Learning from Caesar

From when I remember, I always spoke to myself...... sometimes aloud. Today I will speak louder and should you want to listen, you are invited.

Grandpa called me on the next morning of the "War of Mumbai" and asked me to return back to Trivandrum. I asked him, "If this happened at the Taj in Trivandrum, which was hardly a few hundred meters from our home, what would we have done?"

A safe place to stay and work is an evasive commodity or rather an illusion in this global village where even terrorism has gone global. Using the boons of modern communication and Information Technology to divide tasks and decentralize terrorism is a scenario that is even more unimaginable. I would not be surprised to see MS Project installed on a terrorist's laptop or PDA and a Project Server with a SharePoint installation in a terrorist camp in POK.

Investing into even better technology, forces and understanding the way the modern terrorism is organized and conducted is essential. But this will only serve to reduce the number of incidents and the damage inflicted. It will not make the world a safer place to live in. The manifestations which terror can assume in the days to come are too complex to imagine.

When I was young I played a computer game called Caesar. In this you had to deal with a group of barbarians. I was rich from trade and invested heavily into my army. I used them mercilessly against the barbarians. Their uncoordinated random ravaging, took all my attention. Trade suffered. My people were insecure. Administration started to fall apart. I somehow kept things under control and right at that moment, the real enemy - an external power, struck. My forces were exhausted and dwindled fighting the proxy war. My finances were in a bad shape. We lost a battle we could have won easily.

The next time I got a chance to play the game, I used missionaries to tame these barbarians. It was much easier than I thought. When the real enemy arrived, my army was fresh and strong. I had money to buy them the best of infrastructure and the enemy was easily handled.

There is a message here. Politicians definitely need a dressing down. But the answer to this monster might not be the army afterall. An army is meant to protect the nation and its territorial integrity from the ambition of external powers. It is meant as a source of strength to give confidence to the nation to standby what it believes and pursue its independant economic and foreign policy. Their dignity and strength should not be weakened by chasing rats around underground sewers. The ongoing operations in Kashmir have already weakened our forces and purses enough.

I feel that to address the problem, we have to look more into the problem itself. I would not be too much perturbed by hired mercenaries from foreign powers inflicting terror. A fine intelligence and security establishment can easily handle this. Besides, it is almost suicidal for a country to sponsor and send such mercenaries in these modern times.

The key here is local support. Take this away and terrorism is crippled. If you look at every captured terrorist, he has a story to say. From the taxi driver who aided the Mumbai blasts a few years ago and the story of the videos of the Gujarat riots to these young men of the "War on Mumbai" and their story of army actions in Kashmir and Palestine, the modus operandi to create militants have remained the same. They capitalize on the "divide and rule" strategies of vote-bank politics which has served to bring insecurity to certain communities. When cornered so, it is easy to corrupt them with a chance to take revenge for the mistreatment to them and their kin. Motivation is bought with vivid videos and photographs.

If only we could bring confidence, trust and security back to every Indian.....they could never be corrupted to act against their nation and fellow humans. Afterall, we are all humans and designed the same way. Circumstances create terrorists. Take away these circumstances and there will be no terrorists.

What we need now, I feel, is a vibrant, young, motivated and enlightened political leadership. The entire system needs a complete format. Time is ripe for all of us to look upon "politics" as a wonderful career and a great opportunity to make the world a better place to live in. Let us join hands and do a "complete format". Time has come to transform ourselves as a nation.