Much has been said and written about the attacks in Mumbai but will something at all be done is the big question mark.the attacks are a blow not only to the morality of the nation but also confirms our worst fears, the Congress and the UPA has turned the nation into a soft target for terrorists.There is enough anguish in people to use up the whole of blogosphere and may be we are all being turned into agony aunts and uncles. Barkha Dutt in all her dainty diplomatic glory said that its always easy to blame the politicians and the government at such moments but its the solidarity that matters. Maybe she is partly right but that successive governments are to blame and especially the National Congress is a biting reality that the aam admi has known for long.And here’s why
Minority Appeasing
while a nation as diverse as India needs to pride itself on its unity and secular structure our politicians have played the monkey here ,never really doing enough to uplift the minority and not willing to address the problem that haunt the nation because of people who are unwilling perhaps to get integrated.Discrimination and caste structures and BJP’s hard stance are the often cited excuses for the mess, especially when Union Minister Kapil Sibbal is asked to comment on national television. Unfortunately for him and quite a few others, this problem of the jehad brand of extremism is not isolated to India alone. It is a world over phenomena surely, our brahmins were not there everywhere to discriminate!That the BJP did a grave mistake by promoting the atrocities in Gujarat violence is not to be doubted but to cite that as the reason for an escalation in terror is sheer impotency.That the US,Spain or UK did not have a single major terror attack since their respective ordeals is a testimony to their anti terror mechanisms.
we on the other hand do not crack down on the madrasaas, were reluctant to ban SIMI, will cite human right and minority violations when convicted criminals are hanged, will dismantle terror laws and cosy up to the nation across the border even after repeated evidence of its complicity in anti-India activities.
the worst problem we face is whom to choose, one party promotes extremism against its own people the other fails to recognize any kind of trouble at all. that the nation’s security is foremost on the agenda is something the government must wake up to.
What we need indeed is a dynamic and systematic anti terror mechanism and a government willing to pursue that giving it whatever that takes.Till then, probably as Prahlad Karkar put it, its the rape of Mumbai and in a larger picture,the whole of India we witness as mute spectators.
The media circus
the media as usual had a fieldday. Repeatedly showing the Taj , Orient and Nariman house and occasionally dropping in the names of other places where the attack took place.why the hell on earth would NDTV want to interview Mahesh Bhatt at such moments is something that escapes me. The man is obnoxious even in normal circumstances. And of course yes, the mandatory ” how do you feel Mr…. knowing that your son -in-law is trapped inside?”, he must have stuck a finger up the nose of the female who interviewed him.
That it was a collective failure in strategy and a case of being caught unaware when three major officials were shot dead is something thats hardly mentioned. But of course its indeed a time to salute all the brave people who staked their lives sucessfully and otherwise to fight the terror that gripped the city of Mumbai. Even while you ponder on that surely you can hear the politicians bickering for diplomacy with neighbouring countries and for the minority votes?
