UNDERSTANDING DIVERSE CAUSES + CONCRETE ACTIONS MAKE A HOLISTIC SOLUTION

Let me first congratulate you for bringing this subject in open forum for discussion. This is one of those issues where reactive response is most common and you hear a lot of noise about actions without any concrete, feasible or holistic solution to the issue. The anger, frustration & helplessness are justified under the circumstances and I personally respect all the views irrespective to what I believe in. I strongly believe that there is a combination of different and very diverse factors for such a colossal destruction to materialize, which are as under:

A) Looking at the modus operandi and the technology used it becomes quite clear that there is a state sponsorship. The whole planning, logistics and execution clearly depicts a military operation, a proxy war from a neighbouring country.

B) Our internal security is a miserable failure. Time and again we have failed on this front. Proper sytems and vigilence could have gone a long way to dilute or avoid this event.

C) Every victim is a potential terrorist! In a country where there is a huge diversity in terms of religion, language, belief systems, etc., any intolerance or injustice will create a potential for such future events. It needs a strong motivation for individuals in their 20’s and 30’s to give up their lives. We have to introspect to understand where we have gone wrong.

Actions to address the above:

1. We need to strengthen our security especially coastal security. A competent and independent authority needs to be established within our military just to take care of coastal security. It is stupidity to blame others when we keep our borders very porous.

2. I strongly propose a central ministry for internal security, which will coordinate with different state and central police, intelligence and military. In case of such event, only this ministry is responsible to combat and take action. Needless to say, this ministry should be headed by a competent leader

and always selected and not elected.

3. Heads should roll! People who are responsible and have failed this event should be asked to leave and a precedent should be set to ensure that they all become more responsible in future.

4. Understanding the nature of the social fabric in our country it is time that we all become more and more tolerant to each other.

5. A strong diplomatic stance needs to be taken in gathering international opinion and diplomatic pressure needs to be exercised on our neighbouring country.

6. There is one action which should not be taken - to view our own citizen as unpatriotic just because they follow the same religion as terrorist. On the contrary we should use this event to prove our unity and tolerance for each other, which will go a long way to promote peace.

-Parag Shah
K Girdharlal
Surat

ACTIONS NEXT

We watch news items of terror attacks, may be in Kashmir, in Ahmedabad, in Jaipur or in Mumbai unconcernedly sitting at home eating or drinking tasty food/drinks as if we have nothing to do with this. Anguish was expressed in a recent movie 'A Wednesday' against terrorism in an apt manner. All of us enjoyed, appreciated it. Then what? Our sensitivity is frozen or probably dead. The need of hour is not 'what next?'. It should be why we are unconcerned. If we can not reach the roots of this riddle, it would be meaningless to try to find out solution to this long pending question. Let us awake ourselves and start afresh from home, street, village, town, city, state to reactivate our sensitivity. We should feel pinch/prick if pin is thrust pricked to others. Priority should be to cultivate such sense and sensitivity. Otherwise such exercises and attempts to find out solution shall remain futile and fruitless.

- Bharat Kapadia
Rajkot

I was quite perturbed and shaken up by the Bombay-blast. It was a matter of great satisfaction that, people's opinion has clearly turned against terrorism and it was expressed by giving tributes to the martyrs, lighting the candles and formation of human chain. But this can give us consolation The only thing that comes out immediately is that good people must come together and unite as an organized force to be reckoned with. Only then non-violence will become relevant in the present circumstances.

- Yogendra Parikh
Anarde Foundation

Anger, sympathy, restlessness are few of the first obvious expressions/feelings which I had when I heard about the Terrorists attacks on Mumbai. But when I thought calmly, I feel that as a citizen we should first concentrate on our own self. We should ask a question to ourselves that AM I A GOOD CITIZEN ? IF NOT, WHAT SHOULD I DO TO BECOME A GOOD CITIZEN ? I am confident that the answer of these questions builds the culture of the entire nation. The “direct fight against the terrorism” is a very BIG term for the common man but definitely a COMMAN MAN’s character builds the character of the NATION and such character is very impressive to fight against terror. Hence we need to first concentrate on becoming a good citizen. The definition of the GOOD CITIZEN need not required to be given necessarily; it should be the self explanatory. Disciplined behavior in each and every aspect of our life leads to the good citizenship. We can kickoff the fight against the terrorism by starting the process to become a good citizen.

-Hitesh Ganatra
Ahmedabad

Being a Mumbaikar, I was very frustrated by these incidents. Being the commerical capital of country and paying 60% of the total tax that country gets, we felt our city was ditched by both the Khakhi and Khadi, (the Police and the Politicians).

The foremost step we can take now is to make all Government Officials responsible for ensuring security answerable.

-Ajay Maheshwari
Mumbai

Look at history again. Buddha, Allah, Rama, Mahavir, Gurunanak and Christ….no one could stop wars, only the tactics changed. And the modern tactic of war is Terrorism. Whatever we do, this war can not be stopped unless we come out of borders and create a community - a global village.

-Shahid
Bangalore

Next Actions according to me are,

1)To be a good human and better citizen;

2.) Put up our voice against any Non-Secular activity around us.

3.) Teach our children to be tolerant to the differences of Faith/ Religion.

4.)Participate actively in electing our Leaders.

Mehul Panchal
Oaiss

I won’t blame Indian leadership for everything. It is the same leaders who are chosen by us. We get what we deserve.

Strength of any big building depends heavily on character of its bricks. A house with good architecture and good quality bricks can withstand storms and tornadoes

StYm
Bangalore

We should teach our children COMPASSION,

more than JUSTICE

This is exactly what we do not want to do.

"I say bomb the hell out of them. If there's collateral damage, so be it" [Senator Zell Miller, NY Times 9/13/01] (in response to 9/11 attack)

This is based on linear thinking: the number of terrorist acts depend on the number of terrorists. Reduce the number of terrorists, by bombing them, and it will reduce the terrorist acts.

In this line, Bush would "track down and punish those responsible" and the US would lead "the world to victory in the war against terrorism". It misses the point that indiscriminate US actions would build up the stock of anger against the US, which is exactly what the terrorists wanted. Worse still, it generated a pool of people ready for recruitment to become terrorists. Linear thinking has no leverage.

"Americans' mental model appears to be that our military and economic superiority will make our violent actions a 'slam dunk'. That is, we will be victorious in our war against terrorism.

The 'other side, in turn, is eager to draw us into a holy war that involves all Muslims, (not just the terrorist camp.) Both parties, to borrow a phrase from Bob Dylan, feel that "God is on their side”.

"Strike against terror" is a misleading expression.

What we are striking against is not the real cause or the root of terror. The object of our strike is still human life. We are sowing seeds of violence as we strike. Striking in this way we will only bring about more hatred and violence into the world.

This is exactly what we do not want to do.

-Andrew Jones and Elizabeth Sawin, Sustainability Institute.

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The root of terrorism should be identified, so that it can be removed. The root of terrorism is misunderstanding, intolerance, hatred, revenge and hopelessness. This root cannot be located by the military. Bombs and missiles cannot reach it, let alone destroy it. Only with the practice of looking deeply can our insight reveal and identify this root. Only with the practice of deep listening, understanding and compassion can it be transformed and removed.

- Thich Nhat Hahn

Just after Sept 11, some reporter asked me, why terrorism happens. I told him that my view is that such acts are not possible unless you have very strong hatred and very strong will power and determination. That tremendous hatred comes from many reasons. The causes of this hatred may be going back to centuries. Some people say that the WEST has the cruel history. These people may also see the achievements of the Western Countries – in terms of the economy, education, health and social achievement – as a result of exploitation of poorer countries, including Arab Countries.

- The Dalai Lama

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