Welcome and thanks for adding me to your blogroll.

We are to blame for electing incompetent people. The Home Minister has been forced to step down, but I doubt if that will make any difference. I hope this incident wakes us up and we realise our responsibility as citizens of India.

We are equally to blame for this carnage in Mumbai. Our intelligence, security, interception and leadership has collectively failed…i doubt if nebody wud take the responsibility for the same and syand down…

its high time we rejuvenate our intelligence, provide police with latest best of the art facilities and weapons and strengthen our anti terror framework and infrastructure….

Addind you up if you dont mind….
I too have a cricket blog…if you might like to see armball.blogspot.com

Taking individual action is definitely the first step. Getting rid of our own subconscious prejudices would be a start and not passing them on to the next generation would perhaps be our greatest gift to them. This menace will not go away overnight. Heck, getting Independence took a few generations worth of struggle. We should start the process and lay the foundation. Our future generations will thank us for it.

I mostly agree with you. Pseudo-secularism needs to be weeded out. It is perhaps the biggest ill of India’s political system. These tough times call for tough measures. Care should be taken, no doubt, so that innocents don’t get harassed. But we shouldnt back off on the first signs of protest by these so called secularists. We also need to remember that fundamentalists exist in every community. And they also have to be reigned in. Let us not bury our head in the sand if Hindu and terror are mentioned in the same sentence. And let us make humantity our religion.

The reason I bought up forward castes vs backwards, majority vs minority, North India vs South India in this discussion was because, even if at a smaller scale, these issues are also responsible for violence and riots. MNS’s tirade against Northeners, Ranvir Sena and their bunch of goons who commit atrocities on dalits, Naxalites…To me these people are terrorists as well and these problems deserve our attention before they go out of control.

And lastly, I don’t mind the debate. Discussions on cricket can resume in a few days once we calm down a little

We are at each others throats so easily based on archaic “religions”.

This is the 21st century; we should have a 21st century religion that acknowledges every human as equal. We have it in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

How many of us have read it?
How many of us believe in it?
What about the “religion(s)” that are in contradiction?

I agree we all have to change. We have to change from the core of our beliefs.

We can start by knowing, respecting and practicing the Declaration. Even if it means erasing forever those passages in our religious books that preach death of non-believers.

I just feel this is an occasion which should lead to some introspection in all of us. We blame the cops/babus/politicos but do we, ourselves, care enough for our neighbours, forget the nation? We are not ready to change and still expect changes. Outside our family, how much we really contribute to the society? And even within the family, what we teach the kids?
Rather unwittingly, we are teaching just the opposite of what we are preaching.
But we can make a start any time. Every little step would count and there are umpteen people, who are good citizens but just need someone to show them the way. Let’s decide today, we’ll be good to our neighbours and responsible to the society. Things have to change.

What happened in Mumbai has nothing to do with forward castes vs backwards, majority vs minority, North India vs South India, or one state against the other – it was because of one religion against another; of Islam’s intolerance of all other religions (non-believers).

You say, “Talk about those people as well who stoke this very fear of minorities taking over
- it does happen.
We forget India was not divided by the majority hindus, she was split into three by the minority muslims.

Kolkata was brought to a standstill on the Taslima Nasrin issue. It shames me that we did not stand up for an individual’s basic Human-Rights – we let her be booted out of our state just to please a “minority group” – the left front governments votebank.

Without these people you mention, the balance has been tipping way over to one side.

For many of us it is politically correct/ cool to be seen to be secular – our 60 years of “secularism” has left us with events like yesterday.

You did ask in your post, “Why does India seem to lack the will to do something about this? –
you tell me
1. what do you want India to do? 2. who in India is capable of doing it and why they have not done anything for 60 years?

I like a good debate – but I apologise for this if it is hijacking your cricket blogspage. Just tell me to stop whenever – ok?

Not punishing those guilty belittles the sacrifices that these brave people have made.

People who mercilessly butcher innocents are not human beings…and so should not have “Human” rights.