Under attack

Mumbai

• The Jaipur blasts once again raise serious questions about the credibility and efficiency of our intelligence and security agencies. Jaipur is not India’s first instance of serial blasts in crowded places. Some people don’t seem to have learnt their lessons. Surely we will once again observe the ritual wait for some terrorist outfit to own up, preceded and followed by strong condemnations from our politicians.

India should shun this formulaic farce and devise an effective mechanism for preventing these incidents. A federal anti-terrorism squad equipped with state-of-the-art technology and arms, and a transnational jurisdiction, is the need of the hour. This squad or agency should work in tandem with all state intelligence organisations and central surveillance bodies. It should report to the National Security Council.

Although states may protest, since law and order is a state subject, terrorism is not state specific but a national reality.

— Hemant Kumar

Ambala

• “Death and fear” have become an everyday reality of Indian life. As we wait for the blame game to start — whether it was an intelligence or security or political failure — we may wonder whether the BJP government in Rajasthan or the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre is the bigger failure. The truth is, BJP or Congress, it is the common man who pays the price for state failure.

The government should effect changes in police administration and the investigation and intelligence agencies from the bottom. Besides, IB and police chiefs should be answerable only to the judiciary. The government also needs to rethink its compensation packages. Families of promising youths who die in terror strikes should not be treated as destitute and given compensation accordingly.

— Bidyut K. Chatterjee

Faridabad

• Terrorists succeed time and again because they have the choice of place, time and means. They can also plot in secrecy. A defender can never be victorious since victory demands a well-planned and determined assault on the enemy and a fight to the finish. Terrorists will carry on bleeding innocent people as long as their camps and cells function.

— H.S. Gur

Hisar