> > Shiv, what do you think India should do? > This may be the topic of another book .. :) > 1) Probably the most difficult is political reform. The two major >2) The "lack of strategic thought" among our polity directly impacts > >3) The intelligence agencies are tools of their political masters > >4) Police reforms need to be brought in as planned. The police > >5) The speed at which the courts work will have to be addressed > urgently and > judicial corruption appears to be serious issue.
Shiv I sincerely think that the suggestions you have posted here are impractical. These are time consuming and cannot be done in the current political, economic, financial setup. Moreover they are very polite and very civilised. Lets face it, we are a very huge country. We cannot suddenly become systematic and professional. When one is asked "What do you think "India" should do?" the INDIA being referred to is the India as it is today. The person asking the question is talking about what can be done in the next two weeks. Not next twenty years. Even though the options are limited, there is no need to be hopeless about this. Sri Lanka was down on its knees when the Sinhala govt had to live with the LTTE monster in their own frontyard. Just see how they have turned it around. What they have done is amazing. Lessons should be learnt from them. Just visit colombo for a few hours and you will know why the LTTE cannot even breathe there. There is an army check point on each road in colombo. One the 15 kms or so to Negombo, there is an army presence on every kilometer. If you dont stop your vehicle for checks, you are roasted with a huge machine gun 20 meters away. There are watch towers all along the beach too. We have just one such check point in bangalore 30kilometers away deep in the airport near the drop off area or parking area. Logically this should have been at the entrance from the highway. In the bunker I could see a carbine. No machine gun, nothing. Anyway, what can be done? India should first retract its policy of no first use of nuclear weapons. To hell with the ramifications. It is now common knowledge that even the American war machine is after all human and is shit scared when faced with street combat. Americans can be and have been bled severely in Iraq with the guerilla war. Inspite of all the brinkmanship and more brave than you attitude displayed by the pakistanis, they are shit scared of India. (They are not even confident on the effectiveness of their nuclear bombs). There were reports after their tests that they were duds in their first attempt and then detonated a chinese ready to use device just to prove that they could. So, retracting the policy of no first use would send shivers down their spines. This has to be then backed by preparedness to go for a full scale offensive even if it hurts us economically. While driving, if an uneducated truck driver picks up a fight with you on the road, what will be your response. He comes running towards you with a steel pipe two feet long. How will you fight him? By setting your house in order? making your police force responsive? (yea even if they need twenty minutes to reach you) By speedy justice in courts? (deterrent enough to the truck driver?) Its the same with pakistan. They are bleeding us with this proxy war and know very very very well that we fools are not going to respond militarily. Speak their language. Force them to spend on defence. Bleed them in turn. (there are many many ways) One question I really want you to answer is "Has it not worked in the past?" First and foremost thing is to treat them as the bastards that they are. Bleed them both economically and militarily. Then we are told that we cannot seal our borders. Bullshit. Can you take a ship and go and land on US soil? Can Mexicans cross into the US? Can a LTTE car laden with explosives (or simply a car with a sinhalese driver with a tamil female passenger) cross five kilometers of Colombo roads? Impossible. Why the hell cant we isolate ourselves totally from Pakistan. Only when you have a foolish policy of, letting in, Pakistani students to study here, or let their businessmen to come here or their citizens to visit some relatives here, can there be loopholes for terrorists to sneak in, check in to hotels, etc, etc. After Kargil, what was the need to talk to Musharraf? Why the hell do we have trains and buses between the two countries? A lot can be done even within this political setup. Lukhman
