The triple crisis which hit Japan on March 11 and subsequently, has led to a trail of devastation in its wake. Weeks after the crisis the death toll has crossed 12,000 counts, with 15,500 people still missing, and 4,50,000 people rendered homeless. The government’s estimate for the direct damage caused by the disaster is as high as $310 billion, accounting for about 6% of Japan’s GDP, making it the world’s costliest natural disaster till date.

While addressing the 2010 Chief Minister’s conference on internal security, the Home Minister P Chidambaram stated the plan of action against Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the following words: “At the last Conference of Chief Ministers, I had announced that we would encourage State Governments to talk to the Naxalites if they abjured violence. Our public offer was scoffed at and spurned by the CPI (Maoist). Hence, in consultation with the Chief Ministers of Naxal affected States, we decided to boldly confront the challenge thrown by the CPI (Maoist).

Good sense dictates that we remain open to the possibility of settling our differences with Pakistan, but common sense demands that we do not anxiously chase solutions. We seem to believe that our over-display of readiness to engage Pakistan will goad it to respond constructively. Our repeated overtures in fact give Pakistan more political room to make demands and lay the terms of a revived dialogue.