There are several issues that are raised by the Mumbai attacks and in the days to come I am sure we will see plenty of political leaders, security experts, media persons and intellectuals offer their take. Here are mine.  

Coming to the basic question of resources allocation and the manner in which the nation’s internal security apparatus is structured, it is here that we have to make some difficult decisions. Despite repeated requests from the police leadership, police remains a “non-plan” subject. This means there is very little systematic allocation of resources for improving our police infrastructure. Investments in the police are naturally accorded a lower priority in our vote-bank and pork barrel driven system of resource allocation. Now with an enormously successful finance minister at the helm of the union home ministry, it is hoped that the perennial resource crunch facing our police forces becomes a thing of the past. The voices of outrage expressed by India’s corporate titans in the aftermath of Mumbai must address this issue. The middle classes of India must be prepared to forgo some part of the subsidies they enjoy in areas of health, education, power, energy and the public distribution system for finding the resources needed to improve our internal security capabilities.   

The second issue is the legal and constitutional issue of letting the police, and law and order, remain as a state subject. The threat to the union is too immediate to hide behind this historical anomaly. Unless there are nationally mandated standards of basic policing, and there is a basic synergy between the different state police forces and central agencies, we will never be able to either prevent or respond effectively to future attacks. Tougher laws with stringent safeguards against abuse and well equipped agencies with a national mandate are unavoidable choices that will have to be made.

... contd.