Spirit of India or Tolerance?

Abigail Menezes.

No:- 3752.

The attacks on Indian Parliament and on Mumbai have left the people of India in a state of shock and fear for their life. The situation on Kashmir is still haunting the government and to add to the problems of Indian government is the recent attack on hotels in Mumbai killing many people including people from different nations. I think its time that India should follow a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism and the terrorists.

The attack on Mumbai is “an attack on the spirit of India”. This nation is under attack. The scale, intensity and level of orchestration of terror attacks in Mumbai put one thing beyond doubt: India is effectively at war and it has deadly enemies in its midst. As in the case of the demolition of New York's World Trade Center in 2001, Mumbai's iconic monuments have come under attack. The terrorists who carried out the attacks are armed to the teeth and extremely well-motivated. The question now is whether the nation can show any serious degree of resolve and coordination in confronting terror. This war can be won, but it will require something from the political class, from security forces and from ordinary people. It's time now to move beyond pointing fingers at one another. It's also time to end the habit of basing one's stand on terrorism on the particular religious affiliation of terrorists, criticizing or labelling them using their religion as a point of reference. Terrorists have no religion. Political bickering on this issue is divisive; what India needs now is unity.

Yes of course, it is easier said than done. But hasn't this country seen enough? Who is at the at the worst receiving end anyways? It's the common man and not our political leaders. We all keep the faith but refrain from doing something about it and after a point of time, we just move on. Take for example the recent 13th July bomb blasts that took place. The very next day people got back to their daily routines. At this point, I'd say that it's no spirit of India that's making the people immune to terrorist attacks, but it's because we've just lost hope. Hence we decide to tolerate it and as long as no one of immediate relation is affected we're okay. This is where we go wrong.

India's divisive political culture, in which numerous parties, showing little or no spirit of cooperation, constantly battle each other for regional or national power, that has played a considerable part in allowing terrorism to breed. In India, it is still possible to approach counter-terrorism very casually and allow it to be diverted to byways that lead to dead ends. But for that, we need to follow the policy of being united not divided.