate, Mrs. Maragatham Chandrasekhar. The assassination was carried out by a female LTTE suicide bomber. Rajiv’s wife Sonia Gandhi became the leader of the Congress party in 1998, and led the party to victory in the 2004 elections. His son Rahul Gandhi is a member of parliament. 

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1991. The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial was built in Spriperumpudur at the site where he breathed last and is one of the major tourist attractions to the small industrial town.

Terrorism

Terrorism is a deadly act committed by highly trained and motivated people, who are devoid of humanity and have no value for human life. Tackling it  on conventional lines is unlikely to succeed. In the fight against terrorism the strengths of a free society are also its weaknesses. Terrorists use the rights and liberties inherent in a democratic society to operate with comparative freedom and then use the democratic laws to circumvent or evade the consequences.

There are no ‘good’ terrorists, whatever their grievance or cause. Nor does terrorism have a religion. There are or have been terrorists belonging to almost all the religion of the world. To associate terrorism with any particular religion is unjustified and unfair. 

The terrorist groups are not ordinary civilians or some misguided youth but the paramilitary organs of militant extremism, who believe in the culture of extreme violence and whose objective is destruction of the established social system and structure, that is the whole way of life of free societies. This virus does not take long to infect homegrown products and soon enough local criminal gangs get  drawn into the terrorist’s web. It is important to make distinction between terrorism and insurgency, as different approaches are required to tackle each of them.

Concept of Terrorism

Terrorism means the policy of striking terror in the minds of the people by violent methods to achieve some ends. It is a law of the jungle to use muscle power and force to get things done. It is a barbarian act. Of late, terrorism has become the order of the day. People who are disgruntled and who are unable to get their desires  fulfilled by normal and accepted methods on society, are resorting to terrorism. Some other causes for which terrorism is resorted to may be genuine like a protest from people to come out of terrorism, when there are other channels and methods to solve the problem. Terrorism has now become an international phenomenon. There are terrorists in developed and advanced countries as well as developing  countries like India.

We must find out the reasons for emergence of terrorism. There has been exploitation of the weak and the poor the centuries by the rich and the powerful. All representations and appeals of non-violent nature failed to yield any response. Hence the frustrated and the oppressed resort to violence as there is no other alternative. Such protests are also called terrorist activities. There is another type, that is, where one uses force on the weak to gain his ends. It may be to serve the cause of religion, a language or to establish a new pattern of government. As long as violence  pays dividends much more easily and is allowed to go unchecked, the animal in man favours its use instead of peaceful methods.

Terrorism Vs Insurgency

Terrorism needs a top – down approach while insurgency requires a bottom – up approach. For an insurgent movement to flourish, it must have support of a segment of the population whereas terrorism can be effective with just a few sympathizers and supporters amongst the  population.

Anti – Terrorism Day (May 21)

In tackling an insurgency, it is a fight for the ‘ hearts and minds’ of the people and the people have to be addressed and won over. With terrorism the leadership or perpetrators of terrorism need to be targeted. Insurgency usually has rural root while terrorism has an urban bias.

The objective of terrorism is exactly what the name implies to terrorize the population. India is rapidly reaching a high level of development and meeting this threat is central to our economic  progress and is of great urgency. A developed society is highly dependent upon public utilities, technology , energy, instant communication, rapid travel, and prompt medical aid to sustain its way of life. highly industrialized states are therefore far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than countries with ‘ rice and fish’ economies.     

The spectre of terrorism haunts us as an omnipotent and omnipresent phenomenon. Living in fear of terrorist attacks I almost becoming the way of life. today the question is not ‘ whether’ but ‘ when and where’ they will strike again./ this will result in people fearing to venture out of their homes, not a good omen for a democratic society. The time for analysis is over, it is time for action before we reach the stage of ‘ paralysis through analysis’. 

 The nature of terrorism demands quick, indeed, immediate and decisive application of appropriate force. It requires the creation of institutional structure and protocols of response, not only for counter – terrorist action, but for relief and containment of the impact of terrorist acts. 

When we argue that ‘these are our brother and sisters’, and ‘these are our children’ we ignore the fact that those whom they kill are also ‘ our brothers and sisters and our children’; and that it is the prior, inescapable and constitutional duty of the state to protect the latter , and to impose the laws of the land.

The Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) has now been designated the lead agency for counter – terrorism and counter – insurgency operations across the country, and continues to be deployed in all major theatres of violence, including Jammu & Kashmir and the Northeast, where the unified command structure is applied.

Concept of Anti- Terrorism

The Concept of anti- terrorism emerges from a through examining of the concept of terrorism as well as an attempt to understand and articulate what constitutes terrorism in Western terms. Anti –terrorism was bound to emerge as the stakes for a concise definition of terrorism. Unlike counterterrorism, the prefix “anti-“ suggests a diplomatic and less confrontational line than counterterrorism.

TADA

The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, commonly known as TADA, was an Indian law active between 1985 in Punjab. It was renewed in  1989, 1991 and 1993 before being allowed to lapse in 1995 due to increasing unpopularity of widespread allegations of abuse. The drawback was that it didn’t provide a definition of the term ‘ terrorist’. It presumed that the accused was guilty. It has a conviction rate of less than 1% despite the fact that under criminal law, a confession before a police officer, even though being given under torture, was admissible as evidence in court. A special court known as TADA court was set up to hear the cases and deliver judgments pertaining to 1993 Bombay bombings.       

PoTA

The Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (PoTA) was an anti – terrorism  legislation enacted by the Parliament of Indian in 2002. The legislation was introduced by the governing NDA coalition dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The legislaitgon followed, and is largely identical in its provisions to, the prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) promulgated by the same government in 2001. The act was repealed in 2004 by the UPA coalition.

The National Common Minimum Programme says that the Union Government does not consider the terrorist violence to be a mere law and order problem and it needs to be tackled as a socioeconomic problem. The terrorist will continue to breed internal unrest and upset peace till such time, the economic inequalities are not addressed. Studies show that the poorest of our people are concentrated in the terrorist belt, from Bihar’s   borders with Nepal to  Rayalseema in Andra Pradesh. Unless their grievances are addressed speedily , their resentment and anger would continue to fuel the terrorist. Good governance and effective implementation of development programmes are the key element to counter socioeconomic causes of Terrorism.

Terrorism Vs. Communal Harmony in India

Terrorism has become worldwide problem. The terrorist attack on World Trade Centre in New York proved that the terrorist can go to any unimaginable extent and cause even the heavy horrible incidents. They never care form even the heavy loss of life and property while indulging in their activities. They don’t think of the reaction that may result from their terrorist activities. For example the terrorist attack on World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 resulted in more than 5000 innocent deaths. Since then in reaction  to this happening, it is said that more than 2 million of innocent people have been killed, on that excuse or the other.      

Similarly, these terrorist have done the acts of terrorism in India and many a time, tried to spoil the communal harmony. More than one million of Kashmir minorities are forced to lead a life as refugees in the different cities of India. The common culture of Kashmir is also losing its charm because of their nefarious activities  obviously when the terrorist hurt the minorities in Kashmir, the communal, harmony in India is also hurt.

The terrorist attacked many religious places in India  such as Raghunath Temple in Jammu , Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi and even a graveyard in Malegaon. They killed many innocent people who were shopping the busy and crowded markets on the  eve of famous Indian festivals Eid and Diwali. Undoubtedly the terrorist selected the time and place very cautiously, with the objective of making terrorist attacks so that maximum loss of life and property may be caused and communal harmony in India is disturbed. They want communal riots in this country of common culture. They want to create hatred and enmity between the different religions but always fail in their wicked objectives.

The roots of communal harmony are so deep in India and the people as well as the government face the incidents so wisely and with strength that the reaction is not according to the desires of the terrorists.

Samjhauta Express Incident

On 18^th February 2007, these terrorist caused a very ugly incident when they set on fire the train, Samjauta Express. There were 757 passengers in this train travelling from New Delhi to Lahore. 70 passengers in two of its compartments lost their lives Most of them were Pakistani citizens. The terrorist  had planned to set on fire the complete train but the train was stopped before the fire could spread to other compartments. Otherwise all the passengers would have met the undesirable fate.  

The terrorists wanted to spread communal hatred by making any extreme organization of India responsible for it. But they couldn’t success. After the incident , Indian society showed a good example of communal harmony. Obviously when Pakistani citizens   fell prey to the terrorist incident in India, they had no kith and kin Present here. The Hindus of the village Diwana near Panipat in Haryana did their best to help the victims and even pulled out the Muslim dead out of the burnt compartments. They helped the wounded and showed generosity and sympathy. This incident shows that the terrorist may cause many such incidents but they will not be able to spoil the communal harmony in India and their villainous efforts will no succeed.

  Now the terrorism that got nourished out of the boundaries of India has crossed the limits and has started harming its  nourishers. So it has become the  responsibility of the world to face this terrorism and uproot it. Undoubtedly, it has also become the responsibility of India and its neighbours who are affected by it and those where the terrorist run their training camps. The people and the countries that help the activities of the  terrorist secretly or openly, should feel it horrible consequences.

Conclusion

All religions recognize the existence of certain ‘ sacred values’ we should seek to highlight the commonality of such ‘ sacred values’ and campaign against pernicious ideas and philosophies such as the ‘ clash of civilizations’ . We should  propagate the idea of a ‘ confluence of civilizations’. Sacred values are ideals which are transcendental in nature. We should encourage sober elements in all communities to agree to a proper articulation and mass media must be actively encouraged to promote this integrated vision.

Governments all  over the world are doing their best to put an end to terrorism. There are a few who encourage and support terrorism in other countries to meet their own political ends. The U.N.O. also is unable to completely eliminate this evil. But use of violence to check violence is not a permanent solution. The only remedy to this evil appears to be the diagnosis of the root    cause for each act of terrorism and if there is a genuine reason behind it, it is better to concede the demand. If terrorism is based on issues which are immoral and not acceptable, the sure and powerful weapon against it appears to be non- violent ‘ Sayuagrha’ introcduced by Mahatma Gandhi.