Mumbai 26/11

The Mumbai terrorist attack is something that has not only shocked the entire nation but also the entire world. I believe this attack will have a huge impact in India .I agree that it’s not possible to prevent every attack. Our intelligence system can not be blamed. If a motivated person decides that he wants to cause some damage, it’s next to impossible to predict when and where he is going to attack. The problem with this attack is that, these terrorist came in via the sea, went about shooting people and then took refuge in various places and the whole process went about for quite a while. Even if one cannot predict a terrorist attack, but if terrorist go about shooting people, we expect the authorities to be able to handle the situation much quicker. I don’t know if it’s just me but 4 or 5 top police officers getting killed is not something normal. The people who are supposed to lead the operation getting killed, all at once is something really disturbing. The whole situation exposed the unpreparedness of our police system.

I was just looking back at the entire incident. Initially I was impressed by the way the politicians handled the whole situation. The Prime Minister and the leader of opposition seemed to be united. Well, I came to such a conclusion way to early. I felt the BJP made a lot of hypocritical statements. Today, for no apparent reason we see Narainder Moodi, who starts to cry when one asks him about the godhra riots which was “handled” by him, comes to Mumbai and has a press conference at ground zero as if he was some important national leader, while the encounter was still going on. I guess he forgot the fact that he is hated in most of India. It’s quite appalling the way in which the BJP handled the entire situation. Anything that the BJP has to say on terrorism can be termed as hypocrisy. All the terrorist attacks that happen in India are in one way or the other because of the BJP. Terrorist attacks in this form started happen only after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, which was pioneered by the BJP and its affiliated sorry excuses for cultural organizations. Who can forget the way they handled the communal violence in Gujarat and the Kandhar hijacking, which happened when the BJP government was in power. They released terrorist, who are responsible for almost all the terrorist attacks that happen around the world. So the BJP has no freaking moral right to preach about terrorism. These attacks would have taken place no matter who was in power. If the BJP doesn’t watch itself and tries to take too much political mileage out of this, instead of having a hung assembly after the elections, the BJP, like last time out, because of its arrogance would find itself sitting in the left side of the house. By no means am I defending the congress. They have to admit their failure but the BJP is making sure that a lot of hatred that the peopel will have for the ruling is shifted towards them. 

I hope Raj Thakkare wont have a problem with the non Marathi NSG officers saving Marathi lives.  

The notion of having newer terror laws is purely a political propaganda. These terrorist come out to die. No law is going to deter them. What we need is a well equipped police system. People should not be allowed to run around with guns firing at people. Even though our forces are doing a very good job in handling the present situation, I feel that a lot more needs to be done. The police forces need to get more training and should be well equipped. There is no way that we can eliminate terrorism in the near future. What we can do is be prepared for such attacks, Modernization holds the key.

Our intelligence system has been getting a lot a stick. I feel people are being a bit unfair to do so. The geographical position of India is such that it’s a miracle we have had only these many terrorist attacks. We have wonderful neighbors; Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. China is not directly involved in the terrorist attacks in India but their support to Pakistan is really hurting us and I believe that is something that they want. We have a humongous cost line. To patrol the entire cost line is not an easy task.

People might wonder why India has more terrorist attacks than say USA. USA is very far from Pakistan and Bangladesh. It takes some doing to travel across the world with weapons and create havoc. It because of our relative position in the world that we are facing this many terrorist attacks.

What this attack has done is that it has shaken us very badly. The Prime ministers address to the nation was very strong. He literally said that Pakistan was involved in the attacks in one way or the other and said that there will be serious consequences. The way the PM has handled the entire situation is quite commendable. For the first time he is acting like the Prime Minister of India. The External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukkerji, also had some strong words for Pakistan. Top officials of our forces have also blamed Pakistan. Now from what I have seen so far, there is a serious deterioration of Indo-Pak relations which in turn can lead to a war. The Pakistan officials keeping that in mind are constantly in touch with India. War at this point of time can cause India dearly (economically).Right now we are in a situation where its gonna be really hard for us to find a job, on top of that if we have a war or something similar, things wont be too good for us. I really hope that such a step is not taken. I honestly do not think that the present government in Pakistan is directly involved in terrorist activities that originate from Pakistan. Moreover a war will destabilize Pakistan more and the situation won’t be favorable for India. I hope we handle the whole issue wrt Pakistan cautiously. The way the Pakistan side is reacting shows the seriousness of the matter. You see people in the highest level giving press conferences every 30mins, and are willing to answer each and every question. They are not acting in a way heads of states are supposed to act. This shows that even they are aware of the Pak link. Sending the ISI chief to India, how often does that happen?

This attack has had a huge impact on our image. We are going through tough economic times and this attack will affect us very adversely at least in the short term. The attack depicts India to the world as an unsafe place. Our political and intelligence system have got a bashing in the international media. There has been a huge dent in our image in the international front. Above all that the attack has angered the Indian public. As a result of this attack many changes can be expected on the ground. This attack in a way has helped us see the loop holes in our system. Hopefully the sentiment won’t die off and we can get to so some solid steps.

These terrorist who looks like school kids, have managed to terrorize a nation for more than 50 hours. Two things can be inferred out of this. First, they are well trained and are damn good in what they do. Second it doesn’t give a “good impression” about out preparedness. One terrorist with no hostages holding up scores of NSG personals, I do not know what to say.

Another thing that came to my notice was the accolades that the employees of both the hotels got from the trapped tourist. They have taken customer satisfaction to an all new level. There have been reports of many hotel staff putting their life at risk to come to the aid of their guests. The tourist also had praises for our security forces. I was also pretty impressed with they way many news channels handled the whole issue.

Even before the terrorist attack it was quite obvious that if some one comes up with a gun and starts shooting anywhere in the country, the chances of the person being gunned down before causing soem damage is very low. But this incident just took it to a whole new level. I hope serious reforms are made and our forces made more equiped to handle such situations. 

Tragic the situation is, but I believe that a lot of good is going to come out of this. My heart goes out for every one who lost their lives. I was touched by the brave relatives of the people who lost loved ones. When the going gets tough the tough gets going. This incident has proved that in a crisis all humas are tough. 

Where are we heading to

Yet another bomb blast in India, that too in the national capital. Is our national security that hopeless that no Indian can feel safe in their own home? For a country which is as big and great as India is the security situation here is pathetic. We compare our selves with China and in this front we lagging far behind. Instead of concentrating on state specific anti terror laws we should spend a major share of resources in counter terrorist units, terrorism prevention etc. As we are facing terror attacks after terror attacks and most of them are not being solved, the terrorist have an invincible feeling and for good reason. I am fed up of hearing politicians condemning these acts. It’s time for action. 

We can solve this problem in two ways. Do the unthinkable, bring in the military into the country and destroy all the naxals, terrorist and various antisocial, anti national pieces of crap. Bringing the army into various parts of the country will have its side effects. The army will be ruthless and the normal life will be affected for sure. This will be very fast and will have political, economic and social fallouts (consider the example of Indira Gandhi and the Sikh issue). This will be a very effective method of solving this problem but is unlikely to be implemented. Military is only called upon if every single possible alternative has been thought about, implemented and failed. 

The second way is a long and permanent way to solve the problem. We got to improve our intelligence system(even though we get intelligence on various bomb threats, we need to have more specific intelligence reports as where the bombs will be detonated), have a system through which each and every person in the country can be identified (some kind of ID card), much more security in our borders and various such steps should be taken. A central agency like the FBI should be there to prevent and investigate such attacks. We need to have experts in this field to ensure that our country becomes much safer. We need to improve our cyber crime prevention unit. There are so many hackers/crackers in this country and the government needs to utilize them in the most productive way possible. We need to intercept various communications so that we can prevent such acts of terror. Unfortunately to implement anything we need funds, which is something we lack.

The Home minister and the government have to take certain portion of the blame for such terror attacks. It seems that every state in India is a soft target. The problem that I have is that the government is not taking any concert steps. Even though I do not think BJP or any other party would have done anything better as the congress is ruling they should take responsibility for these attacks. I remember when I was small my parents used to tell me do not take anything kept on the road (like plastic covers or anything) as they could be bombs. There were various movies which showed various ways in which terrorist plant bombs. When ever we saw a cover or anything a bomb alert would automatically go in our minds. I believe its time that the present generation children got such training. 

Can anything be done to monitor such a vast and diverse country like India? I don’t know the answer. But what the government can do is show the people what it is doing to prevent such acts. Give the people as sense that the government is doing what ever it can to ensure the safety of its citizens. The government needs to prove to the people of the nation that it cares.  Every other week we see news reporters taking bombs into various sensitive areas and exposing the vulnerability of our system, which is very unsettling. 

Another main issue which the government have to watch as a by product of these attacks is communal violence. The terrorist are not doing the Muslims in the country any good by these attacks. All attacks are done in the name of Allah. If the attacks keep on continuing the chances of communal violence in India is really high. Naxal attacks are a totally different issue all together. 

Where do we go from here? I don’t know. What I want is very simple, strong and concrete action from the government. Instead of saying sorry (as the Home minister has just said) I want to know what the government is doing so that terrorist cannot plant bombs as easily as a child plants trees. I agree that all terror attacks cannot be prevented but the frequency with which these attacks are happening in India is alarmingly high. This is a time when the people of the nation are feeling unsafe. In a way these terror attacks are a way through which a nation which is deeply divided can find a common ground through which it can unite. The government, law enforcement agencies and the people of India should unite and tackle this problem together. Mutual cooperation is the only way through which India can get this messes of terrorism under control and move forward