At Cross Roads - An analysis

The gruesome act is over, now is time for introspection.
1) The Middle Class cares about governance?
Seems the Indian elite has suddenly woken up, one wonders why? Did it need an audacious attack of the scale of mumbai to make the middle and upper class in India to demand effective and efficient governance? The thing is that , we could not afford to outsource security of public places to private players. Well am still not a leftist, bit the fact is that, when the Indian state failed to provide quality education, we created good private schools paid for them or sent our kids to foreign lands, when the Indian state divided the seats in colleges on the basis of caste, we still found a way out, the rich and to an extent the upper middle class just sent kids to USA. Similarly when the Indian state failed to provide effective health care, we just created Apollo's and Care hospitals, our private sector created such good hospitals that India is looked at as a medical tourism destination showcasing world class health care at effective cost :)
The question is can we do the same to security? Can we allow Black water for India? Can we afford licensing automatics to citizens, well the answer is "NO" not at any cost, we can not afford that. We have no option but the Indian state to provide us security, and that's why even the private sector is out on the street, lighting candles and demanding governance :) We suddenly realise, the way be bribed bureaucrats in the past is the bane of security in a way..our "chalta hai" attitude has resulted in this mess, will this turn the winds and create good governance in India or will this also fade out? Only time has the answer, but lets hope for the best :P

2) Do we have an alternative for the Politician?
Yes, India's politicians are pathetic, indefensible, arrogant even treacherous at times and seems like suddenly the Indian middle class is fed up of it, but then one begs to ask the question, what are the other options? The worst years India ever had as a nation and civil society , are the years or emergency. So we know democracy is precious, don't we? The most important thing that makes me bow to Indian Armed forces in respect is that , no general has ever cast his eye on the Raisana Hill, thankfully, we never had a general with dictatorial tendencies, that's a blessing my fellow Indians, be proud of it. We sure don't need a general, we have seen all over Asia and South America what military rule does. I agree that Indian society has its problems, systemic deficiencies, the politics thrives on vote banks, but we can not afford to ditch the system, as Churchill once put it, Democracy is the worst system of governance, but the best among all other forms that have been tried :)
Please go ahead and vote in and vote out every time there is election, change the system by being in the system, else there is no difference between us and the Naxals, they are as harmful as terrorists, aren't they?
3) The Muslim Question:
Today is the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, I am ashamed that some right wing militants brought down the mosque, I am a Hindu but i condemn the act, whatever the controversy and provocation be. I sincerely hope that we rise above our historical religious bias and solve this issue once and for all.
But I see that the Indian Muslim is suddenly defensive, the Bakrid will be low key this time, but then we don't need them to sub due celebrations, we do understand that we have a fifth column in the Mumbai underworld and in the form of some misguided Muslim youth, but just that in no sense of the word makes all Muslims unpatriotic. Our Muslim brothers need not have to prove their patriotism for India, after all India has has a Muslim chief of Army staff, we should not make them prove themselves everyday, I trust my country men to the hilt, before being a Muslim, they are INDIANS.
But I have a plea, yes Babri was bad, Yes, the Mumbai Riots was a crime, Yes Godhra was state sponsored terrorism, at the minimum for the failure of state to not protect the minority community, but please, can we get over it? After so many years of Babri demolition, do we need to give a chance to terrorists to avenge it? How many deaths would avenge it? Lets move on, Lets pray for a better tomorrow, and in this context i remember the below lyrics:
Yeh Mandir hi woh Butkhana,
chahe ye mano ya woh mano,
Matlab to hi dil to Samjhana
chahe ye mano chahe woh mano...

4) Is Indian security tormenting minorities?
For once lets understand this in the context of bringing down insurgencies and terrorism. I do not think India has been targeting based on religion. When "Sikh" insurgency was at its peak, KPS Gill and company fought fire with fire, We used TADA and at that time also there were instances of human rights violations and misuse of TADA by the civil rights groups, so this is one instance of tougher laws involving random pickings and allegations of torture in some instances.
When naxalism was at its peak in Bengal, we did put down the predominantly "Hindu" naxals with an Iron fist, we had to detain people at times, may be Indian state gave some officers the license to kill also. So is the case in Manipur against the "Hindu" Insurgents where we have the AFSPA in force, there are violations and instances where the state is really tough.

In Nagaland, where the insurgency is lead by predominantly "christian" groups, the same allegations have been alleged time and again.

The point I am trying to make is, in the interest of nation building some times states do cross their line and transgress in to the civil liberties domain, we should vehemently oppose such transgressions but also give space to the security services to keep the house, nation in this case united. The unfortunate thing is terrorists have no constitution and no penal code to follow the processes. Human Rights group should understand this and then protest.
All in all, the Muslims are not the only ones who can allege such transgressions of civil liberties, when i go through American airports, i am pulled over for routine checks at least 30% of the times, but i don't feel bad, those guys are just doing their jobs. I understand some people are put to more hassles and it is irritation.
We need to stop playing victims at every instance, and some times try to have an inward analysis of situation and times we live in.

5) Would solving Kashmir solve everything?
In the Western media, the idea seems to be that solve Kashmir and everything will be rosy in the subcontinent. I don't quite agree with this whole assessment, the problem is that, militant Islam in the subcontinent has its eyes fixed on a larger area. Any research would prove that groups like Lashkar, Jaish, even the Al Qaida, want to establish an Islamic Caliphate, re group and have the flag of Islam flying over all lost lands, meaning, you give them Kashmir, they would want Hyderabad, Junagadh, Red fort, whole of India, and if agencies are to be believed , it ranges from Europe, to even northern tip of Australia. So its foolish to believe that solving Kashmir would solve this for ever, that is not possible, only solution is the Mullahs have to preach the real Quran, preach peace, because that's what true Islam stands for.
6) India's Options:
India should not and can not go to war, diplomacy should be exhausted first. I hope politicians wake up now and give us better governance, and internal security, then if everything else related to external diplomacy fails, we might use a limited option of either covert operations or air strikes.
Lets hope peace prevails and we don't need to get to that point:)
My country should be blessed by Ram, Allah, Jesus and Moses, cause we believe in all of them, none of them can afford to fail us :) Amen!