Yet another blast has gone down the annals as past and yet again the epicenter of terrorist attacks shrugs off the aftermath and lives another day like nothing happened. This time it was a two-pronged terrorism: internal and external. In a quirk of fate the former got drowned into oblivion in the wake of a more fatal attack. I am not going to speculate on any possible nexuses between the two, because I believe that any act of terrorism is at best an attention drawing mechanism, except that they don’t have Rakhi Sawant as the bait. What I really intend to write about is the fallout.
Some folks believe it is resilience that enables Mumbaikars to survive terrorism, floods or both put together. Showing no fear is perhaps the best solution to foil a terrorist attack: but is it actually no fear? Perhaps not. In a city in which you probably need to buy breathing space, not going to work for a day can be a bigger nightmare than dying while going to your work place. Perhaps I am being too churlish. Probably it is the belief that a thief never strikes twice in the same house: quite misleading in this case with 8 (don’t nitpick on the stats even the Mumbai police still don’t know) blasts going off on the same line. Probably it is just the complacence of it-won’t-happen-to-me. Perhaps, a few hundred lives in a railway compartment may not matter to a 10 million populace that drives the country’s economic hub. The machine called life just chugs on: a few tiny cogs that went kaput get replaced by a few others. Before you bring your tanks out against me, labeling me a cynic, let me make my point. I am not advocating fear or for that matter the “celebration” or to be more politically correct “mourning” of the dead for 3 years a la 9/11.
It’s time the law enforcement intelligentsia in our country gets their thinking caps on and not start digging wells only when they are thirsty. It’s time public places were safer and not graveyards for the common man. We are not cogs, the lives of which cost 1 lakh. In a country of one billion and counting, we readily dismiss any notions to systematize our living with a perennial excuse of “population problem” and there are countries around the globe that rue the lack of population.
History repeats itself and repetition becomes tedium and invites nothing but apathy. From apathy stems inaction. It happened to Kashmir and it is happening to Mumbai and Delhi too and very soon we’ll have a few blasts right in our backyards except that they won’t be Diwali crackers.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
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13 comments:
I wonder if you are shrinking away from fully analyzing what you intend the law enforcement to enact by simply calling for strengthening the intelligentsia without seeing the hopelessness of it all or is it perhaps your haplessness that you are instinctively venting out.
Not only is procuring and making improvised explosives child’s play in the country (You don’t need to smuggle them from abroad – you can get ‘em made for a pittance within our borders) but India also has a large pool of local people who are motivated enough to commit such dastardly acts. Further we are grappling with rapid expansion and are very prominent in the world’s scheme of things there by making us hot targets for militant outfits to gain easy publicity.
Unlike some of the Western countries which are better geared to respond to such crises, I think, with greater vulnerabilities stacked against us, we need to overhaul far more than our intelligence fabric to avert more of such impending acts of terror looming large over our skies.
That said, at least the dwellers of apartments can take some solace from what you portend, they have no backyards you see.
There is no world with out evil and no place with out war against it. Some times it shows its prowess and some times it gets imprisoned. But it is a recurring activity in the wheel of time.
what will ordinary people do other than returning to their work? I too dont understand about the "resilience".What is greatness or specialty in it? The family and friends cry for the affected and others show sympathy.
Police has to prepare well to deal these kind of incidents. Any way they are getting experienced by more and more of these kind of incidents.
I still believe intelligence sources are doing well, need to get alert a bit more. Still its a war, one who takes apt decisions in time, will be the winner at the end of the day.
My salute to those who helped the affected people...
Kirthi, it's not like the "law enforcement intelligentsia" are doing nothing. I distinctly remember news of recovery of caches of weapons, explosives and cash on more than one occasion in the past few years. The task itself is herculean. Perhaps if we levy a "security tax" like the US, it might make the job easier... but try getting *that* through the parliament!
Hoh,
I wish you hadn't raked it up. But I believe that the garb of UPA's pseudo-secularism(read that as pro-Muslim "minority") is proving to be one of the biggest hurdles for the Police. With SIMI taking over Mumbai too I shudder to think of it becoming like another Kashmir. I believe POTA was a good thing to a certain extent. In fact I believe that Shiv Sena tamasha prior to the blasts warranted some arrests too. Mumbai or for that matter Maharashtra is not their personal fiefdom.
Shri,
You see a lot of hope: but let it not bring complacence and inaction.
SP,
If VAT worked why not security tax. I am willing to pay to live peacefully if that's what it comes down to: and I am sure a lot of Indians will agree with me.
Btw FYI there had been a lot of incidents of stolen ammunition (meant for levelling construction sites) from Mumbai ports prior to the blasts, which have come to light only now.
agree, in fact my last couple of posts have been revolving around the same line of thought...
Govt censor policies??? Well, you can't get more freedom of press than you have in India!
Yep My Lady that was you in the previous post , thu .....and the (*&^#$ Govt or was it the ISP who goofed up.... grrr..
I agree with HellBoy , you know you can make Ammonium Nitrate by heating Ammonium Chloride and Suphuric Acid,and you get the reactants for just Rs 250 .. hah !! and i liked Hellie's last remark .."at least the dwellers of apartments can take some solace from what you portend, they have no backyards you see. " :)
If people are helpp bent on wanting to spread terrorism, there is no freaking way you can stop them completely... I mean the reactants for making bombs r harmless by themselves... So easy to make a bomb if u know how... I know what u mean when u say that we have to do something to stop it but I think the efforts r already on... n with a slightly sluggish manforce we have done pretty well I think... The point is how to do it - not what to do.. Every little security measure that one puts in causes inconvenience to millions of normal ppl going through their normal day to day life... The question is how paranoid r we going to become and is paranoia at such large scales worth living with?
it sounds good, outsource is good for me.
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I like some links of google:
security outsource.
Yipeeee i won a bet thanks to hell boy.. lalal laaaaalaaa
Yaawwwwwn are the chemistry lessons over yet??
Manuscrypts,
Hmm and u love taking a dig at Rakhi Sawant too!!
B-A-L,
The efforts you see that are being taken are to douse the fire not to prevent one if you know what I mean. And just to prove my point: The inebriated youths who coolly took a joyride in the PMs residence and the 3 hard-disks stolen from the Defence department!
Keep up the good work
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