India ponders after terror attacks claimed at least 49

This morning, as usual, I went through most of India’s newspapers looking for reactions to the bloody attacks that have devastated the country over the weekend. First bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, then Ahmedabad, one of the country’s most sensitive spots as it is polpulated by many muslim and hindu hardliners.

Of all the pieces I’ve read two striked me. Two editorials, one from the Times of India and the other from the Business Standard. They have two very different ways of approaching what occured on Friday and Saturday. The two editorials have also opposite views of the future of the nation and how it should deal with the current threat of secterian division and violence.

Here are two exerpts:

Times of India – This is about Us: India is under attack, we must stick together

It is premature to place blame for the attacks on a particular group, indigenous or otherwise. It is also pointless to replay the refrain of the blame game between state and central intelligence agencies. Terror strike after terror strike, we are fed the same story about how each failed the other. There is clearly a systemic fault in our intelligence and security administration that exposes the public to dangers that could perhaps be avoided. It is an issue that must no doubt be redressed speedily. But it must be acknowledged that securing a country as vast and densely populated as ours is no easy task.

Business Standard – Dealing with Jihadis

An effective response to such a terrorist threat must work at several levels. The first is to nab the culprits and bring them to speedy justice. The second is to improve intelligence, to penetrate the jihadi network and to intercept communications so as to prevent such attacks…

…Other steps therefore are necessary…

…One is to address the fountainhead of terrorist attacks, which is in Pakistan. That country’s attitude to India remains deeply hostile, and India does not have the capacity to strike at it in a manner that will put an end to its ever-present temptation to engage in low-grade warfare against India. Again, as Israel has discovered, hitting hard at a much weaker neighbour has limited utility if the environment is such that new recruits are willing to join the jihadi network. Pakistan has to be tackled therefore with a mixture of bilateral diplomacy and international pressure, though experience has shown that the results of these efforts will be minimal. Pakistan therefore needs to be made to understand that its hostility to India is not without costs.

Let me know what you think about these two ways of seeing the current situation. Are you more with the TOI or with BS?