NEW DELHI, Dec 30:
Controversy over setting up of an anti-terror hub, Ajmal Kasab’s hanging and a change of guard were some highlights of 2012 in Home Ministry, whose mandarins were kept busy by strong public protests over the gangrape and death of a 23-year-old student at the fag end of the year.
There was relative calm in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast, barring Assam, during the year but violence perpetrated by Maoists in central and eastern states continued to haunt the security establishment which, despite deployment of about 80,000 paramilitary personnel, have not been successful in containing one of the bloodiest underground movements in the country.
After President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab’s mercy petition, the government in a highly secret operation hanged the LeT terrorist, who carried out the Mumbai terror attacks.
However, despite India’s regular prodding, Pakistan is yet to bring the perpetrators of 26/11 living in that country to justice and its Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who visited New Delhi this month, only tried to put blame on India by saying its security agencies have failed to prevent the 2008 terror strike.
P Chidambaram, whose three-year tenure saw a complete overhaul of the country’s security establishment, was shifted to the other wing of the North Block as Finance Minister on August 1 and Sushilkumar Shinde replaced him.
During his tenure, Chidambaram tried to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre but faced strong opposition from chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), J Jayalalithaa (Tamil Nadu), Narendra Modi (Gujarat) and Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), who feared such a body would interfere with the states’ affairs and hurt the country’s federal structure.
With his departure, the priority of the Home Ministry
seems to have changed and the NCTC put on back-burner, though Shinde insists he would talk to those who opposed NCTC.
Protests over the Delhi gangrape forced the government to constitute a panel of jurists to suggest amendments in law to provide for quicker trial and stringent punishment in “aggravated sexual assault” cases amid demands for hanging.
The Home Ministry also constituted a commission of inquiry to review responses to the December 16 incident and suggest measures to improve the safety and security of women in the capital.
After nearly two years, government held a meeting of all political parties of Andhra Pradesh on December 28 to discuss the Telangana issue after which Shinde announced that a decision on the separate state demand would be taken within a month.
Naxal violence continued unabated in nine states—Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh—despite two-pronged strategy of development and police action.
The year saw kidnapping of a district collector in Chhattisgarh and killing of 287 civilians and 113 security force personnel till November 30. The violence also left 65 CPI Maoists dead this year.
After five years, the Home Ministry gave its security clearance to the Pakistan cricket team to visit India beginning December 25 for a three-ODI and two-Twenty20 match series.
During Malik’s visit, the new India-Pakistan visa agreement was operationalised replacing a 38-year-old pact. The new agreement would facilitate multiple-entry and reporting-free visas for businessmen, allowing them to visit five cities instead of three as per the older system.
The visa agreement would exempt police verification for businessmen with an annual income above Pakistani Rs 5 million or annual turnover above Pakistani Rs 30 million or equivalent in Indian currency travelling on business visa.
Under the new regime, visa on arrival to citizens over 65 years will start in four weeks from January 15. The visa will be for 45 days with single entry at Attari-Wagah checkpost.
Jammu and Kashmir remained by and large peaceful during the year and the state saw unprecedented number of tourists, giving major boost to the tourism industry.
In May, the Centre’s interlocutors submitted their report which ruled out a return to the pre-1953 position and recommended setting up a Constitutional Committee to review all Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India extended to Jammu and Kashmir and upheld Article 370.
The report of interlocutors Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari underlined that “the clock cannot be set back” but felt that the ‘erosion’ of Article 370 over decades needed to be “re-appraised” to give it more powers.
Assam saw bloody clashes between indigenous Bodo tribals and immigrant Muslims since July which resulted in the killing of more than 100 people and rendered nearly five lakh people homeless. (PTI)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel