From a friend in the IPS who asks that his name be withheld, a list of suggestions in the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai –

The general idea –
1. Terrorism, an organized case of mass murder, requires much higher grades of police/intelligence infrastructure.
2. Police to population ratio is less than 200 per lakh in India compared to more than 500 in most countries.
3. Intelligence operatives to population ratio in India is less than 5 per lakh in India compared to above 40 in many countries.
4. This, despite India being beset with 6 types of terror – Islamic, Kashmiri, Hindu, Sikh, north-east and Naxals – much more than only Islamic terror threat for the west, Russia, China etc.
5. We kept Maulana Masood Azhar in our jails as an under-trial for 6 yrs and released him to the Kandahar hijackers – he is the current big boss of the LeT( Lashkar-e-Toiba) in Pakistan. Why did the judiciary take so much time? At that time we had the strictest of laws – TADA, in currency.
6. In 2000, post-Kargill a Group of Ministers made a report to realign and resolve India’s security infrastructure – red tape has killed it
7. To get over the red tape, the PM in 2005 announced the Police Mission to reform the police system – red tape killed that too.
8. IB and R&AW have suffered 40% vacancies in top level supervisors (IPS officers) for more than a decade now and 50% vacancies in levels of SI and Inspector!
9. Post-9/11 the US and UK networked their communication and financial data so that security agencies could check on their computer screens on any terror suspect – India is nowhere near that nor are we even thinking of it.
10. When the terrorist started hijacking planes and entering through the Indo-Pak border, post facto we enhanced checking at airports and fenced the border. So he shifted to hotels and the sea route; post facto we shall make all our hotels and sea ports and coastlines secure. When he shifts to malls and microlight aircraft, post facto we shall make malls and the air space more secure and so on……….
11. Why was Karkare’s BP jacket inferior to the NSG BP jacket in this age and time when India pays Rs 5 trillion in taxes?

You can see how his frustration has leaked through. He hopes that if the word spreads, there may be a grassroots-driven effort ( with some corporate outrage) to fix at least points 1, 2 and 3. If you have a voice in the media, do your bit and let it be heard on behalf of the hard-working Indians in uniform who have been constrained for so long by the ineptness of their political masters.