The attached article analyzes the soft underbelly of India's security (actually insecurity). Rajan and others may find this analysis from the BBC informative ... though nothing may be new. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7760460.stm
BBC news' phraseology of "amateurish, sluggish and feeble" reflects the manpower, technology, skills and modus operandi. This goes well with Rajan's description of "stuttering, doddering, apologetic oaf" regarding politicians of all major Indian political parties. There are Indian politicians, especially those calling themselves 'nationalistic' who are 'All talk and No go', when it comes to India's security. In the USA, such individuals are referred as 'chicken hawks'. Hopefully India will learn from this tragedy. Indians need to wake-up to the concepts of preparedness, preemption and being proactive long before the crises situation, instead of being reactive. India is a leader in high tech but many of its day-to-day operations and thinking may be outdated and outmoded. An Indian weekly in the USA this week, has an article "Time for India to get its act together". In another article, Mumbai's underworld is claimed to have links with this terrorism. The author is Wilson John (senior fellow, Observer Research Foundation). I have never heard of this organization. Perhaps 'India Abroad' has checked him out prior to accepting his article. I hope the Indian politicians will use this tragic experience for the good of the whole country and not for petty vengeance retribution. I will not hold my breath. There are too many attention-starved leaders seeking opportunism and making statements that are transparently self-serving. I trust the enlightened journalists in the various national and regional newspapers will do a heckuva job exposing the instigators and gossip-mongers. In addition to the intelligence and security agencies working on terrorism, the politicians have to work equally diligently to find solutions to many of India's lingering social and sectarian problems, that feed into terrorism. In the past, these issues and individuals were flamed by regional or narrow-minded political parties or their leaders. While the widespread domestic unrest are not the direct cause of the Mumbai tragedy (the extremists would use any excuse), the domestic conflicts are a distraction to the political leadership and government to tackle the important security issues (external threats). The same applies to Pakistan where the situation is even worse. Their govt has now lost the ability to deal with its extremist elements after decades of coddling them. That is something that could happened in India where extremists are nurtured. Remember Bhinderwalle of Khalistan? Regards, GL
