Daily Inspiration Quote by Manmohan Singh

A “struggle for the minds of the people” reframes security as persuasion, not just force. Manmohan Singh is speaking from the hard-won realism of a leader who governed a democracy under recurring shocks of mass violence, where every attack competes to define public emotion, political legitimacy, and the state’s moral posture. The line recognizes what terrorism is designed to do: bypass institutions and speak directly to the public psyche, using spectacle to manufacture fear, grievance, and polarizing identity. By naming the contest as mental, Singh implicitly warns that overreaction is part of the terrorist strategy.

Then comes the hard stop: “No cause justifies recourse to terrorism.” It’s a moral absolute, but also a strategic one. In India’s context - a plural society with separatist movements, communal flashpoints, and cross-border militancy - moral relativism is gasoline. If you start ranking “causes” as more or less deserving, you invite a politics where violence becomes a bargaining chip and sympathy becomes a tactical resource. Singh’s phrasing denies militants the one thing they always demand: recognition as legitimate representatives of a grievance.

The subtext is also directed inward. A government can’t credibly condemn terror while flirting with extrajudicial shortcuts, hate speech, or collective blame. “Struggle for the minds” implies that the state has to win by staying intelligible and just: credible intelligence, fair policing, accountable institutions, and rhetoric that refuses to turn victims into symbols for majoritarian revenge. It’s not softness; it’s a claim that legitimacy is the only durable counterterror weapon.