It will take more than a terrorist attack to make Mumbai India’s 9/11. That requires resolve on the part of the government. As in the case of India, the US too had scattered intelligence reports on the likelihood of terror attacks from the air, but they too were not ratcheted all the way up and were considered vague — they were not what the navy chief has called ‘actionable’.
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security meant that investigating into and preventing terror became the responsibility of one department which had enough power to cut across any departmental hierarchy in the US if it needed to. Do you see something like that happening in India? If it does, the sacrifice of Mumbai may well be worth it. My fear is that, after a while, and the elections, people will forget this and go back to their old ways.
Shashi Gupta, New Delhi
