Sridhar,
I'm sorry for a late reply to your very thoughtful post. Was busy elsewhere.
SSridhar wrote:Moving IPL-3 out of India or not will not be a decision taken by GoI, just as it did not have any say in selection of players. It will be done by whatever IPL committee that is responsible for that in consultation with the owners. All that GoI may convey to IPL would be that it would provide comprehensive security coverage.
I'm not too sure that Lalit Modi's IPL can function so independently. It's one thing to decide on not taking Paki players without informing the govt. It's quite another to decide to pack bags and go to South Africa or Australia or wherever without govt consent. Remember last year's case was special as the govt itself was not too keen what with the election dates clashing. I'm sure GoI will impress on both Modi and the team owners the fact that if the IPL moves out then there is very little likelihood of the Commonwealth Games being held. You can't say the cricketers were more vulnerable than athletes who will take part in the games.
IPL may be a private enterprise but it's market is India and if the GoI decides it can make things very difficult.
My point is that slowly and surely, foreign players and sports bodies are beginning to feel the security issue of India... The feeling of 'India being insecure' is creeping into the minds of foreign sporting bodies whether we like to accept it or not. Pakistan has already succeeded in its goal.
I agree with you on this point especially the attempt to show that India is not safe. But apart from just tightening our security and being super vigilant I don't see how else we can ride this out? I'm really curious on this point - that is what we can do to prevent this.
OK. It can't fudge responsibility. It cannot even fudge responsibility for several earlier acts, the latest being 26/11. And yet, nothing happened. Again, let's be clear here. Of course, Pakistan's single minded India-obsession has cost it a leg and an arm. Has it ever cared about the cost ? So long as the friends are there to bale it out, and so long as it can sustain hatred for India among its population, it will not only survive but continue to inflict ever increasing pain on India.
If you look at Pak inspired terrorism over the past decade and a half you'd notice that in the initial years, in fact up to the Parliament attack, from the Paki point of view there was always a window of deniability. The difference today is that I think that fig leaf has gone. And regarding it's friends who, as you rightly point out, are propping it up, my reasoning (please note I'm just speculating and I could be wrong) is that as the Indian economy grows to US$4-5 trillion it will pose an increasing cost on these friends as well. Will that do the trick? I guess only time will tell and we do need more self confident political leadership.
Absolutely. The first priority of any government is providing security to its citizens. There is only so much a Government can do through a defensive posture of strengthening internal security. I am not saying that either this government or the predecessors have done all that they could for strengthening intelligence gathering, swift action, intelligence sharing, equipping the forces etc. But, beyond a point, the source has to be struck. Again, I am not favouring only a militarist solution; it must be a holistic approach. I link terrorism with economic growth nowadays because I am worried that increasing chaos due to terrorism may affect us economically. Until recently, one was talking stand-alone of tackling terror from Pakistan, without linking that with anything else.
I fully agree with this point.
Amit, nobody is saying that we will tackle Pakistan at the cost of Indian economy. In any case, Indians and Indian economy are taking massive hits due to Pakistani terror. We will only be deceiving ourselves if we forget the cost we have incurred and are incurring because of Pakistani terror. This is already affecting the 'roti, kapra aur makhan'.
Good you point this out Sridhar. I brought this point up because there have been a huge number of post which suggest that MMS is only interested in the economy and nothing else. My point is and was that every PM, especially since the start of this millennium has had the economy as the primary focus because that's the mandate they've been handed over by the electorate. Now one can argue that the current UPA govt has not done enough on security but to imply that security and economy are too mutually exclusive domains with no relation to one another is not correct IMO.
I am certainly one of those posters.
Reacting in a manner in which your enemy wants you to and provokes you to, can also be called a form of Dhimmitude can't it? Isn't it the majority opinion on BRF that the whole idea of terror attacks is to provoke another war or at least another Parikram like build up?
