What can halt terrorism?

When we were casually browsing through channels yesterday night, we came across the Islamabad Marriot bomb blast breaking news in NDTV. It was a really bad explosion. 40 people killed & 100 injured. The real figures might be more. Today morning in papers I saw the 25 feet deep crater that was formed at the site. Also it seems the terrorist had a used a truck full of explosives (1000 kg) for the blast.



This set me thinking about a solution to terrorism & what is lacking in India. I feel POTA / COTA can’t be a solution to terrorism. These acts will only serve in inducting new terrorists on board. Someone suggested death sentences for such terrorist acts. Yes, to a certain extent this will create fear in the minds of public at large, but when you closely observe, when these terrorists are open to killing themselves ( suicide attacks), I don’t think a death sentence will stop them.

For the near term solution , I think what we need to have is set-up like the SSN in USA, wherein when you type the SSN of a citizen you get to know everything of that person right from his/her DOB, Schooling, College, Work , Credit history & stuff like that. Though this might not directly deter terrorists, we might get to unearth the network really fast with most of the information from just one guy. Also whenever any citizen gets in touch with any kind of government service the details of the transaction must be tagged on to his/her SSN. This helps a lot in crime scene investigation. This will definitely deter all first time crimers. Implementing this will take some years (atleast 3 – 5 years to cover 80% of populace depending upon the staffing thrust) , but India can make use of its IT prowess here.

Critics might say this is like invading one’s privacy, but in the larger scheme of things if you weigh that against the lesser crime rates, one will understand the benefits. Needless to sat that the SSN information must be regulated & access controlled only to organizations like CBI , RAW etc.,

The longer term solution is to ensure compulsory education till a bachelor degree to all Indians. Only education will bring maturity to an individual to judge for oneself about the benefits of terrorism & violence. Social reforms to decrease regional / religious divide would also help.

Life after Great Lakes...

Time has come for me to change the name of my blog from “My MBA at Great Lakes” to “Life after Great Lakes”. This is more to reflect the current state. I remember when in my first job there was a name change from Tata Engineering to Tata Motors. Most of us were apprehensive about that name change ( It costed in crores to change the Corporate Identity boards of Sales & Service outlets of the company all over India), but now I think we need to change with changing times to reflect the current state of affairs.

Off late, I have been seeing a lot of movies (Tamil & English) & I feel my blog has kind of become a Tamil movie review blog, which I want to change. Hence forth I am planning to write about social & business issues.

Many of us would have heard about Right To Information Act. For people who are not aware of it , this is a law that mandates government officers to disclose information to public when demanded.



This can be effectively put to use when you just don’t receive your IT refunds or in situations like Police is not acting on your complaints etc. As a citizen of India we have a right to demand information from government officials.

Here is a personal story of my friend who got back his IT refund after three years!

Can violence win ?

This question has been answered well in couple of movies that I saw recently. The first one was Bheema. Everybody in the plot is killed. The film’s songs were good, but the screenplay was a huge let down. The film could have been made better.



The other on similar lines was Pattiyal. Starring Arya , Bharath , Pooja & Padmapriya. Bharath could not carry his role to perfection. His inexperience shows. Arya has done a good job. The screenplay is decently done. The director gives us the message that any body who takes the path of violence will only lose.



The path of violence is very emotional & people can easily fall into that trap. Later they realize it is not easy to come out. Some of the warring organizations are one such real life example.

Gandhiji’s non violence proves the point !