Terrifying issues on the backburner – will these be part of election agenda in 2009 or get clouded by terror attacks

Having being glued to many channels on television during the past few days, one of the statistics I heard was that there were about 10,000 terror attacks last year across the world, including both major and minor attacks. There were around 22,000 lives lost in these attacks globally last year.

Let us see this in context of some terrifying issues existing in India. Yesterday there was another statistic in the newspapers which said that in India alone there were around 14 suicides every minute and over 122,000 annually, highest being in the state of Maharashtra. Here is the killer is not visible, but obviously behind every suicide there is some reason or circumstances which lead these, and there will be someone who could be responsible for these reasons or circumstances.

I don’t have the details for accidents in India, but broadly recollect that in India, accidents are responsible for maximum deaths. This includes accident rail, crossings, road, drunken driving, lack of safety at construction sites, work places related, illicit liquor consumption, floods, etc. Further, India’s statistic about deaths relating to poverty and lack of medical facilities including childbirth, starvation, malnutrition, cold weather and heavy rains etc etc. India also probably has the maximum number of deaths relating to caste and creed violence and killings.

There have been a lot of efforts by social activists and some authorities to deal with these issues, however, there has never been building of public opinion the way it has build up for terror attacks. This may be probably because it does not affect the day to day life of the elite and urban population and the thinking is that if it does not affect me it is not my problem. After the way in which the last terror strike actually made it more clear to the elite that their day to day life and business will be affected and that it is a national security issue, which it is.

Perhaps, we as Indians have developed this habit of leaving any public opinion of authoritative corrective action too late and tend to accept and get along with life until things come to a stage where we reach stage of total insecurity and helplessness.

While we put national security issues on the top, the media and common Indian should also bring these issues to the forefront as India goes to vote in 2009. The Government has to be made accountable and should demonstrate concrete corrective action and improvement in the above areas. Else it could lead to bigger issues from internal disobedience compared to global terror.

A friend send me a very apt quote: what happens around us is largely outside our control, but the way we chose to react is not.