How to cut short the India growth story

Its very easy to react to the tragedy in Mumbai and *demand* a reaction from the government. Its very easy to say that we should just retaliate now.

The Indian leadership is now definitely stuck between listening to its people and not destroying the the India growth story. Think of it this way -
If India goes to war, it will require a lot of economic attention and funds. Which will further take India's focus over improving itself. The recent Nuclear deals might fall off due to falling confidence in security. India's infrastructure will suffer as badly as a 100 bombings. Progress will be stalled briefly. Jobs will be lost. People will be unhappy. ...vicious circle and an abrupt pause to the India growth story.

Do we really want to pause India? I believe the answer is No.

I think its in our best interest not to go to war with our neighbors. But then what? We do want to give them a solid response don't we?
I think we should enforce all possible economic and cultural sanctions on them. Should do everything in our power which is justified based on their actions. If we don't take radical steps like cutting off their water supply(!) they won't have reason to war with us. After all, democratic governments go to war not because they want to, but because their people want them to. And if the steps we take are economic and cultural, that's not really a recognizable threat. Cutting water supply is though, as it directly threatens and attacks the sentiments of the people.

The people who dies were important people. Important to their families if not just to the economy. What we also need to do is overhaul our security and intelligence. The attack was obviously a failure of security and the capacity of our forces to handle the situation.