The absence of police reforms and police modernisation from the top of the policy agenda is a disgraceful abdication of public responsibility and one wonders how many Mumbais and Malegaons and Hyderabads must a nation endure before it devotes its collective energies to forging a credible response to this challenge to the very idea of India. Or do our leaders seriously believe that just as in the field of education, health, and drinking water, the people of India will simply adapt themselves to the reality of the state being unable to provide them with a modicum of security? Leave India to God, the father of the nation told the British as he contemplated the looming horrors of Partition. Leave Indians to God, seems to be the motto of the Indian state in the 21st century.

As an officer with some recent experience in the field, the answers to the question of terrorism do not lie in the realm of rocket science. They are simple and straightforward but the peculiar structure of our decision-making apparatus ensures that even the most obvious responses remain hostage to archaic procedures and vested interests. For example, we need a well-coordinated response to the pan-Indian nature of terrorist strikes but we cannot do that because the Police is a state subject and therefore the Centre cannot mandate what needs to be done. So how many Hyderabads do we need before we will bring the Police to the Concurrent List of the Constitution so that the Centre can lead a well-thought-out response.

... contd.