It has been raining bombs all over our land in Gujarat, Bangalore, and Rajasthan and, to state the obvious, the hell it was those two days in Ahmadabad and Surat. There were many more threats abroad, thanks to the IT revolution and the cyber cafes; it has brought in its trail. This is not to forget the familiar hunting ground of the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, in the North East and of course, the very native Naxalite vandalism that runs like a knife through the heart of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa further down to Andhra.

It is not that our rulers do not care. Every time there is an incident they post-haste assure us not to panic, everything is under control. Every time there is an explosion in any part of the country officials and their mentors run to the media with the usual list of suspects- HUJI, S1MI, LET not forgetting the evil, evil Intelligence Services Directorate of the Pakistan Army. In our own land, as the bombs continued to be picked up like you would mushrooms, in the diamond-gem city of Surat, it is not as if our authorities did not move.

The investigations went along predicable lines. It was pathetic to see men of the so called anti bomb squad in Surat, armed with no more than an electrician’s clipper to snip tiny wires defusing some two  score unexploded  bombs with bare hands and no other protection. And the after the horse had bolted we have now been informed that instructions have been issued to activate the CCTVS installed at many trouble-prone locations. Must the CCTVs, that are if they are in working order, be switched off when these should be on round the clock?

Of preparedness to face emergencies such as we have had all over the country - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and some other cities are on the list of targets mentioned by the terrorists- the less said the better. We obviously believe in chasing shadows. Special Investigation Teams have and will continue to be formed. Communications between the Central and State, agencies remain minimal.

The politicians will never agree to Parliament enacting a law creating a homeland security agency equipped with necessary intelligence gathering capacities and making it incumbent on all States to share information relating to anti-national activities. They are good only when it comes to use an agency like the CBI to settle scores with political rivals. RAW, the Research and Analysis Wing, which is our top intelligence gathering wing, both nationally and internationally never mind the Intelligence Bureau which has over the years been used by the ruling parties to gather information mainly about their political rivals-has over the past few years earned notoriety for its senior officials defecting to other lands.

These are our brothers who have gone astray. We have a duty to bring them back to the family fold. It is to understand by the politicians to stop the blame game and try to make Indian security strong as India has faced much of terror attacks in last five years.