Excerpt: 'Madam Prime Minister', New Novel By Seema Goswami

Gaurav Agnihotri had conducted his own investigation into the terrorist attack at Kautilya Mall from his vantage point in his TV studio and, in less than an hour, had come to the conclusion that it had been masterminded by the ISI. There was no way some rag-tag militant outfit had planned and executed this operation. The Kashmiri boys fronting it had been trained by those shadowy figures that ran the Pakistani military operation in Rawalpindi.

So, how should India respond? There was no question in Gaurav's mind. The only way out was full-on war with Pakistan.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' he thundered, his bloodshot eyes conveying his anger to the millions watching. 'This is the time to show the world that India is no longer a soft state. That we do not negotiate with terrorists. We destroy them. This is the time for the Prime Minister to show some spine. But does Asha Devi have it in her to do that? Can she put the interests of the nation above the life of her own sister-in-law?'

One of the panelists felt impelled to intervene at this point. 'Gaurav, it is not as simple as that. And it is not just Radhika Singh's life that is at stake. There are as many as 250-odd people held hostage inside the mall, most of them women. I don't think the Prime Minister has any option but to try and resolve the situation peacefully.'

'Peacefully?' exploded Gaurav, 'Peacefully? Are you serious? How on earth can you even suggest that? The government needs to respond with the full force at its command. We need to get our commandos to storm the mall and get the hostages out. Sure, there will be some collateral damage but that is a price worth paying.'

The former R&AW officer who was on the panel had been shaking his head all through Gaurav's little outburst. 'What you call "collateral damage" is the murder of Indian citizens. And let me tell you, if the NSG or the army engages in a gunfight within that confined space, you will probably end up with 50 per cent of the hostages dead or injured. That is more than 100 people. No force in the world will accept those kinds of odds.

And no government in the world will take a risk like that, no matter how "soft" or "hard" it is.'

'See, that is the problem,' sneered Gaurav. 'We are too frightened to strike back. If it had been Israel, they would have stormed the mall, killed the hostages and rescued the terrorists by now.'

The R&AW man smiled. 'You are right about that. They would have killed the hostages all right. Though I am not sure they would have "rescued" the terrorists.'

Gaurav flushed bright red. In his keenness to make a point, he had misspoken. But surely it was clear that he meant 'kill the terrorists and rescue the hostages'. There was no need for this asshole to draw attention to his mistake in that snide manner. Making a mental note to tell the guest coordinator never to book him again, Gaurav turned to the rest of his panel to take the discussion forward.

Today was not his day though. Not one person on his handpicked panel would go along with Gaurav's thesis that the only way to respond to the hostage crisis was by escalating the situation to full-on war. Everyone else agreed that the government needed to tread softly, and deal with this situation as discreetly as possible. Long-term plans to annihilate Pakistan could wait.

Manisha Patel had been at lunch when the hostage crisis began. She was meeting an old college friend who was visiting from the States for a spot of sushi at Megu, the Japanese restaurant at the Leela. But the moment news of the attack flashed on her Twitter feed, she abandoned both her friend and an excellent nigiri platter to hotfoot it to Kautilya Mall.

She got there in ten minutes; so she had to wait another five for the OB van to arrive. But half an hour into the hostage crisis, Manisha was up and broadcasting from a few hundred metres away from the mall, having managed once again to be the first on the scene.

By the time the other camera crews got there, the secure perimeter around the mall had been widened, forcing Manisha to move further down the road. The security forces would not allow the media to get any closer. And all the news channels had been instructed to defer telecast by a few minutes so that the movements of the commandos outside the mall were not revealed to the terrorists in real time. Manisha had no problem with this. In fact, she was glad that some lessons had been learnt from the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 when news crews had been allowed to broadcast live from right outside the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels, and Chabad House in Colaba. As a result, the terrorists who had been holed up at these locations and were in constant touch with their handlers in Pakistan had got instant information about every move the commando teams were making.

This hadn't just hampered the rescue efforts but had also resulted in heavier casualties for the security forces. The media had been made the villain of the piece then but, thought Manisha, at least part of the blame lay with the authorities who hadn't bothered to issue guidelines that the TV crews and press reporters could follow.

There had been much soul-searching after that terrorist attack, and ever since then the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had come down heavily on those channels that flouted guidelines and allowed live telecast of such attacks. After a couple of channels had their licenses suspended, the rest had hastily fallen in line. So now, there was a modicum of discipline and a measure of control on how such episodes were covered.

The studio cut back to Manisha even as she was trying to get some information from a source in the NSG on her phone. Hastily hanging up, she composed herself and began her report.

Not that she had anything new to say. She had already filed one dispatch ten minutes ago giving the information she had gleaned from her sources in IB and the NIA that the government was all set to make a deal with the terrorists. That Karan Pratap had been part of the CCS meeting that had been addressed by the IB, R&AW and NIA chiefs. That Asha had got in touch with the J&K government to see how the transfer of the terrorists in custody could be expedited to ensure the release of the hostages.

Nothing had changed in the ten minutes since her last telecast. Nor had there been any new developments. And yet the beast of 24/7 television wanted some fresh meat from her.

Scrambling to come up with something new, Manisha found herself falling back on the reporter's worst enemy and best friend: speculation.

'What is the latest development, Manisha? What can you tell us about what is happening behind you?' asked the anchor's voice in her ear.

Nodding furiously, Manisha began, 'Well, the latest is that the Pratap Singh family has closed ranks. They have decided to go ahead and concede all the demands of the terrorists so that they can secure the safety of Radhika Singh.' Manisha paused for a beat before continuing. 'And of the other hostages, of course.' The pause should be enough to signal her skepticism that Asha Devi was motivated by anything other than family ties.

'But I am told that there is some disquiet among the security forces about the government's decision to release the twelve men who have been named by the terrorists. These are not minor militants; they are terrorist masterminds. Wasim Khursheed, for instance, is in prison for an operation that resulted in the death of twelve army men. Wajahat Drabu is responsible for blowing up a police station that resulted in the deaths of twenty policemen . . .'

The anchor interrupted at this point, sounding impatient at having to sit through a laundry list of terrorist atrocities. 'Yes, yes, these are terrible people. But really, what choice does the government have? You can't allow these terrorists to butcher 200 women. Do you know how the negotiations are proceeding on that score?'

How the fuck would I know that, Manisha fumed to herself. I have been stuck here for the last half an hour, relying on a dodgy phone connection to get whatever information I can. How the fuck would I know that?

But of course, she said nothing of the sort. Adopting a suitably solemn vein, she began, 'I think the home minister and the R&AW chief are heading the negotiations. But from what I have been able to gather, there should be some resolution soon . . .'

'Sorry to interrupt, Manisha, but there is some breaking news,' the anchor hyperventilated into her ear. 'We have just been told that the Jihad-e-Azaadi has released a statement taking responsibility for this terror strike.'

Well, that made sense, thought Manisha. The Jihad-eAzaadi was the latest terrorist outfit to crop up in Kashmir. In a matter of months since its inception, the JEA had earned its place in the alphabet soup that made up militancy in Kashmir. And over the last couple of years the JEA had been conducting militant strikes, sponsored first by the Lashkar-e-Tayyaiba and then by Jaish-e-Mohammad. Six months ago, however, the JEA had openly aligned itself with ISIS, projecting itself as the sub-continental arm of that terrorist network.

Until today, however, the JEA had dealt in small-potatoes kind of operations: a small IED blast on a highway; an ambush on an army truck as it moved through difficult terrain; an assassination of a senior police officer.

The Kautilya attack was in a different league, though. Precise and perfectly coordinated, it was clearly being conducted by operatives who had been trained for the job by men who had military experience. And Manisha had no doubt that this training would have been imparted by Pakistani military officers who ran the terrorist camps across the Line of Control in Kashmir.

The ISIS flag was a red herring. It was the ISI, the dreaded Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan, which was behind this operation. Of this, she had no doubt.

This was not good news for the hostages or for the commandos hoping to rescue them. The men holding Radhika Singh and 200-odd women hostage were not some young boys from the Valley, bent on making a statement. They were military-trained and battle-ready. And they would not go down without a fight.

Maybe it was best that Asha Devi's government arrived at some sort of compromise with them.

Published with permission of Penguin Random House from 'Madam Prime Minister' by Seema Goswami. Order your copy here.

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