INDIAN lawmakers have announced an overhaul of its security apparatus after the Mumbai terror attacks which left more than 171 people dead.
The country's Home Minister P Chidambaram said in parliament yesterday: "Given the nature of the threat, we can't go back to business as usual."
He said hard decisions would be taken "to prepare the country and people to face the challenge of terrorism."
The lawmaker now has a new to-do list – typed on a swanky laptop, in the latest version of MS Word, and printed out on glossy A4 sheet.
It basically talks of the numerous steps to be taken by the Indian government in the near future to have a solid security machinery in place.
According to the list, there will be a national investigation agency on the lines of America's FBI, the security forces will be provided with modern gadgets, a Coastal Command to secure India's 7,500 km shoreline will be in force soon, technology will be upgraded and security personnel will get proper counter-insurgency training.
All these are steps in the right direction and are highly appreciated.
When they are implemented, the country will get a well-equipped, well-prepared anti-terror machinery which will go a long way in strengthening the internal security of the country, and hopefully eliminating the constant fear imbibed on the pyche of the Indian populace over the years.
But, one more thing needed at this hour is a change in attitude.
This year alone, India experienced seven blasts in metropolitan cities and small towns throughout the country killing thousands. New Delhi, the country's capital, was struck twice in Sept, while blasts also scarred people in the city of Bangalore in the south, Guwahati in north-east, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in the west and Rampur in the north.
This itself suggests that the attackers came from every direction.
Most of the dead were people from the working or middle-class background.
During the Mumbai terror attacks, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, initially said that such "small incidents" do occur in big cities. The state's chief minister included a Bollywood producer/director in his entourage while visiting the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the carnage sites. Both have since resigned from their post - but not before they came under scathing criticism for such callousness.
The current promises made by Mr P Chidambaram should have been announced the day the first bomb blasts ripped through the country in 1993, killing innocent people. Since 2001, blasts have become an annual occurance. In August, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had revealed that 800 terror cells "with external patronage" were uncovered in the country, indicating that home-grown militancy was on the rise.
Yet, despite warning by various intelligence agencies, numerous tips and solid proof of possibilities of more such attacks, the administration dragged its feet on the much-needed refurbishment of India's security apparatus.
The average policeman was found to wield nothing more than a baton, or a rusty age-old rifle to fight a well-trained militant with sophisticated weaponry.
It took an attack on western tourists, the elite class and the business community of India for the administration to finally wake up to threat facing the country.
Had the first life lost back in 1993 been valued as much as the lives of the rich and powerful who died in the Mumbai carnage, India may have been able to prevent the previous (and probably) latest series of terror attacks on its soil.
Providing impenetrable security in a huge country like India with a population of more than 1.1 billion, is a difficult task. But, if the United States can do it, why can't India? There have been no terror attacks on American soil since the 9/11 carnage.
True, the US is far richer and stronger than India, but they also value every American life as being equally important.
It is time India starts doing the same.