What lies ahead for airport security this year

The TSA's goal is to lift the restrictions on carrying liquids, aerosols, and gels aboard aircraft. Toward that end, the TSA has been rolling out new luggage screening machines that can tell the difference between a harmless drink and a deadly explosive. Already, about 500 of these AT X-ray machines have been installed. That number should be doubled by year-end.

By fall 2009, the TSA hopes to get rid of its rule that you must carry all of your liquids in a single clear bag. For a brief period, you'll probably still have to place all of your liquids in a plastic bin separate from your laptop and carry-on bag when passing through airport screening machines.

By next winter, the TSA hopes to lift its size restrictions on liquids, which now limit the carry-on size to 3.4 liquid ounces. The timetable depends on how quickly software updates can be installed on all of the machines and how quickly TSA agents can be trained to use the machines correctly. Officials with the British counterpart to the TSA, the transport ministry, have made a similar pledge.

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Nurturing communalism

Criminals have public support and community leaders are ready to espouse their cause. That is why many a politician thinks that one Muslim vote is worth double a Hindu vote

Home Minister P Chidambaram was right when he told the Press on April 2 that terrorism cannot be fought until communalism persists. The fact is that no Government in New Delhi since Independence has been able to establish deterrence against violence without which terrorist attacks cannot be prevented. To illustrate, the United States has not experienced any incident since 9/11 whereas we in India have suffered one attack after another.

To create deterrence one needs ruthless enforcement of laws and there are plenty of laws available, starting with the Indian Penal Code. So that a terrorist and more especially his allies, who aid and abet him, know how expensive in blood and life their mischief would be. They have to be treated as enemies of the state and not as ordinary criminals against society.

The first pre-condition of such a policy would be for the Government to practise scrupulous impartiality with regard to all trouble-makers. Unfortunately, no Government has been impartial towards the citizens. Every one of them has been partial to Muslims drawing inspiration from the Constitution, especially Articles 25 to 30. The Sachar Committee Report and its implementation is the latest example of this blatant partiality.

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