The General spoke mainly about two threats that India must look out for: the lone wolf kind of attacks taking place all over Europe where the terrorists don’t need weapons, bombs or bullets, but can just hire a truck and use it as a weapon to kill so many people. And second, the suicide bombing phenomenon that is rampant in the Middle East, Afghanistan and even in Pakistan including the use of child jihadis, which India has escaped. “If the radicalisation spreads to that level in India, where children feel motivated enough to blast themselves, we will have a big problem on our hands and a matter of concern,” the General said.

Sushil Pandit also endorsed the General’s statement saying that most of the challenges to India’s security are internal. The asymmetric war that is going on against India has caused death of more soldiers than all the four direct wars with Pakistan combined.

“We are fighting a defensive war. Their strategy is to bleed us by thousand cuts. And our response to that is thousand bandages,” Pandit put it succinctly. One of the biggest problems, he said, was that we haven’t done the diagnosis of the problem right. This has always been our weakness.

Pandit highlighted three areas where he sees India’s security vulnerability. One is demography. Hindus had to leave the valley because they were highly patriotic and the terrorists couldn’t have carried out their jihad with Hindus present. Similarly, there are many areas in the country where migration of patriotic people has been accepted and people of a certain faith have been allowed to become dominant. He said that there are more than 60 districts where it has become difficult for the majority community to live. They are selling their properties and leaving and the country seems completely indifferent to it.

Second is vulnerability of mission critical infrastructure. Third is psychography. “What is our attitude. How does your political class perceive the challenges. What had happened if Doklam had happened when IK Gujral was PM? In 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, we were a signature away from signing on four point solution. What mindset made Manmohan Singh agree to concession in Sharm-el-Sheikh on Baluchistan? What is that weakness? Psychography helps one understand all this and how propaganda can be effectively carried out,” Pandit explained.

“Pakistan was finding strategic depth in Afghanistan, they have certainly found it in India in its intelligentsia, media, academia, bureaucracy and public intellectuals,” he added.

Taking the discussion further on Pakistan, Sushant Sareen made a pertinent point that if India wanted to sort out that problem, there were enough ways and solutions but there’s no will. No prime minister learns from the bad experiences of his/her predecessors and every one tries to initiate peace and then has to back down. Our fundamental problem is that the problems that we should be looking for solutions to are ignored. Instead we dedicate finding solutions to problems that can’t be solved but only managed. “Our problem is education system which is completely broken. Look at our municipal services which affect us in our day to day lives. But these are the problems no one wants to solve. We take a very myopic view of history, there is almost a contempt for it. We think it is past and won’t repeat but it always does in different forms, with different characters,” Sareen said.

Sareen said that evolutions in military technology are happening throughout the world but just like in the past, we aren’t bothering to catch up and that’s why despite all the valour we lost in some wars. Sareen termed the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) as a national security problem. He said there is resistance to change at every step. “Until we reform IAS or make it more dynamic, no security issue can be resolved. That’s the reality we must recognise. Police reforms can’t happen. Army modernisation can’t happen. Because a person who passed a very lousy exam 30 years ago thinks he will rule the roost and decide how the country is run,” Sareen said.

“The diversity of clothing and food is of no significance. What matters is that our culture, identity and values are one”

On the last day, the speakers were such who need no introduction. Subramanian Swamy, R Jagannathan, Tarek Fatah, and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh member J Nand Kumar delivered their addresses on elements of unity and diversity in the country at the last session moderated by Shefali Vaidya.

Nand Kumar said that we must first identify fundamental values that unite us as a country and then if we wish to strengthen the unity of the country, we must support those fundamental values and elements which are working to uphold those values. Tarek Fatah focused on the elephant in the room – Pakistan. He said until it is there, India’s problems will keep rising. Fatah said that the Islamic country must be undone. He suggested five measures to move towards that objective. He said that since Gilgit Baltistan – the territories occupied by Kashmir – are considered by India as its sovereign part, it should appoint members of parliament for that region. He also recommended that India recruit soldiers from Baloch exiles and deploy them on Pakistan border.

Swarajya Editorial Director R Jagannathan said that people on the left only like to focus on diversity, divisions and differences rather than unity. He said that since in the Western world, as more prosperity spread, the role of religion has reduced and as a result there are only three markets left for proselytising religions to fight for and they are Africa, China and India. Hence, there is going to be a lot of fight between Islam and Christianity, who see the world in binaries, to gain space in India. This, he said, will lead to all sorts of problems. He added that our focus should be on the elements of unity if we want to counter those of the left who just want to emphasise the elements of division.

Subramanian Swamy, the star speaker on the panel, made a most profound point when he said that the elements of diversity that are highlighted such as diversity of food and clothing is irrelevant and what matters is the unity of culture and values which are embodied in Hindutva such as special place for women in society, the respect for parents, the emphasis on not just material gains but also on spiritual development, the importance of sacrifice, our rituals, our sense of dignity. Swamy said these values are what are common in all of us throughout the country. These are the elements that unite us. The diversity of clothing and food habits, Swamy said, is immaterial and of no significance. What matters is our identity and that is one. Swamy concluded by saying that United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization prepared a list of 46 civilisations and today, out of all of them, only Hindu civilisation has stood the test of time. And protecting it is a responsibility of all of us.

The second edition of the Jaipur Dialogues was a highly educational experience where one got to learn a lot from exemplary luminaries, personalities and acharyas in whose presence one can only feel humbled and blessed. Jaipur, in JD, has found the ‘right’ conclave to look forward to. One hopes the next edition will be bigger and grander and would provide us with another opportunity to sit beside many gurus and get educated.