Toward these two goals I plan to devote my energy and as much resources as possible.

I welcome any input on how best to go about it.

Thanks to all who commented and all who read. I hope to write my next post shortly.

@BangladeshiHindu:
Thanks for your comment. I do understand the importance of raising awareness in a globalised environment, especially in the west, if we want them to fight on our side. And, blogs such as yours and that of Shantanu do a great service in this respect. However, from the point of reforming India, this is not enough for the reasons I have stated in my post. But, I do agree that it is not an “either-or” situation. Also, I browsed your site – very impressive.

@Indian:
Thanks. One does what one can, I guess.

@Surya:
Thanks for your comment. Yes, we need to hold the government accountable, but we also need to hold ourselves accountable. The vicious cycle in India can be best seen in the case of taxation.

@Sanjeev:
Thanks. But, I still think you underestimate the destructive power of generic Islam. As, I said in some other comment elsewhere, whereas the new testament was a reforming document of the old testament, the koran, OTOH, has been a regressive document. And, we need to acknowledge that.

@Harapriya:
If I were to accept your thesis of “the big elephant in the room”, what are you proposing to do about it?

@Hemant:
Thanks for your comment. I was in the USA in November 2001, across multiple cities on the east coast, mid-west, west coast, on business. Here are a few key observations:

1. If you are familiar with US politics, you will know that there is a huge division among US voters along the republican-democrat fault-line. They call it a culture war that started in the 60′s. The two coasts are usually democratic, while the rest of the country is largely republican. This culture war reached its peak in Nov 2000, when *half* the country thought that Bush had *stolen* the election.

YET ……. yet, post 9/11, the whole country came together behind Bush, giving him the moral authority to do whatever was necessary – no finger pointing, no blame game, no questions about competence, no arguments about what needed to be done. Just a determination to get stuff done. And, this included the entire media, including the so-called liberal media like the New York Times. Compare that with India, where politicians were muck-raking, standing in the blood of the victims, even before the operations were over. And, as far as the TV media goes, less said the better.

2. There were ‘n’ number of arrests that took place after 9/11 – some were preventive, some were based on evidence, some were exploratory – there were no questions raised about the integrity or motives of the officials making the arrests. Compare that with India.

3. Even in San Francisco, the capital city of liberal USA, there was consensus that now was the time to secure the borders, to go after the perps and to leave petty politicking aside.

4. Everyone I met post 9/11 told me that the need of the hour was to strengthen the government, focus on the twin agenda of ensuring that such attacks never recur and of ensuring that justice was meted out.

5. Finally, this is a general comment: in the US, the man on the street, for the most part, respects the law officer and recognises him/her as a key part of their civil society. There is an acceptance that without the law and the officer enforcing the law, there would be no civil society. Compare with India.

@Nanda:
Thanks. So, do we wait to evolve? : )

@Arby:
So are you ready to take the next steps?

@Sarvesh:
Most complex problems appear so because either we fail to understand the sub-components of the problem, or we fail to apply first principles in our analysis. From what I have seen in India, is that we are very fond of tying up lateral issues to a core problem, instead of just focusing on the core problem. And, the core problem that we face in India is poor governance and our apathy to this poor governance.

@Amitabh:
A good set of action points, although the path may not necessarily be the same for everyone. But, I guess where we all fall apart is in defining “what is the objective?”
I would like to talk to you offline. Shantanu has my email ID.

@Trailblazer:
Thanks, but I think we have all been “expressing” the outrage. My objective would be to understand as to how we can “channel” it so that it results in productive action for the nation.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?title=Sonia%E2%80%99s%20presence%20in%20Delhi%20is%20costing%20India%20dearly&artid=LNnjswClsuc=&type=