A WHITE-COLLAR TERRORISM

The recent explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort has raised fresh concern over the state of India’s internal security. Why would a bunch of highly educated and radicalised individuals, commit the silly mistake of getting posters pasted in J&K carrying the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad’s proclamations, which finally blew their cover away? It was possibly a cocky radicalised medical practitioner who wanted to negate Union home minister Amit Shah that no local had joined any terror outfit in the past six months, adding all terrorists liquidated around that time in the Union Territory were of foreign origin. The blast outside the Red Fort comes when the wounds of the Pahalgam terror attack nearly seven months ago have still not faded. The recent operation in J&K suggests that the JeM module has expanded beyond Kashmir, and made new inroads on the back of a white-collar terror network. It is clear that terrorism and its ever-shifting footprint remains a persistent challenge to India’s growth story. Incidents like these threaten the safety and confidence that are essential for a nation that sets itself increasingly ambitious goals as it turns its face to the future. Over the past decade, India’s counter-terror effort has strengthened its border and intelligence capacities. Yet, urban preparedness often lags behind. Policing structures remain reactive, and inter-agency coordination tends to tighten only after an event. The danger today lies less in infiltration from across the border than in the quiet spread of radical influence and logistics within ordinary spaces—apartments, workplaces, universities. If early findings confirm a planned attack, it will signal a shift back to low-cost, high-visibility terror operations designed to erode public assurance rather than inflict mass casualties. If not, the incident should still serve as a stress test for urban safety and crisis response. Either way, the message is clear: vigilance cannot be seasonal or reactive. Intelligence, policing, and civic alertness must operate as a single system, not a chain of afterthoughts. Terror may adapt its form and face, but the challenge for the state remains the same—to stay one step ahead, calmly and without complacency. The alleged role of medicos in the Delhi blast tells us regular schooling isn’t enough to stop negativism turning into radicalism. India’s pluralist traditions must be inculcated among the youth. With the recent blasts near Delhi’s Red Fort, the ugly head of terrorism once again became visible. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said while speaking on the menace of terrorism, said the discussion should be on Islamic terrorism. He said that there are two “faces” of Islam: one “pious and peaceful”, and the other “fundamentalist and militant”. Vajpayee was neither the first nor the only. Well-known reformer Hamid Dalwai of the Muslim Satyashodhak Samaj had elaborately reflected on fundamentalist tendencies among Muslims. “Unless a Muslim liberal intellectual class emerges, Indian Muslims will continue to cling to obscurantist medievalism, communalism, and will eventually perish both socially and culturally.” These observations have become relevant today as we see the emergence of ‘white-coat terrorism’. Highly-educated persons falling for obscurantist ideas and religious fundamentalism, and ending up becoming extremists in their thinking and actions, is appalling to say the least. However, it is fairly established now that education cannot be looked at as an antidote to terrorist tendencies. What is required, in fact, is a structured academic programme aimed at enhancing the understanding of the idea of India, so as to ensure an enduring mindset change. We have to see the global community as one family. ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. It is not just theoretical. It is an undeniable truth, a fact of life. We should have spiritual democracy. This country never was and never could be a theocratic state. The world is now full of racial, cultural and religious misunderstandings… We are groping in a timid and tentative way for some device which would save us from our suicidal conflicts. Importantly, spiritual or cultural democracy abhors any claim of supremacy over others. It nips a ‘my way or highway’ approach right in the bud. Our apparent diversity is only the manifestation of our innate unity in myriad ways. The unity inherent to our diversity has enabled us not just to accommodate but also celebrate our all-pervasive diversity. With diversity, naturally, comes the question of simultaneously aligning oneself with different identities—regional, linguistic and spiritual. Many social scientists believe that excessive domination of the market economy has imposed some kind of excessive competitive spirit. Such cut-throat competition in this era, which is also called the Attention Economy, makes most of us insecure. This situation provides fertile ground to terrorist tendencies thriving on narrow fundamentalist ideas. As the phenomenon of white-coat terrorism clearly indicates, mere academic instructions are woefully short to remove the influence of fundamentalism. A kind of renaissance within the Muslim community is extremely critical. However, the type of integration that is necessary here cannot be achieved unless Muslims no less than Hindus learn to separate religion from the rights and obligations of citizenship of a modern state. Whenever Muslims are in a majority, they have refused to recognise the equal rights of non-Muslim minorities, and where they are in a minority, they have been generally reluctant to regard themselves as part and parcel of a non-religious nation. The recent revolts of Muslims in the Philippines, Thailand and Ethiopia are merely expressions of the Muslim unwillingness to participate in a common social order on equal terms with others and this unwillingness is rooted in a long and deeply entrenched historical and religious tradition.” All in all, not just education, but true enlightenment ending the darkness of negativism gripping minds can overcome the threats of white-coat terror. Nothing can compensate those who lost their loved ones, but bringing the guilty to justice, demonstrating a resolve to dismantle the terror network would provide some closure

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Courtesy: R K Mattoo  and  Spade A Spade-DECEMBER ,2025