The two most important defining events of the 21st century are the two terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the strikes in Mumbai, Union Minister of State for External Affair MJ Akbar said on Friday, while speaking at the inaugural session of the India Ideas Conclave which got underway in Goa on Friday.
“The 21st century has two birthdays. Both of them not very auspicious. One is 9/11 and the other is the terrorist attack on Mumbai. These were the starting points, which began to define the 21st century, because the 21st century is really going to be the century, not of question, but a century of answers,” Akbar said in his address at the conclave which is being attended by top leaders from India as well as the world.
“Terrorism is just not a law and order problem. terrorism is not a problem of somebody introducing violence, lots of elements of violence have been introduced. There are two things that make terrorism or faith-based terrorism into an existential challenge. And I used the word advisably, existential challenge. One, because terrorism challenges the whole concept of the nation state. It doesn’t believe in the nation state,” Akbar said.
The Union Minister also said that the nation state has the ability to take on terrorism.
“The real ideological answer to terrorism is nationalism. And this is true everywhere. It is only the forces and power of nationalism which will recognise the danger and push and drive and repel these elements away,” he said.
Akbar also said that terrorism strikes at the root cause of pluralism, which is a fundamental aspect of the Indian philosophy of ‘Sarva Dharma Samabhav’.
“The second danger of terrorism is that it threatens, the most important element of modernity. The most important element, not only of modernity, but of any philosophy going back to the beginning of humanity and that is the co-existence of all human beings as equals,” Akbar said.