Mumbai Terror

Mumbai still continue to be on the headlines. Surprisingly, the entire thanksgiving day news cover on CNN was on Mumbai. I do not quite know what the reason behind the more than 50+ hours of coverage on a main stream American media, could be because there were American citizens involved, could be because Americans still respond very strongly to acts of terror in the post 9-11 context, or could be because they did not have any other event, covering which they could have reaped better TRP. I did not have access to BBC even if my first preference has always been BBC.
Now that the dust has settled, it is anger, frustration, the crippling feeling of helplessness and despair at the lives lost, orphaned children, wrecked families. Everybody is writing something of the other right from the mighty Mr. Bhachan to journalists of all hues.. from red to saffron. Including Arun Shanbagh, BigB There are all sorts of articles right from those informing us about the increased TRP of news channels due to terror attacks (grouse) to those debating the position of a Muslim organisation refusing to accommodate the bodies of the terrorists. So where do we go from here?

1) Resignation of the home minister: And finally Mr Shivraj Patil realised he is incompetent for the job as well as that resigning now with just 5 months left for his term to end, there were so much brownie points to be collected if he owns up moral responsibility and so much less to loose. Oh! Come on. We the electorate we are stupid enough to elect incompetent governments but not as stupid to see the ‘moral responsibility’ stuff. We have seen this far too often in the past. It is surprising to see how he managed to be around even with so many terror acts unfolding across the length and breadth of the country.

2)Pakistan :It has become a sort of ritual to blame country-region> for everything that happens here. We are tired of that as well. place st="on">Pakistan is like a monster created to keep the attention of the electorate diverted. Just like young parents do when feeding their stubborn child “oh! If you don’t finish this entire apple, I will call the monster; the monster will come and gobble you up”. So incompetent government just wants to divert our attention and we shut our mouths and refrain from asking those crucial questions. Let us not get into this whirlpool of diversion. We all know Pakistan is a problematic neighbour. They have a huge, restive indoctrinated force of unemployed youth with not much prospects in life, besides the rogue ISI flush with cash from American handouts and the Islamist hardliners with their deep oil pockets will not find it difficult to get the required man powder. Fire power, they already have plenty of it. Even if the civilian government of Pakistan has nothing to do with it, there are enough rogue elements to cause the harm. So what there are rogue elements everywhere, inside our own country, our own cities sometimes right in our back yard. So why start the blame game? Why don’t we stop the blame game and think about avoiding such situations in future. Who did it might be an obvious question but definitely not the most important question. The most important question is how to stop it? So Pakistan card is definitely not working out here.Also, I was surprised to see Pakistani media publishing some real good pieces. So balanced were the articles that I am impressed with the media.One such here in Dawn Are they not the victims of poverty, power hungry politicians, opportunistic mullas and of course beneficiaries of the regular anti-India propaganda?

3)Politicising the entire terror issue: So everyone wants to make the best of the situation. Don’t they? A few politicians do not want to ban SIMI because their terror acts are not strong enough. So if they end up killing more people, that’s when they can be banned according to these people. Of course the incumbent incompetent government is slower to react. They figure out they need NSG after loosing top police officials including IPS officers. Then there are disgusting full page advertisement as to whom to vote, who will be a better option when it comes to fighting terror? All these folks are of course not bothered about their own safety because they are covered with Z+ security. That means, there are competent people around then who will sacrifice their own lives to protect these folks. So they can stop bothering about their own lives, they do not have to worry about earning a living, they usually male as much to last for at least 3-4 generations (unless the lineage turns out to be extremely stupid) and they it does not matter for then as to who die. After all in a democracy it is the percentage of votes that matters not the absolute number. Let them die.. is their point

4) Irresponsible politicians: Then there are people like R R Patil who think it is normal for such ‘small’ incidents to happen in big cities like Mumbai. I wonder what his reaction would be if he were to be holed up in one of the rooms there at Taj/ Oberoi; Better yet his son-daughter or a younger member of his family. Then there is Vilas Rao Deshmukh, who wants to help his aspiring son attain star-hood, takes his son and Ram Gopal Verma (Till now I had respected him for his directorial abilities, now I abhor him) to the blast site so that they could make a realistic movie! What apathy. Then there is Achutanandan the chief minister of Kerala who after being snubbed by the father of a slain soldier goes on to say,’ not even a dog would visit…’disgrace. I only hope not even a single person, let alone a dog would vote for these people in the next elections. Boot them out bloody, boot them out.Raj Thakhary and his wife, who feels all the dead were Marathis etc. We citizens did not know ‘Yama’ was partial and had a preference for Maharastrians. I only hope Raj Th.. learnt his lessons very well. He is yet another face of greedy, powder hungry b……. that populate our political system. Then there is Advani (A few days back I would not have mentioned his name with out the respectful ‘ji’ in tow, now he is just Advani) equally power hungry, instead of standing behind the country, all he wants to do is criticise the government and campaign for more votes. Well done. You bloody politicians think of nothing but your own skins, your own votes.

5) What next? Now it is as important to think about clues as it is to think of ways to stop such incidents from occurring again. How do we do it? No single answer. Even as I write this, there is another bomb blast in Assam. Where have we come? Is this the Kali yuga that is supposed to be horrid? I have no idea. Irresponsible government action: A) After all the blood and toil, our best men on duty get to go back in BEST buses, not even air-conditioned cars bloody, they get treated with no respect and importance. I wish politicians were made to travel by BEST buses at peak hour, may be then they will realise what it is going to be like. B) Prime Minister pointing fingers at Pakistan even before the operations were complete and enough evidence was at hand. Is it not stupid? Blaming another country with out enough proof? Could he not wait for a few more days, put forward compelling evidence and then pressurise Pakistan? C) Summoning ISI chief: What crap? Why should India seek to summon ISI chief? Is it not hubris? Is it the way diplomacy works? How would we feel if Islamabad wants our RAW chief explain a bombing in some obscure tribal area? Awkward but fails to serve the purpose. Then the demarche and the list of fugitives, why don’t the politicians stop fooling us. What did we achieve with all these. Why don’t they bloody do something that will stop these bombings for ever? Why don’t they look for solutions instead of harping and haranguing? What the hell is wrong with all of them?

What next? In my next post…