Govt seeks national consensus on terrorism, Left-wing extremism

New Delhi, Mar 26 (UNI) The Government today sought a broad national consensus on religious and Left-wing extremism besides terrorism, posing a great threat to the stability and peace in the country.

Delivering the 25th Air Chief Marshal P C Lal Memorial Lecture here, national security advisor (NSA) M K Narayanan cautioned that if appropriate steps were not taken in the right earnest, there was danger that the multi-religious and multi-ethnic fabric of the country might be jeopardised.

Mr Narayanan said laws such as POTA for tackling terrorism have their own flaws and as such it was essential to seek the support of the people in dealing with the scourge.

The NSA also said the reforms on national security would continue to tackle effectively the Left-wing extremism and insurgency in the North-East.

''India's political parties should evolve a consensus on national security like they have done on economic reforms. Terrorism is too serious a matter for dichotomy. The challenge is to see whether we can evolve consensus on national security. We need not wait for a major crisis to evolve this consensus.'' Mr Narayanan said there was a consensus on the economic reforms that had begun a decade and a half ago.

''The reforms have continued through successive governments. We need a similar consensus on national security,'' he added.

The NSA also said the country was faced with serious problems when terror attacks took place. ''There are several allegations that members of a community are targeted,'' he added.

Mr Narayanan further said security agencies were being accused of bias while probing terror strikes.

He also strongly refuted the allegations that the government was ''soft'' on terrorism, saying the perception was ''grossly off track''.

The record of the security agencies in preventing attacks was unparalleled, the NSA said, adding 1,000 terrorist modules were detected and neutralised in 2006.

UNI AG PK KN2338