Get our house in order first!

It was a cold breezy wet night, the now 'famous' last Wednesday. I was thoroughly drenched, on my way back, from our drama rehearsal. Being extremely tired, I hit the sack thinking probably nothing more than the terrible weather outside and the next day's work. Probably many Indians that night were doing the same ; thinking about similar mundane things. The next day morning I woke up to the screaming headlines of terror attack, which was all over the print, news media, literally everywhere. Like probably any other Indian that day I was shocked to hear the news, angry and probably at the same sad ,thinking about the fate of the so many lives which still hung in balance. All the conversations I had with everyone that I met centered on the Mumbai terror attacks. It is a week since those incidents unfolded but even now terror attacks still hold center stage in any conversations. This is not the norm. We, the people of this country are known to have short term memory. 'Mumbai terror attacks' was not the first one this country has seen but probably the most ugliest one. We have had terror attacks going on from many years now .However, after every terror attack we had continued to move on with over lives after at best, a brief period of terror talk. This now is famously termed as 'resilience'. This time the country has awoken to terror attacks in a fashion never before. However, this has raised a few concerns as well.

A week after the blast, 'anger' has probably replaced the initial feeling of shock and grief; a very natural emotion. But the problem with anger is that it tends to be irrational most of the times. Also, in most of the cases anger is directed against somebody or someone and not against oneself. In this case it seems to be against a certain country and religion. Although, such reasoning, albeit not unjustified, is dangerous. There is a danger that hatred will make us go completely blind. As they say "Eye for an eye and the whole world went blind", we will probably end up worse off than better if we continue to tread this path. In the past week blog posts and forwards have cropped up enthusing a path ultimately leading to a war with our neighbor. The basic premise of that argument is bombing Pakistan would somehow bring an end to all the terror attacks in India. Well, assuming India actually do get to invade Pakistan( it is quite improbable that so-called superpowers will allow that) and destroy all the terror camps, being labeled as the "root cause of terrorist activities" in India, will the problem go away? America after 9/11 treaded the same path bombing everywhere but where they able to stop terrorism -NO. They have failed miserably and have set a perfect example to us about what not to do. After 9/11 , a large number of Americans also bayed for blood , they got it, but did it help?

I agree that people who have done wrong must be held accountable for their deeds and a sincere and concrete effort must be done to stop terrorism. But, by targeting a nation or religion we will end up creating more terrorists than stopping them. Well, the next logical question that will be asked is what we should do then. If we are not supposed to bomb our neighbors who are clearly harboring terrorists how can we solve the problem? First and foremost we need to strengthen our border. Across the border intrusions must stop. Then, we will need to focus on how we can stop the terrorist activities in our country .As a wise man once said , "when we point a finger at someone else four are pointing back to us" .Before we think of how to sort the mess outside we need to clean up our country. I believe terrorism can only be solved through a "carrot and stick" strategy. (I am not contradicting myself..wait..let me continue).When I use the term 'Stick' I am not referring to all-out attack.(in essence a war). Calling ourselves as ' humans', a superior animal being, we should be able to think of better ways to solve this problem rather than indiscriminately killing each other. We will have to stifle the terrorism with constant pressure.

A lot of fellow citizens have now started leaning towards the so called right wing .They harbor a belief that a Hindu state is panacea to all the ills. But, what we need is in fact a secular state in truest sense. A state, where religion is nothing more than private practice, a place where religion has no bearing on everyday life. Terrorism has not begun without any reason although the very route the terrorist took is deplorable. Don't get me wrong there is absolutely no justification to their heinous crimes but there may be some reasoning behind them turning one. We will not solve the problem of terrorism completely until we figure out how another human being is turning into one.

To summarize, if we carry the belief that terrorism can be solved by a more competent government, better equipped defense and tit for tat strategy we will be in for a long rough ride. The kind, which is going on in several countries. But, if we can create a atmosphere by which there will not be a single terrorist from our soil then half the problem would be solved. Strengthening the borders to take care of intrusions would also from a important part of such a strategy .I know most of my fellow countrymen would not be satisfied with such an approach. A blood of a few innocent neighbors shall only give them a sense of satisfaction. We should threaten, flex our muscles with our neighbor but before all that we should first get our house in order.