Shashi Tharoor speak

Last week, the city was a theatre to what felt like an unending saga of terror attacks. Thousands of youths who witnessed, what seemed like a big bang reality show on TV, had several unanswered questions. Former United Nations under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor who delivered a talk in K C College as a part of the Vidyasagar K M Kundnani lecture series, spoke to them on what’s good and evil and the way forward.
Everybody’s city: The magnificent arch of the Gateway of India is a symbol of the city’s openness. The image of an empty and barricaded Gateway was a painful reminder of how much this assault was an attack on the diversity and pluralism that has knit us together. Mumbai is everybody’s city. If there is an Indian dream, then it has been dreamt and lived here. What we saw for three days was an attack on the country’s heart. It seemed as if they deliberately wanted to hit at the success story of India—that confident, upwardly mobile and shining India. Going wrong time and again: We are woefully short of coast guard, we need to strengthen our intelligence gathering... All this is truly inexcusable. If India can be world class in IT and cricket, we can be world class even in security.
Politics and the Indian youth: It is a shame that middle class and the educated stay away from politics. In western countries, people expect high standards from politicians.
The way forward: We can work with the US and other western countries. There is no limit to what the US can demand and get. We have to convey to Pakistan that none of us will tolerate this any more. We don’t have to tell this to Pakistan’s ineffective President or Prime Minister, but to its military. Either they crack down on these groups or the funding support will dry up.