'Religious fundamentalism cannot be tackled with education, employment'

Gurgaon: Religious fundamentalism is a “potent incubator” for terrorism in India which cannot be countered with higher education or “cent-percent employment” and the country will have to face this challenge in the foreseeable future, Home Secretary R K Singh said today. Delivering his key-note speech on the topic of ’enhancing the effectiveness of national crisis management plan’ at a counter-terror seminar here, Singh said faith and belief is something which education, logic or liberalism has “not been able to shake.” [caption id=“attachment_756583” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  RK Singh[/caption] “This (religious fundamentalism) is not going to go away in a hurry. This is not going to go away when you have more literacy, when you have better educated population, when you have highly educated population. This is not going to go away when you have cent percent employment. That is a conclusion we have come to,” he said. The top bureaucrat, who handles crucial assignments in the internal security domain of India, said investigators involved in solving terror cases in the country will have to seek answers on this subject as they proceed with their task. The first incubator of terrorism are reasons that lead to insurgency and militancy in India, he said. “The second incubator which gives rise to terrorism is religious fundamentalism. Now that is a very potent incubator and that is something that is going to be with us for sometime. “Initially, when I started, I thought religions mellow over time…that was my understanding that when they start off the religious fundamentalists (are) non-compromising but over time they become mellower and create latitude amongst practitioners to recognise that there can be other ways to reach God and that he can get education towards greater understanding of other groups,” Singh said. PTI