In 2009, let us resolve to adopt concrete measures that will restore integrity and establish synergy. Overcoming our fears and setting aside all prejudices and hypocrisies, let us delve deep into our reserves of resilience and perseverance to emerge stronger than ever.

Easy prey to scepticism, willfully misconstrued and hard to digest, evidence—or, to quote the Oxford English Dictionary, information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid—is both the sole criterion and the first casualty of a blinkered justice system defining the woes and wars of our troubled times. Evidence was also the keynote of the last act in a bitter enactment of worsening relations between India and its wily neighbour Pakistan. While Delhi cried itself hoarse, providing for the umpteenth time evidence of the complicity of certain prominent terror figures operating from Pakistani soil, Islamabad stubbornly looked the other way, prompting even Washington to administer a poke-in-the-eye dose of reality check for a country purported to be the home of non-state actors.

Disturbing, and to some extent frustrating, the Indian government has inexplicably retained the gloves in its rather tepid response to the brazen strikes. The approach of the Indian government lacked focus and was embarrassingly defensive, devoid of the slightest hint of capability or intention of resolute action beyond a bland all options open syndrome. That’s not to say it didn’t make all the right noises, shuffle administrative heads and introduce new antiterror cells and squads to instill confidence among the electorate, but it remains to be seen whether the measures take off from the realms of mere rhetoric to prove effective in anticipating and averting such devastating attacks on the country’s sovereign pride.

In LastWord, Air Marshal (Retd) B.K. Pandey points out that it is hardly a matter of pride that India should approach the US and the UK for protection against the uncivilised conduct of a politically weak and unstable neighbour that is teetering on the verge of economic collapse and virtually a failed state. InFocus and Forum further debates on the means and measures crucial to reviving the crumbling edifice of India’s homeland security. Endeavouring to further that cause, SP’s launched an Internet forum www.spshomelandsecurity.com in a special effort to draw the spotlight firmly on the serious lapses in our country’s security apparatus.

Reverberations of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks served as a grim background score as the curtains came down on an year pockmarked with trials, tribulations and terror strikes. Heralding the New Year on a dour note—amid forebodings of more pitfalls that could test the average Indian’s chutzpah for parrying punches to his pocket and peace of mind—every cheer that rent the air was cautious in its intonation of optimism. It was almost as if the recent terrifying events had dashed the citizenry’s infectious joie de vivre, undermining any attempt to grab at whatever little consolation and dregs of pride afforded by its lackadaisical administration.

Despair, however, must invariably give way to deep conviction in our collective capability to emerge from the crises gripping our nation. Let us resolve to earmark 2009 as the year of concrete measures aimed at restoring integrity, establishing synergy, engineering coordination, ensuring transparent public private partnership in real terms and then to persist with these efforts in the coming times. Overcoming our fears and setting aside all prejudices and hypocrisies, let us delve deep into our reserves of resilience and perseverance to emerge stronger than ever.

Jai Hind!