So much confused, tedious nonsense has been written of late by so many so-called experts on terrorism that the very sight of an article on terrorism terrifies me. So I consider it auspicious that the first article I happened to read in the year 2002 was by the man I believe to be the only Indian who really is an expert on fighting terrorism. K.P.S. Gill. Incidentally, he sits unemployed and idle in Delhi while the Government puts amateurs and clowns in charge of Kashmir and then, because nothing works, vents its frustration by fulminating and fretting over the Pakistani hand. Gill begins his article in The Pioneer by spelling out exactly why all our attempts to fight terrorism are doomed to fail.

"India's justice system," he writes "has become the strongest and most favoured ally and alibi of the terrorists operating on Indian soil and of their sponsors across borders. Thus, a spokesman of the Pakistan Embassy recently stated, 'When (you) India had Masood Azhar in your jails, why didn't you do anything then? India says it has been fighting terrorism for 20 years, why don't they take an alleged terrorist to trial ever? Give me the name of one alleged criminal who you have tried.' "

The taunting questions of the unnamed Pakistani official explain why terrorists felt encouraged to try and kill off virtually our entire political class on December 13. Puzzlingly, our politicians still refuse to admit that until our justice system starts functioning halfway properly criminals and terrorists will continue to treat India's so-called fight against terrorism with disdain. When murderers and rapists can remain "under trial" for 20 years, why should it be different for terrorists? Yet, you almost never hear our political leaders tell us how and when they plan to improve the justice system.

It would have been interesting to hear the prime minister's views on the subject, so on New Year's Day I scanned through every turgid line of A.B. Vajpayee's year-end musings and found not one sentence about the justice system. There were dark hints of war, the usual fulminations against Pakistan, much talk of religious extremism and barbarism but not one itsy-bitsy word about India's terrifyingly hopeless justice system. Why is it so hard for our political leaders to admit that the fault lies as much within our borders as without? Why does our minister for law and justice, the dazzlingly articulate Arun Jaitley, waste so much time explaining the virtues of POTO and so little explaining why his efforts to speed up Indian justice show no significant results? Since December 13 our political leaders have taken to holding forth on civilised societies and the manner in which "civilised" countries should behave. The implication is clear, even to the politically uninformed, that India is civilised and Pakistan barbaric. It apparently escapes their notice that a crucial feature of "civilised" societies is an effective justice system and judged by that criterion India would not count as civilised.

An equally crucial feature is an effective police force, and here we come to another area in which our political leaders pretend that redress and reform are not worth talking about at a time when we face the larger crisis of "Pakistan-sponsored terrorism". Police commissions have recommended urgent, important changes for years but their reports lie buried in the darkest recesses of the Home Ministry and the home minister appears not to consider it necessary to consult senior police officers on what can be done to improve policing. He is fortunate to have one of our finest police officers, Kiran Bedi, in charge of police training and could learn a great deal about what needs to be done if he would spend some time chatting to her. She is bursting with ideas that would be extremely useful to L.K. Advani but he has so far shown no interest in talking to police officers. He appears to prefer cocooning himself in the embrace of his bureaucrats who do not want any changes because of the danger that their own powers may be curtailed.

For a while after December 13 it had seemed as if our political class had been jolted into recognising the urgency of bringing about changes that would really help us win the fight against terrorism. Now, increasingly, it is beginning to seem as if nobody is serious about doing the things that would make a real difference. They hide their inaction, their complete incomprehension of the urgency of the changes needed, behind the sound of sabre-rattling and all the talk of "war". India is being misled into believing that the solution to all our problems is a quick, sharp strike against Pakistan.

What nobody admits is that even if we managed to extradite or extricate the 30-odd terrorists we claim currently reside in Pakistan, what difference would it make if it's going to take 20 years to bring them to justice? Gill is right when he says that our justice system is the best ally of terrorism, but nobody in the Vajpayee Government seems to be listening.