With regard to the resource crunch in the police, the government in its infinite wisdom has maintained that police is a non-plan subject and therefore, other than for disbursing salaries and allowances it will automatically be accorded low priority for resource allocation. As far as both the quantity and quality of manpower is concerned our police setup is woefully lacking on both counts. The state of our thanas, our courts, our jails and forensic facilities are known to everybody who is either a part or a hapless consumer of the criminal justice system. And yet resource allocations for what are crucial and irreplaceable domains of state action remain niggardly and piece-meal. In the dynamics of India’s political economy, it is far better to spend thousands of crores building roads, schools and hospitals that will exist at least on paper and in the process enrich at least those who have processed the paperwork. The last time I checked the annual outlay for police modernisation of the Government of India was about Rs 1000 crores, and that by a conservative estimate was the economic cost of the Mumbai train blasts of 2006. The question therefore is not whether we can afford to modernise our police forces but whether can we afford not to modernise them.

Last but not least at present we have a very circumspect attitude to the root causes of terror. We know that the bulk of participants in terrorist incidents receive support from across the border; we have to adopt more robust policies. Cross-border pursuits, destruction of militant training facilities by covert means and assassinations of key figures in the terrorist hierarchy are all measures adopted by other states in protecting what they perceive to be their right to security. The war against terror is a war. It must be now acknowledged as such.

... contd.