Mumbai Terror: How to differentiate 9/11 and 26/11

True that the idea was to creat horror, sense of insecurity, derail the Indo-Pak peace process, destabilize the economic growth and properity. True that India is quite vulnerable to these sorts of actions due to its fragments (though hailed as a superb mosaic of differences and diversity) in terms of sick politics.

Obviously, many felt so disturbed by this attack that, in the fits of fury, they came up with a wise idea of retaliating in the same manner as the US did in response to the 9/11. They would never suggest that if they had learnt of the outcome of US misdeeds. Couple of observations are:

• US ‘was’ a much stronger economy than India, and could afford this misadventure despite the fact that the world community did not approve.
• US was not toying with a nuclear power but with very week countries like Afghanistan or for that matter Iraq; whereas India is confronting with a nuclear neighbour that has also been characterised as a ‘failed state’.
• US, despite so much strength, has not won that war though it killed many people; think of the final outcome of confronting with a nuclear state.
• US is far more unsafe after the declaration of ‘war on terror’ meaning that if an enemy is not defined (terror is abstract in its strict sense of the word), victory is simply impossible.

With the changes in the global system, it is becoming clearer that even though there is lot more discussion on collective efforts to contain terrorism, it is still a very individual problem; and unless the heat spreads to other countries, collective efforts at best might be only a good will gesture.

What India needs to do is :

• Stop blaming Pakistant (even if it continues actively supporting elements agains India). Rather, India should strengthen its intellegence and ability to prevent / tackle these kinds of unfortunate events in future.
• True, that willy-nilly, Islam is somehow in the centre of terrorism, it should ‘not’ mean that all muslims share the same thoughts and sentiments. This could very well be a reason why global terrorism does not have a face of Indian muslim (hoping my information is correct).
• The biggest culprit is Indian politics where religion has been given a free hand to dominate innocent minds.
• Terrorism stems from hopelessness and it can be caused by anything – be it religion, injustice or inappropriate treatment of mankind. India needs to address this hopelessness poping up in many segments in the society.
• As I suggested in one of my previous posts below, we need to construct a system in which decision/law makers would need to present valid credentials before they are allowed to sit in the parliament. There is an urgent need to transform Indian democracy and bureaucracy.

India, a country known for its values of nonvoilence, peaceful coexistence, has  never demonstated any quest to dominate the world, and so it does not deserve such terror attacks. The precision that we all have acquired in science and technology should also teach us not to follow a path of MAD i.e. mutually assured destruction.