I hate writing this but the narrative has not changed about terrorism in India since the Mumbai blast cases. Every time we wake up only after a terrorist attack takes place and then we go through the same breast beating exercises, the blood boil dialogues, the threat scenarios against Pakistan, the photo-ops by the politicians with the victim's coffins but then no one asks the question did the 40-odd CRPF jawans deserve to die at Pulwama? Could our government, the authorities and the jawan's bosses not have done any better?  Why do we always allow the enemy get the upper hand? It is only in India that an Air Force base gets attacked. It is only in India that many military and para-military bases get attacked. 

The reason for that is simple. We are lax in our security measures and do not enforce it with 'zero tolerance'. Why? Because our jawan's lives are cheap! Take Pulwama for instance. The J&K Governor has himself admitted that security warnings had come to the police and security forces about a terrorist attack on our para-military forces, but it was not passed on. Why was civilian traffic allowed on the road? Why was according to some reports private vehicles allowed to weave in and out of the  bus convoys? Why were the 2500 jawans moved on 78 buses which were bunched together? 

The jawans were sitting ducks. If the jawans had to urgently return to their posts of duty, why could they not have been airlifted?  The IAF would have been more than willing. The bad weather not allowing traffic on the Jammu Srinagar road for a few days earlier is no excuse for organising such a convoy.

The number of terror incidents in the Valley over the last few weeks had been on the increase. Why was the likelihood of a terror attack not anticipated?  The Jammu-Srinagar road is claimed to be a sanitised road. Then how did 200 kg of explosives which was estimated to be in the SUV that hit the CRPF bus moved on the road?  A tragedy was waiting to happen and it happened. 

We are lucky that the lives lost  were only below 50. The loss could have been much, much more. After this we hope that our authorities starting from NSA Doval down the line to the last jawan are in a state of 24x7 preparedness particularly in disturbed area like Kashmir so that we do not unnecessarily lose the lives of Indian people. 

A celebrated American General, George C Patton during WWII famously said - You do not win wars by dying for your country but you win wars by making the enemy die for their country. So first let us take care of the lives of our people before we start wanting to kill the people of the enemy.