'Breaking news syndrome hinders fight against terrorism'

Corporatization, politicization and trivializationof the Indian electronic media is hindering the fight against terrorism inIndia says Lt. General (Retd) S.S. Mehta.

Mehta was delivering the inaugural address at a nationalseminar on "Terrorism in South Asia: Issues and Challenges",organised by the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University,Friday.

Mehta said that the on-going trend in the media forproducing a "breaking news" by sensationalizing events often resultsin the "arrests of innocent people", which does not help in thelarger fight against terror elements.

South Asia today is a critical zone in the world in thebattle against terrorism, said Gen. Mehta, who is also the former deputy chiefof Army staff.

He said that certain sections in the West have "wronglypromoted" the theory of "Clash of Civilizations" forrationalizing their own theory regarding the proliferation of terrorism.

An impartial understanding of the real historical backgroundof present conflicts in the world would suggest that the East represents the"confluence of civilizations", said Gen. Mehta.

He said that contrary to what the West has projected, thedominant theme among the people of South Asia was "empathy" and that"your pain is my pain".

Mehta said that if India wished to achieve a "dominantstatus as a world power", it would have to "emerge as a key player incontrolling the cyber space".

He pointed out that presently smaller Asian countries like"Indonesia and Sri Lanka were setting a benchmarks in the sphere ofcontrolling cyber space".

India cannot afford to not take cognizance of this trend, headded.

Delivering the keynote address at the seminar, Air Commodore(Retd) Jasjit Singh said: "Political exploitation, alienation of thecommon man and the increasing divide between the privileged and underprivilegedsections of society was a major factor behind the proliferation of domesticterrorism in India."

"Ninety percent domestic terrorists were in the agegroup between 15-24 years," he said.

Jasjit Singh said that if the battle against the terrorismhas to be won, then the "alienation of these segments will have to beaddressed and resolved by channelising their energies in a positivedirection".

The segments will have to be prevented from getting trappedby those anti-national forces who always would try to exploit the frustrationin the youth, he said.

"Islam is a religion of peace but some forces inPakistan had deliberately distorted the concept of Jihad and were instrumentalin fanning the flames of violence," he said.

He said that the trend began after the defeat of Pakistan inthe Bangladesh War and was "fully exploited by the late General ZiaulHaq".

He said that the Aligarh Muslim University was a veryprestigious national institution of higher learning and "could serve as abeacon of inspiration for leading the younger generation of the country".

Among those who addressed the two-day seminar Friday wasCommodore (Retd) C. Uday Bhaskar.

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