Yet another terrorist attack in India, killing close to 180 people including Americans, Britons, and Israelis. My heart-felt condolences go out to the families of those killed or injured, and I hope passage of time will bring some comfort to them.
Lot of Indians are obviously upset with Pakistan, for what they think is the direct support provided by certain sections of their military and spy agency (ISI). But as of now, there doesn’t seem to be any direct role played by their civilian government in these attacks.
Going to war would be disastrous for both countries. India is in the middle of a great economic growth phase now and Pakistan on the brink of bankruptcy. The last thing both countries need is another war. I am fairly certain that most people in both countries would rather prefer peace.
For decades, the biggest problem for Pakistan has been the lack of a credible civilian government and democratic institutions like judiciary. Their military and ISI have exploited that situation, often using India as an excuse. Going to war now will only provide yet another opportunity for them to undercut the current civilian government in Pakistan.
Instead of starting a new war, I hope the Indian government uses diplomatic and economic pressure on Pakistan to get something good out of this attack. United States has a much bigger role to play this time (and a lot more to lose) in case of war between the two rivals. Pakistan will almost certainly move its forces from Afghanistan border if a war breaks out with India, and that will only give breathing room to Taliban there. US would definitely want to avoid that. So I hope India would use that leverage to put pressure on Pakistan to deal with the terrorist organizations on their soil.
As for the masses back home in India, it’s easy to vent out on Pakistan, but what about the Indian government that utterly failed in preventing such attacks? Every time there is a terrorist attack in India, all hell breaks loose for a few days, and then everyone goes back to their lives – until the next attack strikes. We, as a collective nation, do not make sure the government does enough to prevent future attacks. Some say that daily life is such a struggle for most people in India that they don’t really care after a few days and just move on with their lives. I agree with that point, but when are we going to see an end to these terrorist attacks until we make sure we hold our own government responsible for earlier failures?
sahaye
Dec 10, 2008 @ 03:36:09
Hi Ashok,
I quite agree with your opinion. While India’s going for a War with Pakistan can spell disaster and take us back by more than 20 years, it might just be an inevitable thing. Read http://sahaye.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/pakistan-might-just-prefer-to-attack-india/ on what i mean to suggest.
Murali
Nov 26, 2009 @ 14:00:05
I always had this question why do we quarrel with neighbors. Say US and Mexico, Eastern Europe and Western Europe, UK and Ireland, and India and Pakistan. Yes, difference of opinion exists may be the scale varies. Looks like it starts at the lowest level, individual psychology (OK, not going to tire you with social science)
Quickly moving to the solution part — Swadesh.
Swadesh which means love thy neighbors – in an economic sense. Say US had given importance to Mexico than China for producing cost effective goods.
What are the advantages?
Cost effective goods.
Minimize border controlling expenses.
Transportation cost and carbon emission.
and at last treasury bankruptcy expenses.
May be we come out of the mindset of more more and more to share your love and wealth (Sorry, not trying to support communist but say compassionate capitalism) we would have been in a better position.
We can also work out the math (economics) with Pakistan.