The US has started 2020 in a grand manner by eliminating the most powerful Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani, an Iranian Major General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, in an American airstrike on Friday.
The repercussions have gone far beyond Iran and are being felt even in New Delhi.
In the statement that followed the elimination of Soleimani, US President Donald Trump said, “Soleimani made the death of innocent people his sick passion, contributing to terrorist plots as far away as New Delhi and London.”
Though Trump did not give any specifics of the terror attack in New Delhi, it is amply clear that he was referring to the 2012 incident in New Delhi wherein the car of the wife of the Israeli defence attache in New Delhi was bombed. It is pertinent to mention here that Israel had blamed Tehran for the car bombing incident. In fact, the attack was seen as a retaliation for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan that was carried out by Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel. The Delhi Police too has connected the attack with similar terror acts on Israeli diplomats in Tbilisi, Georgia and Bangkok, Thailand that were carried out in retaliation to the killing of the Iranian nuclear scientist.
An Indian journalist, Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi was arrested for carrying out reconnaissance for the Quds Force, Iran’s external intelligence agency headed by Soleimani. It is strange how an attempted assassination of the Israeli guests in India with clear links to the slain Iranian Major General went unpunished as it was brushed under the carpet by the government of the day.
Above all, the terror attack exposes the clear intelligence failure right under the nose of the UPA government and the then National Security Advisor (NSA), Shivshankar Menon. The car bombing incident of 2012 took place a time when India was going through her worst phase as far as national security is concerned. The period between 2010 and 2014 witnessed dozens of terror attacks, some of them like the Jnaneshwari Express derailment resulting in massive casualties, as the entire security apparatus seemed ineffective and every single intelligence failure revealed how the political leadership neither had the will, nor the capability of tackling frequent terror strikes across the country.
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The 2012 bombing followed by political and diplomatic inaction also exposes the diplomatic weakness of the UPA government. The attack carried out by the Quds Force was not just an act of retaliation on the Israeli diplomats, rather it was an affront to India’s sovereignty. The Congress somehow found it fit not drag out Iran for its misadventure. The incident was brushed under the carpet instead. The Congress meekly obliged even as a foreign power clearly violated India’s territorial sovereignty by attempting the assassination of foreign guests on India’s soil.
It must also be borne in mind the kind of adverse effect that diplomatic and political inaction at that time could have had on the Indo-Israel relations. The UPA government had disregarded the security and status of the Israeli diplomats. The security of diplomats has to be a top priority, however, there was not only a security lapse but also a complete failure to take on those who bombed the car of Israeli defence attache’s wife. Such an assassination attempt on India’s foreign guests warranted a strong reaction on India’s part however the UPA government’s reaction was rather subdued. Israel is one of the leading, strategic partners of India not only in the field of defence but across a range of areas such as water management.
The Congress, however, could never look beyond vote bank politics and was shy of forging strong ties with Israel, which is actually a natural ally for India. This is also the reason why Indo-Israel relations could never really take off and realise their true potential as long as Congress remained in power.
Trump’s reference to the 2012 car bombing incident has thus exposed the incompetence/ unwillingness of the Congress-led UPA government when it comes to protecting India’s sovereignty. It has brought into the spotlight the kind of impunity that terror elements enjoyed during the Congress reign.