As India waited, tense but calm, for the impact of the US strikes on Afghanistan that began last night, the consensus in government was that India had to fight its own war against terror.
However, the signals were that it would take government no time at all to control the collateral damage of war in its neighbourhood.
While intelligence sources in the home ministry indicated that a long war in Afghanistan was in the offing and that there could be efforts by terrorists to destabilise India in desperation, the government asserted that it was both capable and competent of handling any economic fallout of war. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha said there was