* This refers to Shekhar Gupta’s ‘Our nightmare, our wake-up call’. The most tragic and concentrated terrorist attack on India’s most vibrant, economic capital and cosmopolitan city Mumbai only exposes the country’s lack of preparation, rather than unwillingness, to fight terrorism.

It is the government’s continuous inaction that has led us to where we stand today vis-à-vis terrorism. Over the past 30 years we have been targeted by various terror outfits but have failed to frame or evolve any long-term policy.

—Ved Guliani, Hisar

It’s training

* The question that gets thrown up after every major

incident is whether our security agencies are equal to the task of challenging and overcoming this scourge of terrorist

violence that continues to stalk our cities.

The answer every time has remained in the negative. The solution lies in imparting, on a war footing, training to the security agencies for intelligence gathering, busting of terrorist conspiracies and for prevention of such terror attacks. For this to happen, state governments and the Central government need to jointly put in all the efforts needed in right earnest towards this urgent need to revamp, refurbish and rejuvenate our placid security agencies.For once, they must abandon their narrow and partisan political considerations while doing so.

—Shahabuddin Nadeem, Bangalore

Look south

* The terrorist attacks on Mumbai last week were waiting to happen given the inefficient and disoriented governments at the Centre and in the states, and the polarisation of society on religious lines by our political leaders. When leaders from the main political parties cannot sit together and discuss a problem as serious as terrorism, how can they expect the people to unite and thwart the evil designs of forces inimical to India?

... contd.