Dec 1, 2008

MUMBAI 26/11 AND ITS AFTERMATH

The siege of Mumbai being over, it’s a time for all of us to reflect and introspect. What happened in Mumbai was a spectacle, if I can call it that, of a kind that this country had never witnessed before. I hope and sincerely pray that there is never a repeat of this kind of massacre, not only in this country, but anywhere in the world. The outrage of the people of India, is for all to see on TV channels.

As always, this incident will inevitably be followed by the following, (in fact some of the usual fallouts have already begun) :-

·         Tightening of security all across the country in the aftermath of the strike (a case of shutting the stable doors after the horse has bolted).

·         Blaming the terrorist strike to Pakistan.

·         Numerous enquiry / study commissions, which will take an eternity to come out with their findings / recommendations, by when the circumstances in the country might have changed considerably.

·         Political blame game.

·         Blaming the terror strike to Intelligence failure.

·         A few other half measures by government agencies like creation of certain new organisations to combat terror.

·         Temporary rise of patriotic fervour in the general populace, including on this occasion accolades for security forces (NSG, Armed Forces and maybe even Police).

·         The resilient return to normalcy………… till the next time.

Is there any hope whatsoever, that things may be different this time round, given the following:-

·         unprecedented ferocity of the terrorist strike per se.

·         public outrage, highlighted by the media.

·         The targeting of upper strata of society on this occasion, as opposed to the middle and lower classes on previous ones.

·         targeting of a large number of foreigners including Israelis and US nationals.

·         our notorious western neighbour having its back to the wall, facing unprecedented pressure from the international community to clean up its act.

I hope and pray things are different. However, the thought comes naturally to me, "Will it ever change, or will our inept, corrupt, self serving, irresponsible and shameless politicians continue with their own private agenda while the Jehadis prepare for the next attack."

The signs so far are encouraging. What with rolling of heads of some of our top politicians and announcement of certain measures by the Prime Minister. But unfortunately, all of this may not be happening as a result of government's sincere efforts to make amends for their past inadequacies. It probably is more because, post this ghastly incident, there is hardly any time for damage control before the country goes to polls. While the world over, measures have been taken by countries who have faced the brunt of terror, our country is being spoken of as a soft target for Jehadists. In the words of Thomas Friedman

"Muslim jihadists — those brave warriors who specialize in killing women and children and defenceless tourists — have turned their attention to softer targets like India. Just as they tried to stoke a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq, and failed, they are now trying to stoke a Hindu-Muslim civil war in India".

About time we woke up from our long slumber.

God Bless India. Jai Hind

Further reading:

http://thetimesofbullshit.blogspot.com/2008/11/dear-mr-terrorist.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-nomani1-2008dec01,0,4043886.story

4 comments:

  1. How very treu. The politicians of our country do never take any step to secure us on the contrary they are always using the events on the common people (the so called 'aam admi') to satisfy their political ends. With Patils kicked off, Mr. Chidamburum being the new defence secy. things are moving on to show the people that the Govt. cares but at end its just an eyewash.

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  2. @Geniuz
    Thanx for your comments.
    The economy is reeling under the pressures of Global meltdown. Chidamabaram was in the know of things, trying his best to save the country from economic chaos. No he takes up the portfolio of Home affairs. By the time he is able to get a grip on things, it will be time for polls. So the poor man will neither be able to contribute to the deteriorating economic situation nor does he have the time to improve the country's internal security.
    God Bless India.
    Jai Hind.

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  3. Our intelligence though came out unscathed, its the government that looks like fool when its revealed that they had information about atatcks but they didn't act on it. :(

    What kind of people represent us (politicians) who cant assure us our safety! I hope we do elect saner people next time. Million dollar question is who are they?

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  4. @Poonam
    That is a really good question. successive governments have shown that each of them is worse than the other. The choice is between the Devil and the deep blue sea. Wonder where we all are headed?

    ReplyDelete

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