He terms the effort to re-fuel terrorism in Punjab as an over-ambitious project for which Pakistan does not have the capacity, imagination or expertise.

But what he laments is fifty years after Independence and about the same time spent tackling insurgency, India still lacks a policy in dealing with terrorism.

Sporadic knee jerk reactions coupled with weak-kneed quixotic politicians have made matters worse, be it Punjab, the north-east or Jammu and Kashmir. There is no clear cut guideline. And he is trying to carve out the framework with Faultline, a quarterly journal. Gill, of course, is not alone in this venture. "We (Faultline) want people who have dealt with the problem to bring it on record so that their experience is not lost or buried in some file," he says, explaining the need forFaultline.

This record should help those in charge of law and order and framing policies, he adds. "Fifty years since Independence and we have no policy and we blunder through with a stop and go policy. The moment there is marginal improvement in the ground situation we lie back till another crisis takes over," he says.

The idea behind Faultline is to study a crisis situation; those which have taken place and have receded into history and those which are still burning issues, not only in India or Sri Lanka but also in other parts of east Asia and bring out literature which would be useful to policy makers for security aspects.