NEW DELHI -- Exactly one week after a terrorist attack on India's Parliament that left over a dozen people dead, I visited a senior lawmaker in that building. The atmosphere was as heavy with anger and determination as shock and trauma. Preparations for war were obvious everywhere, including troop movements at the airport, and the talk of war gripped the country.
By Dec. 29, India and Pakistan had moved their missiles into menacing confrontation across the border, cancelling leave for troops, ratcheting up the rhetoric of war, but stopping short of final, irreversible steps. India also recalled its high commissioner from Islamabad, refused to deal with Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi, canceled overflights by Pakistani commercial planes through Indian airspace and instituted other measures designed to convey the message that relations in the subcontinent were not business as usual. Future steps include cancellation of most-favored-nation status for Pakistani products and abrogation or suspension of other bilateral treaties.
December 13 seems to have been as defining a moment in India as Sept. 11 was in the United States. The attacks were not in Kashmir but in the nation's capital. The targets were lawmakers, including government ministers. The locale was the very heart of India's democracy and the seat of its power.