Attacked!

The whole Mumbai crisis made me think that while we are still thinking the usual and routine, people around the world are thinking on totally different lines. There are bunch of people who came to Bombay using the vast unchecked passages of the coastline, dock at Colaba, take out arms and ammunition, go around spraying bullets all over public places like Café Leopold, Hospitals and busy intersections, they check into our hotels as guests, some even start working there, they study, they prepare and they strike.

Why are we paying the National Security Adviser? Why is that M.K. Narayanan guy playing stupid when he could play normal? The Home Minister, god bless his tailor, actually is stupid enough to divulge security measure and the National Security Guards’ plan on live television! Rumor has it that the government was looking around for an airplane to send the commandos at 1 in the morning!!! Isn’t it a little stupid that even after so many attacks the NSG don’t have a presence in Mumbai or Chennai or the East Coast? I fail to believe how these people think? Imagine a hostage situation in say Connaught Place. The NSG are based out of Manesar, some 30 kms from Gurgaon- it would take them as much time to reach CP as much they took to reach Mumbai. Are the daredevil stunts that we see only limited to Republic Day Parades?

And what are the ‘elected’ public representatives doing while all this happened? They were ‘magnanimous’ enough to momentarily let go of thinking about personal mud slinging. They said that it’s a national crisis and we should all transcend the partisan lines but you could see that they were salivating to start politicizing the whole thing. They will wait for three or four days before letting the dogs of war lose!

The funny thing is that terror strikes one corner of Mumbai and they call it a national crisis but when the goons like Mr. Raj Thackeray unleash their terror it’s called a state issue. No one has the guts to call Mr. Thackeray’s bluff which operates on the same lines. All the celebrities whose hearts bled when the mayhem at Mumbai was targeting innocent lives do nothing when the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena bashes people up for no real reason.

I was glued to the television for a better part of the last three nights. From two people feared dead I followed every little development till we lost a hundred and fifty of them....The bizarre thing is that the whole thing looked so surreal that I'm already starting to imagine that it didn't happen...that's public memory for you and the people in power pray for such a short lived memory. Perhaps the shattered mirror at Leopold shouldn't be fixed, some part of Taj should remind us of what unfolded there lest all of us get too involved in the next crisis.

Is there any real difference between Mr. Raj Thackeraj and the nameless terrorists who were killing people at random? The Maharashtra government is always trying to get one up with the opposition to ensure their return when the next elections call upon. The Congress-NCP combine’s idea of safety is rather bizarre. They believed that installing a grandiose statue of Shivaji in the middle of the sea would put an end to such infiltration! And you dare not question that for your house will be attacked! The money that they would spend there could have been put to better use. If not the money then time, the most readily available asset in India, could have better utilized. Apparently the report on coastal security in the wake of 1993 blasts is still resting on the official table after some 15 years. Imagine how time has been wasted- some kid born in the aftermath the blasts is almost ready to vote. Oh correct that he/ she would rather be ready to sip some beer!

These SMS jokes lampooning Raj Thackeray or evoking patriotism are all fine but there is a greater challenge. One needs to accept some truths in order to amend some realities. I was around Uphaar when the damn thing caught fire, as a matter of fact I was supposed to watch the first show of Border; I was around GK-I M block market a few minutes before the bomb exploded but this time around I’m actually a little worried. I know they will tell us that every time we are scared the terror mongers have won…but isn’t that the way it is….aren’t they on a winning spree?