SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION …

1 EIGHTH REPORTSECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSIONCOMBATTING TERRORISMPROTECTING BY RIGHTEOUSNESSJUNE 2008 SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS CommissionGovernment of India2nd Floor, Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi 110 011e-mail : website : TERRORISM PROTECTING BY RIGHTEOUSNESSGOVERNMENT OF INDIASECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSIONEIGHTH REPORTCOMBATTING TERRORISMPROTECTING BY RIGHTEOUSNESSJUNE 2008 PREFACEIn his First Pillar Edict, Emperor Ashoka, stated: This world and the other are hard to gain withoutgreat love of righteousness , great self-examination, great obedience, great circumspection, great effort .. For thisis my rule, to govern by righteousness , to administer by righteousness , to please my subjects by righteousness ,and to protect them by righteousness .

2 In his Tractatus Politicus, (The Political Treatise) Spinoza said: The last end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear; rather it is so to free eachman from fear that he may live and act with full security and without injury to himself or his end of the state, I repeat, is not to make rational beings into brute beasts and machines. It is to enabletheir bodies and their minds to function safely. It is to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason;that they may not waste their strength in hatred, anger and guile, nor act unfairly toward one the end of the state is really liberty .This is the Eighth Report of the SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION (ARC) which dealswith the menace of terrorism and how India s legal and ADMINISTRATIVE framework can be refurbishedto tackle nature of terrorism today is shifting from traditional international terrorism of the late 20thcentury into a new form of transnational non-state warfare.

3 An arc of extremism now extendsacross the Middle East and touches countries far outside that region including India. To defeat it,an alliance of moderation has to be carved out, one that points to visions for the future in whichHindu, Muslim, Jew and Christian; Arab and Western; wealthy and developing nations can makeprogress in peace and harmony. We will not be able to win the battle against global extremismunless we can win it at the level of values as much as force and unless we can show that we are fair,even-handed and just in our application of those values to the is a completely unconventional type of war. Several attacks in India, 9/11 in the US, 7/7 in theUK, 11/3 in Madrid, the countless terrorist attacks in countries as disparate as Indonesia or Algeria,what is now happening in Afghanistan and in Indonesia, the continuing conflict in Lebanon andPalestine, these are all symptoms of this disease.

4 The underlying causes have to be confronted atthe level of ideologies and values. What are the values that will govern the future of the world? Arethey those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, divisionand hatred? This unconventional war can not be won in a conventional way. It can only be won byshowing that our values are stronger, better and more just, more fair and more humane than disturbing trend is that the so-called war against terror is seen as a war against is unjustified and terrible for the Muslims as they now face religious discrimination along withbeing socially his First Pillar Edict, Emperor Ashoka, stated: This world and the other are hard to gain withoutgreat love of righteousness , great self-examination, great obedience, great circumspection, great effort.

5 For thisis my rule, to govern by righteousness , to administer by righteousness , to please my subjects by righteousness ,and to protect them by righteousness . In his Tractatus Politicus, (The Political Treatise) Spinoza said: The last end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear; rather it is so to free eachman from fear that he may live and act with full security and without injury to himself or his end of the state, I repeat, is not to make rational beings into brute beasts and machines. It is to enabletheir bodies and their minds to function safely. It is to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason;that they may not waste their strength in hatred, anger and guile, nor act unfairly toward one the end of the state is really liberty.

6 This is the Eighth Report of the SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION (ARC) which dealswith the menace of terrorism and how India s legal and ADMINISTRATIVE framework can be refurbishedto tackle nature of terrorism today is shifting from traditional international terrorism of the late 20thcentury into a new form of transnational non-state warfare. An arc of extremism now extendsacross the Middle East and touches countries far outside that region including India. To defeat it,an alliance of moderation has to be carved out, one that points to visions for the future in whichHindu, Muslim, Jew and Christian; Arab and Western; wealthy and developing nations can makeprogress in peace and harmony.

7 We will not be able to win the battle against global extremismunless we can win it at the level of values as much as force and unless we can show that we are fair,even-handed and just in our application of those values to the is a completely unconventional type of war. Several attacks in India, 9/11 in the US, 7/7 in theUK, 11/3 in Madrid, the countless terrorist attacks in countries as disparate as Indonesia or Algeria,what is now happening in Afghanistan and in Indonesia, the continuing conflict in Lebanon andPalestine, these are all symptoms of this disease. The underlying causes have to be confronted atthe level of ideologies and values. What are the values that will govern the future of the world?

8 Arethey those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, divisionand hatred? This unconventional war can not be won in a conventional way. It can only be won byshowing that our values are stronger, better and more just, more fair and more humane than disturbing trend is that the so-called war against terror is seen as a war against is unjustified and terrible for the Muslims as they now face religious discrimination along withbeing socially Koran is very clear: let there be no compulsion in religion . Nothing could be moreexplicit than this. So, the whole mythology about the spread of Islam through the sword isbaseless. There is no Koranic sanctity for spreading faith with the Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister said: Democracies provide legitimate means for expressing dissent.

9 They provide the right to engage inpolitical activity, and must continue to do so. However, for this very reason, they cannot afford to besoft on terror. Terrorism exploits the freedom our open societies provide to destroy our freedoms .The spectre of international terrorism is one such phenomenon evolving out of the churningthat has accompanied globalization process. We must fight terrorism wherever it exists, becauseterrorism anywhere threatens democracy the outward manifestation at any one time, anywhere in the world; - this is aglobal fight about values, about modernization, both within religions and outside. It isabout whether our value system can be shown to be sufficiently robust, fair, principledand appealing so that it beats those of the extremists.

10 Extremism s whole strategy isbased on perceived sense of grievance that can be invlated to motivate people to fightagainst each other. Our response has to be a set of values strong enough to unite ratherthan divide Muslihu-ud-Din, better known as Saadi, thirteenth century poet of Shiraz said, A spring at its source can be turned with a twig,But when grown into a river, not even anElephant can cross it The human psyche will have to be evolved continuously to ensure that value systems basedon humanity and tolerance prevail over story of the Parsees assimilation in India shows that people of different identities, languages,cultures and religions can assimilate into an inclusive society and culture.