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No amount of rhetoric - both political and social - can wipe away the mindless deaths and injuries in the bomb blasts that took place in India on Friday and Saturday. But the focus now shifts to the government and whether or not their policies to combat terrorism are in place. More and more terror groups are mushrooming in the country, which is recording a healthy growth rate, albeit in the face of climbing inflation, and they are striking their targets at will, wreaking havoc on the internal structure and exacting huge losses to the exchequer.
A country as culturally and religiously diverse as India, will have to be mindful of the importance of the minority. This is where the heart of India lies and it is from here that the seeds of progress and sometimes failure are sown. A new terror outfit, Indian Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the bombings in Ahmedabad reminding the Modi-led Gujarat government that their alleged actions against the Muslims in the riots of 2002 have still not been forgotten. Gujarat is a BJP stronghold and an economic success story in India. Ditto for the blasts in Bangalore another BJP territory, albeit newly acquired, and India's information technology hub.
There is no doubt that India will bounce back to normal, as it always has after every terror strike, but the answer does not always lie in the resilience and patience of the Indian people. More attention needs to be paid to those who are not being heard, even while safeguarding the nation against such cowardly but desperate acts of violence. Both cross-border terrorism and internal conflict must be addressed equally. And this is the responsibility of the UPA government under the prime ministership of Manmohan Singh. A coherent strategy both for security and social upliftment must be found.
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