Terror targets economy

By Arya Das The non-stop terrorist attack on different growth centres in India has the clear objective of destroying the Indian economy and to create polarisation on the basis of religion. The time and place of attacks were carefully selected after taking into account the public reaction. If we assess the amount of loss in terms of human lives, damage to property, the panic created in the society and the economic loss due to suspicion among communities, it would cross several billion dollars. It is not only terrorism but all kinds of social and economic ills in India which occur because we have not groomed the right kind of human material for good governance.  Had there been no Sardar Patel there would not have been united India. Had he become the Prime Minister of India there would not have been any Kashmir problem and India would not have seen the embarrassing defeat in 1962 China war. India heeded to the advice of USA and did not use airpower against the Chinese invaders who were in disadvantage position to use fighter planes. Thousands of Indian soldiers died in the war due to our indecisiveness. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose said if somebody slaps you give him two slaps in return. He aimed it at the British colonizers who were taking away everything: minerals, jewellery, knowledge source, human beings for slave trade, handloom, handicraft and agriculture produce etc. The British had killed, maimed and imprisoned thousands of satyagrahis. The British Government’s cultivation of cash crops mainly sugarcane, poppy, tea, cotton, indigo etc destroyed bio diversity, created foodgrain shortage and caused the disappearance of hundreds of edible herbs from farmers’ field. The worst thing they did to India is that they have destroyed our self belief and created a culture of sycophancy in India. India is still under the spell of brown sahibs.  Netaji Subhash Bose became the victim of malicious campaign which unjustly branded him as a fascist. Both Subhash Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel were the victims of political exclusion. Before fighting external forces there is an urgent need to achieve political inclusion for the survival of democracy in India. Political inclusion can only create mass leader whose appeal will transcend the barrier of caste, language and religion to build a strong united India. We have created a number of political pygmies who have divided the nations on caste and language basis. The present caste and language divide is worse than the pre-independent India which has happened due to lack of inclusive democracy. The social division not only helps pygmy politicians but the terrorist to hatch its plot. In order to cement the division among Indians the nation has to achieve political inclusion by allowing grass root level potential leaders to rise to the top. Without which the nation will not have strong resolve to fight even a tiny rat.  After terror seized Mumbai for 60 hour, we have wasted hundreds of hours in discussion, seminars, meetings and procrastinations. Visible action only could restore people’s faith in the system. An alert nation always acts to nutralise terrorist plan well in advance. Israel successfully disarms its civilians and constantly seizes the weapons when it is smuggled into its border. Had the coast guards liquidated the terrorists in the sea such horror in the financial capital would not have happened. The terror act in Mumbai is a national shame and it has given undue publicity to terrorists. In fact, Indian security system becomes weak due to various reasons. Had the coast guard liquidated the boy terrorist in the seas we have so many organisations who could have raised questions about the authenticity of the terrorists. They would have tormented the security agencies why the boys were not caught alive. Some Parliamentarians would have stalled the Parliament proceedings. Some political outfits would have asked for probe saying the people on the boat were innocent fishermen who had nothing to do with terrorism. There are some irresponsible media agencies who hunt for such kind of sensational news and seldom do hard work to know the truth.  If security people risk their lives to catch the terrorists alive the judiciary will let them loose. If judiciary decides the politicians will come to the rescue of the culprits. If a constable reports suspicious movement in some locality next day he would be transferred to a punishment centre. Those things always happen in a country like India because the nation has not groomed quality human material for good governance. Quality human material does not mean techno savvy professionals but people with moral, physical courage and a sense of belongingness to the nation.  We have never tried to discover the fine cultural thread that binds Indians together in the backdrop of cultural diversity. We have built a selfish, mentally and physically weak young generation who take pride in calling themselves global citizen without knowing globalisation is nothing but manifestation of greed. Look we have become a trillion dollar economy but we have half the world’s hungry people. We have created islands of prosperity amid sea of misery. We don’t have quality human material who could pass on the demographic dividends to the majority of people. The present global credit crisis has happened because nations have pursued pseudo globalisation which has taught people across the world to live beyond their means. Credit worth trillions of dollars was invested to create unproductive assets across the world. As a result the credit does not roll back to the banks as repayment and it ultimately created the global credit crisis. The crisis is so deep that it will take minimum five years for the western and European nations to come back to shape. The economic crisis is bound to affect India’s growth and the deteriorating internal security will dampen the situation. This is high time for the nationalist forces across the country to unite and groom a few generations of quality human material.  (The writer can be contacted at E-21, NBRD Colony, 459, Sallisbury Park, Pune-411037.)