@sriram – the sad part is that RR patil was a ‘good’ politician and a tough one… we were baying for blood and we got it, but part of me feels that we have lost someone half decent. he was insensitive – but that has more to do with the fact that he is better at speaking in Marathi than in Hindi ..

@nilu – lets look at it piecemeal
Naxal activity – needs to be addressed. but it can’t be unless you address land ownership, caste and poverty. the naxal held areas cannot be bludgeoned back into the system .. it has to be cajoled back with ‘development’ . the roots of this arise from allowing a certain class and caste to prosper and make villages, districts their own.. and it needs to change.
on urban security – different issue. needs to be dealt with differently. no one is taking about absolute powers with no accountability or a system of checks and balances put into place. i would be very against a knee jerk reaction to this current attack. but, a simple start point would be better training, and better equipment for emergency services. it is sad that it has taken something like this to bring it to light.
the ruling class of India is an organised mafia — not all of them are terrible. it may be a good idea to look at good representatives and bad representatives. none of this is going to happen overnight — but all these need to be looked at.

Sriram, I do not say it’s a question of priorities. If it were, as you want me to assume, I am willing to wager this: the Nation State is threatened more by Naxals than it is by Islamic terrorists. This from any view point you can imagine — Naxals kill more people, explode more bombs and wreak more misery. Worst of all, they have eliminated the government presence from large swathes of land in India. Which is infinitely more dangerous than a bomb being hurled in a City or a Hotel being raided by gunmen. They subvert the administrative mechanism of the state and do not allow elections. In fact, revenue collections are non existent in these parts.

If as you want me to get pinned down, let’s assume I run this country and I prioritize. I have fixed resources and an unending list of woes. Tell me what I will try an fix first. If you have an Economic argument saying Bombay yields more revenue, I will have to say, the Naxals seem vindicated. If not, you’d already be in some place without Internet — which you aren’t.

PS: You have fundamentally misunderstood my previous argument — so, please do not assume I actually hold these positions.