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Ten things India should do

What has been India's reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US?

It began with an outpouring of shock, grief and sympathy. That was followed by the wry I-told-you-so look as the US grappled with international terrorism.

Finally, its the painful realisation that we will suffer too - our economy and the stock markets are taking a major blow, and we may just end up being losers to Pakistan in the one-upmanship game of international diplomacy.

Rather than clicking our tongues, I think India should do the following ten things:

1. Take full-page ads in the American press and commercials on various networks, saying: "Which country, apart from the US, has lost the maximum number of its dear citizens? We share your grief, America." The advertisement will do more than South Block can ever hope to achieve in building sympathetic US public opinion for India.
2. Set up the Indian version of Federal Emergency Management Agency. How many cyclones, earthquakes, air and train disasters, and bomb blasts will it take before India realises that we need to have a specialised and centralised agency to cope with all aspects of disaster management?
3. Be prepared to discuss Kashmir internationally. Amongst the main reasons why Musharraf is willing to help the US in its attack on Osama Bin Laden is the quid pro quo deal on writing off Pakistan's huge loans and making US the third party in Kashmir talks.
4. Be geared for a post-Musharraf regime. The General's days are numbered. If he helps the Americans, his economy may be saved, but the fundamentalists will not let him rest in peace. And if he opposes the US… well, that would be the last straw for the sagging economy.
5. Learn media management: half of America's battle has been won by the shrewd manner in which its top officials manage the media. Can you think of one Indian mayor or MLA, who along with the police, medical and fire chiefs, can brief the Indian media daily on rescue operations? Rather than Vajpayee giving a boring speech for 45 minutes on Doordarshan it makes sense for him to hold short press conferences: he is infinitely more sensible in an impromptu interaction than reading prepared text.
6. Unleash the second generation of reforms. Remember, India's liberation programme was flagged off right after the Gulf War? While there is international turmoil and threat of a domestic recession, it is best to introduce path-breaking reforms. Reason: like the Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh team you can shrug your shoulders, blame the world, and say 'I had no choice'. The second generation reforms should include: permitting foreign direct investment in all industries except defence, liberalising the farm sector, allowing private players into the pension fund market, dereserving the small-scale sector, permitting contract labour, and making panchayats and NGOs the agencies for distribution of subsidies.
7. Ban Joint Parliamentary Committee probes and make the implementations of judicial inquiries binding. The former is simply a waste of time, a rigmarole to keep our parliamentarians occupied. The latter is an impotent exercise as of now: do you know that many of the accused during the Bombay bomb blasts in 1993 are preparing to contest in elections? For judicial inquiries to have any bite, their findings must be binding. If a judicial inquiry says new tracks must be laid for railway safety, the government must lay them within a specified time.
8. Get back on our feet faster. A hijacked American airline plane crashed into the twin WTC towers. But the airline was back in operation after 48 hours. Compare this to the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight to Kathmandu. Nepal was off the schedule for more than a month. Never mind if IA continues to bleed to death. America mourns for a day; professional wailers that we are, we mourn for a week.
9. Dump archaic regulations. The real hero of the terrorist attacks was technology: live pictures of the ghastly attack to a worldwide audience, last minute mobile phone calls made to loved ones, and the millions of e-mail and chats that people sent on the Internet. All this help built a sympathetic public opinion. In India you need special permission to telecast a live programme from a public place. And we allow only a limited number of mobile and basic telecom operators to wire India. For a change, why can't the government dump its regulations and say anybody can use any technology and offer telephone (both local and long distance), mobile or Internet services in India as long as they share a percentage of their revenue with us?
10. I'll leave the tenth point to you. Do write in and let me know what India should do. Who knows someone may actually do it!

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