All the intoning calls for action in the face of the Mumbai terror strikes can barely disguise the underlying sense of helplessness and anger we are experiencing. A lot of it is justly directed against the politicians. Their cumulative destruction of the Indian state has left us with few options. Not one single representative of the people could even find the right words that spoke to the complex of emotions their constituents were feeling. Those speaking the language of bravado, talking two eyes out in revenge for one, seem more interested in mayhem, than solving a complex problem. Those speaking the more anaemic language of police reform, intelligence, etc, have no credibility. We will even take the call for action to death. But there is also somewhere an inchoate recognition that these terror strikes have not exposed just one agency or another. They have brought out how fragile our systems are at so many levels, and our complicities in perpetuating their weakness. How much of this anger is self-directed? Amidst this breakdown and carnage there have been so many tales of personal heroism and sacrifice. But in a sense those stories heighten our despair, not diminish it. For recourse to a language of personal sacrifice is at one level a sign of the failure of systems. Our collective weaknesses push people to their deaths, and then we see in their sacrifice our triumph.

There is no shortage of advice: everyone has become a security expert, has suggestions on reforming intelligence systems, etc. But this is not much of a source of confidence. For this discourse reflects three of our cardinal weaknesses. The first is what might be called rank amateurism. Amateurism is not a statement about the personal qualities of individuals; it is about the propensity of people to make context-less suggestions, without any rigorous determination of their effectiveness and feasibility. One hesitates adding to the list, because there is already a cacophony of them. The real question is not the articulation of suggestions: it is who carries them out, how and in what context. Our media has brave individuals, but very few that can rise above the level of supercilious editorialising and amateur speculation. The reason it matters is this. Bad ideas are driving out reasoned ones, and politicians are forced to respond to noise rather than substance. Second, our exasperation is justified. But a fog of exasperation will not add to the analytical clarity that is needed at this moment. There is a story about the Bundela hero Chattarsal, who asked his guru for advice on how to mount his campaigns. The answer was apparently one word: “intelligently”. The answer remains true now as ever; and the worst thing we can do to ourselves is let the clamour for action cloud sound judgment.

... contd.