SAFE......are we??

Hey Everyone!
Been a long wait and this blog took some 6 months coming after the last one........I have missed this part of the life, the blogging and thinking of taking in a plunge again.....

This article I wrote for some assignment and was written before the 26/11 attack, came out pretty well so thought should post it here.....

Hope this wont bug you much, more and better and humour is in the line after this probably....rest assured

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INTERNAL SECURITY AND SOCIAL HARMONY ARE THE PREREQUISITES FOR A COUNTRY’S OVERALL AND FAST DEVELOPMENT

“Non violence is the foremost duty of an individual.”
Lord Mahavira

Imagine a scenario where you are one of the few survivors on a very big territory, on a place which used to be lively with sounds of children crying and chuckling, of parents shouting on their kids, of words of wisdom by the elders, and of chants of hymns and prayers in mornings and evenings and of buzzing activity all around. Be present in a hypothetical situation like Will Smith in the movie I Am Legend, what kind of feelings do you conjure? One of ultimate disgrace, of helplessness, of being dead rather than facing such a situation, well do not feel something is wrong with you, any normal human being will be responding exactly similarly. Why am I making you think of such a dreadful situation? Well believe me, we actually are heading towards one and the factors which make me think in such a depressing manner are the two major curses the Indian nation is facing today, terrorism and intra-nation social disharmony.
Terrorism has been a major problem ever since the partition of Hindustan in 1947 and for those who say that India is not facing any social hatred, kindly explain me what would you call the killings of Christians in Orissa and Karnataka (a massacre in words of the French President), the rage being portrayed in Jammu and Kashmir, the riots in Assam and the very long existing and now growing even more threatening problem of the Maoists and the Naxalites. What have the recent terror attacks in Jaipur, Bangaluru, Ahmedabad and Delhi contributed to our nation’s growth? Well any sane person will agree to the fact that whatever they have given is in negative, its only a loss of human and materialistic capital coupled with a loss in the feeling of security that one individual feels in being a part of a nation state. Similarly, the mass killing of Christians, riots in Kashmir and the actions of ever growing groups like the Naxals and the Maoists have led to a feeling of hatred, dread and fear from fellow human beings.
All these factors have affected our growth physically, as we can all see in terms of life and property loss and even more emotionally, if I can use that word, by killing the feeling of security, harmony, love and comradeship among the inmates of the country, which are quintessential for peaceful existence and hence planned overall growth of the nation. If one doesn’t feel safe and secure in his surroundings, he cannot contribute constructively to whatever he does because he can only think of being insecure and also no proper economic activity, like commutation, transportation and value addition can possibly take place. When person isn’t sure if he would be dead or alive in the next instant, how can he not be overprotective for himself and his family and
do something which may be against the law and hence it forms a vicious circle of hatred leading to hatred and that leading to the downfall of a nation as a whole. It is said that only a healthy mind can be innovative and what these attacks on fellow beings are doing is to demoralize people and are now becoming an epidemic, hindering the constructive growth of a person’s mind individually and the society’s soul as a whole.
Statistics reveal that almost 1000 people have died and many more injured in the terror attacks since Mumbai blasts in 1993 and the data for recent years are even scarier with at least 607 people dead in the past 8 years, as reported by the Defence and Security of India magazine. The editor of the magazine, Sonia Shukla writes that with the threat of terrorist strikes now a chronic condition in India, the demand has never been greater for a coherent institutional response across the state’s jurisdiction that empowers local first responders. To quote Ajay Sahni, the Director, Institute for Conflict Management, he says, “The bogey of intelligence failure masks the deeper infirmities of India’s counter terrorism apparatus. There is a complete absence of strategic vision, of the capacity to assess and prepare for challenges at all levels.” Given the manpower deficit in India with only 126 policemen per lakh population, whereas the major powers have a ratio of 250 -500 for the same number of people, and with only 3,500 professionals in the Intelligence Bureau for this country of 1.2 billion people, it can rightly be put that for all her great power pretensions, her rampaging multinationals and her seven to nine percent growth rates, India is a tremendously fragile state, deeply vulnerable to threats of subversion, terrorism and conventional warfare.
It is not only the cross border or now the more territorial terrorism with groups like Indian Mujahedeen coming up which form our cause of concern but also the inherent situation of communal tensions within the regions of our country. The land of Heaven, Jammu and Kashmir was cut off from the rest of the country for almost two months due to the land transfer deal to the Amarnath Yatra Shrine Board and the ensuing violence portrayed by the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti and the Separatists in Kashmir later. Scores of people died, many got injured and due to the cutoff, the economy of whole state went in a slumber. Similarly, the killings of Christians in the villages of Orissa and Karnataka, by the Bajrang Dal, under the pretext of killing of the Hindu leader, Swami Laksmananda, and conversion, which in all probabilities is wrong, wherein according to All India Christian Council, 4,400 Houses burnt, 50,000 people were rendered homeless, 59 People killed including at least 2 pastors, 10 Priests/Pastors/Nuns injured, 18,000 Men, women, children injured, 2 women gang-raped including a nun, 151 Churches destroyed and 13 Schools and colleges damaged, point to a morally week social system. The violence targeted Christians in 310 villages, with 4,104 homes torched. More than 18,000 were injured and 50,000 displaced and homes continued to burn in many villages. There have also been also been riots in the North eastern parts of the country, between the local residents, the Bodos and the illegal migrants from Bangladesh, regarding their rights towards the territory and supply of work, with as many as 23 villages torched, scores of people killed and thousands rendered homeless.
All these factors, not to mention the Naxals and the Maoists, indicate towards a highly fragile and week security system which is now being exposed completely and been found excruciatingly short of meeting the least requirement of safety of life and property of the habitants and citizens of the state.
We need to deal with this threat and now its high time that our efforts be agile and more directed towards curbing the problem rather than bereft with the problem and take our hands away from it, blaming the venality in the system as the cause for everything that happens. We need a whole set of concentrated efforts from politicians, in terms of policies, laws and incumbency and from the public, in terms of attention, awareness and fearlessness in dealing with the problem. An IIM-B professor, Trilochan Shastry, insists on removal of criminals from politics, Bhikhu Parekh, professor at University of Westminster and a Labour Member of the House of Lords, suggests lampooning erring politicians, and many more give other actions which will help our development in the long term, but what we need now is to deal with the threat of violence and that requires immediate steps. As Ajay Sahni suggests, we not only need more number of policing officials but also better technology, more concerted communication patterns and better detective services to be able to gather the actual amount of force and manpower we are fighting against today, because as of now our intelligence is unaware of whether it is fighting the IM or the ISI or some other new terror group and all our major proceeds have been on the basis of assumptions. The decisions by the government should be fair and free, like if one bans SIMI as a terrorist outfit, Bajrang Dal after its villainous acts in Orissa and Karnataka deserves much more.
We also need better centre state relation to deal with federal problems, imposing Governor’s rule in any state under crisis is not a solution to its woes, and local political parties must understand that. Also, people should now show the feeling of nationality rather than fighting on communal lines. The states should consider themselves as a part of federal structure and we should all stand united against this threat of terrorism and if the setting up of a Federal Police Base hits on the autonomy of states then the politicians and officials should be ready to compromise if it helps the nation throw out the evil of foreign terror on our soil, guaranteeing the freedom to roam about freely and to work in a healthy environment for our citizens.
A country’s major resource is the human resource, because of its ability to think, feel and innovate but that resource needs a peaceful environment and a surrounding of nature like harmony, a sense of being ultimately secured against any threat and only then, our country, which has an abundance of this resource can progress on the path to becoming the supreme power both in terms of economy as well as in terms of morality.