Internal security and strategic issues of such serious complexity do not exactly fit in with 100-day agendas. But you can at least make a new beginning in your approach and thinking. In my book, therefore, a good 100-day agenda would include:

• An all-out assault on Maoist militias.

• The launch of a two-year plan to revamp intelligence and re-energise Central paramilitary forces.

• A commitment to not let scandal-mongering block defence acquisitions. Two good examples are the Barak missile and Denel gun, both now blocked in our post-Bofors scam-phobia.

• An increase in defence budgets, going up from 2.35 per cent currently to at least 3 per cent of GDP over a three-year period.

• Finally, a commitment to spend the money budgeted.

Surely all this does not fit in with the talk of economic stimulus and inclusive growth. But unless we invest the time, emotion, intellect and money that our security deserves, all economic gains will be transient and have no meaning.

sg@expressindia.com