Mumbai Blasts - time for action is now.

As the news of Mumbai attacks started pouring in with the start of my day, I started wondering if our government placed any value of the Human Life. Just the other day, we read the unfortunate news of two major train accidents in which more than 67 people died and hundred were left injured.

Reaction of our government was predictable - spineless condemnation of the attacks in the strongest possible words. However what was extremely frustrating was the remarks of Home Minister and Rahul Gandhi. We can ignore the comments of Rahul Gandhi as naivete but Chidambram's reading of the situation was unfortunate and reflected the bankruptcy of grit in this Congress led government. Chidambram's shameless chest-thumping of the fact Mumbai was safe for more than 31 months till the last night and that there was no intelligence failure reflects the lack of accountability that prevails in this government starting with the Prime Ministers office.

I searched for the history of major terrorist attacks in India and was shocked to realize that our country has been hit 14 times since 1993 - that makes it almost one major attack each year. Starting with the Mumbai serial blasts in 1993 till last nights bombings. 11 of these 14 major attacks have occurred during the Congress led or Congress supported government. During 6 years of BJP government, we had 3 major attacks - Parliament attack in 2001, the Akshardham temple attack in 2002 and Gateway of India attack in 2003. Since this Congress led government came to power in 2004, we have had 9 major attacks - more than 1 major attack each year. To me, this cannot be explained as anything but a failure of the government.

As always we were promised that these attacks would be relentlessly investigated and culprits would be brought to justice. We all know what would happen. The never ending conflict with Pakistan has provided our politician an easy way out. We would soon hear the often repeated outcome that this attack had its epicenter across the border. Dossiers would be sent, fingers would be pointed, heated words exchanged and nothing would happen till another attack takes place and the whole sequence repeats itself.

While we would never know if Pakistan really had a role to play in this attack or those in the past, we do know for a fact that we have not been able to secure our borders nor have we been able to build a smart intelligence network. Our military and economy outnumbers that of Pakistan by a few times and despite that if we cannot shut them out, then it is a failure on our side. There is no point blaming them. We all know Pakistani government is not in control of their military and the religious extremists. Even if they wanted to help us beat these terrorists, they cant. This leaves us with two simple solutions - either we secure our borders and strengthen our intelligence to a point where these terrorists become helpless. Or, we do what the US decided to do - to unilaterally take out these terrorists. We all know Dawood Ibrahim lives a luxurious life in Karachi and there are training camps across the border. Lets just take them out without any fuss. Secondly, the government needs to rise above the vote bank politics when it comes to terrorist attacks. We need to make sure that perpetrators are investigated regardless of their affiliation to any religious institution. If this means we need to take out some of the Madarsas spreading radical Islam within our borders, we would need to go for it. If it means, we need to rein in the small but growing influence of violence within some of the Hindu organizations like Bajrang Dal, we need to go for it.

We need to make sure we make this government take responsibility this time and take concrete steps. I do hope BJP rises to the occasion - it is time that Narendra Modi is brought to the front at National Level. Advani and oldies seem to have lost their vigour to provide effective opposition and provide the people a leadership that is so desperately required.