In the wake of the new terror attacks which split City of Mumbai through the middle, we need to look at ourselves very hard. Is this the same Country took the world by storm over the last few years with the immense growth story? Much is being talked about the Mumbai spirit, how India can fight this menace, resignations of some politicians and so on and so forth. But what is the real reason these attackers are successful time and again. There have been regular such incidents over the last few years that we can no longer choose to ignore. We need to have a critical examination as to why so many of them are successful time and again.

Non performing government

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world (even during recession) There is a huge potential in the future years to be economically successful. We have been complaining about infrastructure right through. We also lack a strong homeland security. Internal security is huge responsibility which the government has been ignoring continuously. As public we have shown resilience which has resulted in inaction on the part of the government. So it is necessary to create a public outrage against the government. We need to show the government that lives are valuable and should be preserved. There would always be one off such incidents. But the regularity with which it is happening is a huge burden on India’s future. The future of the country would result in a headless crash if there are no quick steps taken to tackle this menace. Investors need security ahead of stability. Our neighbors will have to realize that sovereignty has an in built responsibility of keeping your citizens and the outside world safe. Maybe the answer to get tough with the neighbors and resort to strikes on the terror camps if necessary. We need to move from inaction to “in action”

Lack of public outrage

We are resilient. Our spirits are high. Mumbai spirit…….. All these are good to hear, but we need not be tested as to how far we can go with this. During the Mumbai blasts in 1993, I was feeling proud of the Mumbai spirit, how the stock exchange was back in 2 days and the way we moved forward. 15 years later I hear the same thing. All these seem to be acting to our detriment. There should be an immediate non political nationwide protest over the treatment of this menace. To some extent let us all blame ourselves for not having given enough back to society. Lets take our lives more seriously. Our population maybe more than one billion but we need to consider each one of those lives as precious. Lets all raise our voices and force it to be heard

Pseudo secularism

Our definition of secularism is to give equal importance to all religions. I would rather define it as “giving no importance to religion. Unlike the other successful democratic countries we seem to give so much importance to religion that what is needed. There should be a bar on religion being used in politics as such. No political group should be allowed to use religion in any manner to further of their interests. this Such political parties need to banned right away. To think about it religion is something personal and maybe extends to communities but should not be able to get to society. Leave it to the religious groups to figure out religion. This is the way the grave issues of internal security melt away by striking the religion cord.

When I get to office every day there is little impact of these attacks as people get absorbed in their day to day chores than step up to act on it. Let this be a forum to get together and force ourselves to be heard. India’s label as a preferred investment destination could get seriously hampered with these terror attacks. Let us remember that security and safety are more important factors for investment that potential. Foreigners need to feel safe in the country where they are pouring in millions of dollars. Here the Mumbai spirit does not help. It is not just about our resilience. In this world it is just that their society and state has given them and they have got used to a level of security which is far better than what we have. It is like we being asked to go to some central African countries. Of course we would have security issues. Like wise we need to step up our security requirements and feel the need for higher level of homeland security.

There was a time when India was considered a spiritual country. India was also an underdeveloped nation .We need to understand that we have moved on from that and our security needs should catch up to that sooner rather than later else we lose that all the development that has happened and get back to the days of “snake charmers”.

I am reminded of the following poem written by Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow

 domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the

 dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.