Why do we always need a terrorist attack or a sight of a beheaded soldier to wake us up from our slumber? The world calls Pakistan a failed state, but in reality, it is we who have failed ourselves (“For an iron fist in a velvet glove,” April 8). We have failed to keep separatist and pro-Pakistan lobbies in check, to improve our intelligence architecture, to upgrade our border management architecture and to modernise our security forces. The writer is right in saying that “The password is political will”. The sum total of all lives of soldiers and civilians we have lost to cross-border terrorism will be equivalent to that sustained in conventional war. The fact is that we are being made to bleed slowly.
Gaurav Singhal,New Delhi
