The Mumbai Blame Game
BU’s Adil Najam on why finger-pointing aids terrorism
After the standoff in Mumbai ended on Saturday, questions remained. Indian police and government officials were still working yesterday to verify the identities and nationalities of the gunmen who attacked two luxury hotels and left at least 179 people dead. Reports from Indian police said the gunmen arrived from the Port of Karachi in Pakistan, and at least one suspect was identified as a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamist group accused of carrying out attacks in the Indian-administered section of Kashmir, according to the New York Times.
Now, as the city of Mumbai recovers, tensions between India and Pakistan remain high, and the United States is seeking a diplomacy that will not alienate either nation. Adil Najam, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of international relations and of geography and environment, the director of BU’s Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the author of the blog Pakistaniat, spoke to BU Today about what the attacks mean for India, Pakistan, and the world.
BU Today: Many have called the attacks in Mumbai “the Indian 9/11.” What do you make of that characterization?
Najam: I am not sure whether this is India’s 9/11 or not — nor am I sure what that really means — but this much is clear. Whether the terrorists who did this were “home-grown” in India or “trained” in Pakistan (and let’s be clear that as of now, we do not know), no serious analyst thinks or has said that the government of Pakistan is behind this, or the government of India is behind this. This is the work of nonstate terrorist actors who want these states to be weakened.
What are the implications for international counterterrorism strategies and priorities?
We call this the “global” war on terror, but do not always act as if it is. If, indeed, it is, then we have to respond to it globally, and not in the standard, state-focused way. There are terrorists who are trying to disrupt the global order all over the world, and we need to look at them in that way. Instead, we are doing exactly what the terrorists would like us to do: to turn this into just an Indian thing or, even better for the terrorists, a Pakistan-India thing.
Have the Indian and Pakistani governments responded appropriately to the attacks?
Here is what the terrorists would like to happen: they would like to turn this into a media circus and blame game with countries — the United States, Pakistan, India — pointing fingers at each other. Unfortunately, this is precisely what is happening.
What should be the American response?
The implication of recognizing that this is part of the global war on terror is also recognizing that America cannot be just an observer of all of this. This is very much part of our war — unfortunately, we have not always behaved as if it is.
For example, in this calendar year alone, in Pakistan, over 1,500 people have died in terrorist attacks. They have given their lives to the global war on terror, just as those who died in Mumbai did. We should acknowledge that. The Pakistanis who die in Pakistan because of terrorist attacks and the Indians who die in India because of terrorist attacks are just as much part of the global war on terror as Americans who die in Iraq or Afghanistan. Instead, what we have been doing is to look at this incident as just India’s issue, or a Pakistan-India issue. It’s not. It’s a global war on terror issue, although nothing would please the terrorists, whoever they are, more than if a collateral effect of this is the worsening of relations between India and Pakistan.
Here is what we should be doing: India and Pakistan, with active American nudging and assistance, should be working on a combined antiterror strategy and a combined search for those who did this. Indeed, I think Afghanistan, which is also the victim of the same wave of terror, should also be part of this strategy. And America is the best placed actor to make this joint effort happen. Unless we launch such a multinational effort against terror and discontinue this blame game and finger-pointing between countries, we will only strengthen the hands of the terrorists.
Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu. Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.
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