Kalam: ‘Safe nation’

New Delhi, Aug. 14: As the capital was shrouded in a thick security blanket following threats of terror attacks, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam gave a speech focusing on the need for a comprehensive plan to combat terrorism through a national campaign.

In his address to the nation on the eve of Independence Day, the President talked at length about the growing incidents of “mindless violence”.

Besides a national campaign to combat terrorism, other features of the President’s speech were:

• A call to Parliament to adopt a resolution to transform India into a “safe and economically developed” nation by 2020.

• Bills on citizen security and energy independence.

• Enhancement of foodgrain output.

• Achieving 100 per cent literacy and employable skills among youth leading to a knowledge society by 2020.

• Adopting special measures to ensure a comprehensive, integrated system of security which has four major components: territorial security, internal security, energy security and economic security.

While the President touched on issues relating healthcare, education, rural development and technical education, the thrust of his speech was on terrorism and its counter. The time, he said, has come to “synergise” multiple agencies to deal with terrorism.

“We need to evolve a National Campaign to Eradicate Terrorism (NCET) in our nation with mission-oriented integrated management structure and people’s participation. It has been recognised that terrorism does not take place without any planning. This may be originating from a master plan with global umbilical connectivity extending to homes or hotels and guest houses,” the President said.

The campaign, said the President, would facilitate working together of the intelligence and security machinery both at the state and the central level to achieve the desired objectives.

The NCET will be an “alert and dynamic movement” which would prevent hotels and homes being used as a shelter by terrorists and extremists.