.The three-day-long terror strike on the country's financial capital was devastating in terms of its reach and impact. It has left Corporate India badly shaken and the elites numb.
It is no longer about only Malegaon or Govindpuri residents losing limbs and lives. Terror has now climbed up the value chain. As the new age entrepreneur Kiran Majumdar Shaw told a newspaper, "So far, the terrorists targeted common people. Now the society's elite, the business sector, is the target. What happened in Mumbai is a loud wake-up call for all of us to do something to protect ourselves."
In the last ten years, not a single session of any seminar sponsored by the CII or Ficci or business/general journals has focused on terrorism.
Now, at least, terrorism is being realized as a problem facing the country.
Let us summarize what the real situation is and what the corporate sector should do if we are serious in fighting terrorism on our soil.
1. Recognize and treat Pakistan as a terrorist state. The state policy of Pakistan is terrorism and their single-point programme is to destroy India. This needs to be internalized by every business baron including the owners of media.
2. Now, the elite of Pakistan are more angry, since India is growing at 7% and Pakistab are given CCC rating and stiff conditions for borrowing from the IMF. So, our aim should be to catch up with China and not be equal with Pakistan.
3. Pakistan is the only territory in the world where an army has a whole country under its control. This is an important issue since studies have found that a large number of corporates in Pakistan are ultimately owned by different wings of armed forces.
Hence, do not try to think of Pakistan without its army, irrespective of who rules that country temporarily and nominally. At least 70% of the market capitalization of the Karachi stock exchange is owned by the army and related groups.
4. There are three groups in India, who are obsessed with friendship with Pakistan.
a. One is the oldies born in that part before partition and who are nostalgic about the Lahore havelis, halwas and mujras.
b. The second is the Bollywood and other assorted groups, who look at it as a big market. The Dawood gang has financed enough of these useful idiots.
c. The third is the candle light holding bleeding heart liberals (BHLs) who cannot imagine India doing well without its younger brother taken care of.
All three have been proved wrong hundreds of times, but they are also opinion makers. Shun them, avoid them and ridicule them.
5. We should categorically, unambiguously, unequivocally boycott Pakistan in all aspects for a decade or more. Be it art, music, economy, commerce, or other hand-holding activities. That army-controlled state has to realise that it has done enough damage to global civilisation.
More than 100 acts/attempts of terror recorded in the world since 9/11 have had their roots in Pakistan. More than 40% of the prisoners in Guantanamo are Pakistanis.
6. We should recognize that it is our war and nobody in the world is going to wage it on our behalf. What the Americans are thinking, or what the Britishers are going to do, will not help. A determined country should have a sense of dignity and independence to fight its war.
We should stop interviewing leaders from that country who mouth the same inanities that "you have not produced any proof." The Government of India should perhaps create a museum of proof between India Gate and North Block.
I am amazed that a country of a billion is required even to furnish proof. If one-sixth of humanity says that the terrorist state of Pakistan is the root cause of global terrorism -- it is factual. Let us not fall into the trap of providing proof to the culprits.
7. We have made a grave blunder by suggesting in the international fora that "Pakistan is also a victim of terror." That is a grave error and it will haunt us for decades. They are perpetrators and our government is in deep illusion if it tries to distinguish between organs of power in that country thinking it is like India.
There is only one organ, namely its army (with ISI as a sub-organ) in that country, which owns and controls at least 70% of the GDP in that country.
If we want the world to treat Pakistan for what it is, then we should start practicing it. Always call it the 'terrorist state of Pakistan' and never have any illusion that it is going to be any different.
If corporate India, including electronic/ print media, starts practicing this, we should see results in a few years.
Are the elites listening?
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