The strength of the nation is with its people, its policies, its armed forces and most importantly, the politicians and leaders who guide the people and policies at the national and international level. A weak and soft State is created due to a deficit of policies in all dimensions: a result and reflection of a weak leadership and a corrupt political system.

Today, spinelessness seems to have seeped so deep into the innards of the political establishment that it is unable to stand up to the truths and action required for trampling the monsters of terrorism and secessionism which are hitting at the very roots of our nationhood and Indian identity.

The State of Jammu and Kashmir is of equal importance as any other State or Union Territory of the country, yet the prevailing situation of terror activities and political ideologies of Islamic hegemony are laying a siege from within. A siege and design so evil that the reflection cast on the whole country is far more nefarious and destructive than imagined.

Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir State more often than not speak only for the Valley, forgetting with convenience the regions of Jammu and Ladakh. The issues and statements many a times are aimed at staging competition to the secessionist and separatist elements in the Valley.

The question of the terrorist Afzal Guru is an open and shut case, where the Supreme Court has upheld the verdict of death penalty, then why do politicians and a sitting Chief Minister come and speak in defence of a terrorist responsible for the attack on Parliament, a strategic symbol of the Indian people and State in our democratic set up? Why does he have to opine on the deterioration sure to happen in the atmosphere in the Valley? Are we not facing enough terror and separatist ideological warfare from within the Valley with the active support of Pakistan?

Why is the Indian political set up quiet over this unusual and unwarranted defence of a terrorist by a person sitting in a constitutional chair, whose utterings match perfectly the often anti-India rhetoric of Hurriyat?

Maqbool Bhat, a terrorist belonging to the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front, had killed CID inspector Amar Chand, and was found guilty of terror activities and given the death penalty by the secessions court in Srinagar. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, yet he continued to live for many years. In the name of political compulsions, then too the Kashmir Valley politicians tried to hoodwink the then Government with the same defence.

It would be interesting to note the similarities in this case and the wishy-washy Indian leadership which led to the killing of its diplomat. On February 3, 1984, Ravindra Hareshwar Mhatre, an Indian diplomat in the United Kingdom, was murdered by JKLF militants in Birmingham while fetching a birthday cake for his daughter. The militants had wanted JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat to be released from jail in Delhi. After this tragic killing, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided within hours to speed up the process of justice for Bhat by rejecting his clemency petition and hanging him in Tihar Jail on February 11, 1984.

But the silence in the Afzal Guru case perturbs the nation. Persons close to the separatists and sympathetic to the separatist cause now want clemency for him, on the lines once argued for Maqbool Bhat, that is, the larger cause of Kashmiris (read separatists).

This silence has to be read with another blunder of an announcement that points to the unreasonable amount of softness shown to the terrorists. Is it a larger design that the Centre cleared the name of terrorists and infiltrators from Pakistan for release from various jails of Jammu and Kashmir on March 23, 2010?

Among them is the ultra involved in one of the deadliest strikes that took place in the winter capital of the State. Ghulam Nabi alias Nikka, son of  Fazal Din, a resident of Putwal, Sialkote, in Pakistan, was involved in the MA Stadium serial blasts on Republic Day in 1995, in which the then Governor Gen K.V. Krishna Rao had a narrow escape; over a dozen persons were killed and scores injured. A number of IEDs had been planted under the stage from where Gen Rao was addressing the Republic Day parade; these went off during the function, though he had a miraculous escape.

Nikka was booked under Section 3/4 TADA Act, 2/3 Egress and Internal Movement Control Ordinance (E&IMCO) and 7/25 Arms Act. Presently lodged in Kot Bhalwal police station, Nikka was an under-trial and his case was sub-judice.