(View original Op-ed >here)
India lacks defence facilities to withstand a 9/11 type attack. The slow paced development of India's defence and technology makes it unable to match up with the development of the rest of the world. The percentage of GDP India spends on defence is much lesser than our neighbour China. India has a very good disaster management force, which did a great job during cyclone Phailin. But we do not have a force to prevent a terrorist attack. India is very vulnerable when it comes to defence, as we import almost all the defence equipments from foreign countries. So the country must promote indigenous manufacture of defence equipments.
Gowtham Sakthivel
Class XI, SSVM school, Mettupalayam
***
I feel that India is not completely prepared to face an attack like that of 9/11. Numerous powerful weapons can stop terrorists, but in the case of crashing a plane to a building, nothing can be done. It must be noted that neither the central nor the state governments considered the information given by the FBI on attacks that might happen. Indians panic for every small threat. Coping with the loss of lives and property after the 2004 tsunami took at least a year. If that was the case for a natural disaster, just think about how people would respond to an man-made attack. They would start blaming the government and armed forces although they could have done nothing about the attack.
PL.Sriram
Class XI, Cheran MHSS, Karur
***
Though our intelligent services are doing their best, incidents like attack on Parliament, Mumbai and Hyderabad bomb blasts raise so many questions. We cannot blame our security agencies alone for this. In such a large country it is not easy to know what is happening in every bit of country, but this should not be an excuse. The people who are in such difficult jobs should be given advanced weapons and the technological support they need.
Seetha Manasvi
Class IX, Teja Vidyalaya, Kodad
