Indian government’s jeopardy - Dec 5, 2008

I came across this interesting article. Have a look at it. It is similar to the condition of our Indian government.

“Imagine your pocket has been picked. You see the young pickpocket running away but can't chase him down with a sprained ankle. There's a constable on the other side of the road but he's got a potbelly and you've heard that he is mixed up with criminals. Just then a police officer you know is driving past.

Seeing you're crying yourself silly, he stops and listens to you sympathetically. "I've has been summoned by the boss," he tells you. "If I find the chor on my way, I'll catch him and get back your purse," he adds helpfully. Meanwhile, the constable on the other side has vanished.

It's a wretched situation. You can see the thief and yet can't do anything about it. You only have a number of non-options and this leaves you virtually paralyzed. You curse your luck that the purse contains the month's salary. Now magnify this crime a hundred times over.

It's not just that you've lost your money. It's a matter of your life and security. The killer has already mowed down hundreds and is coming towards you. You may have ways of stopping him but each option will come with scary side effects. You face the same paralysis-inducing dilemma, leading to a sense of helplessness.”

That's really the predicament of the government in the wake of the Mumbai carnage — it knows the killers, knows where they were trained, who were the trainers, their links with sections of the ISI, and much more. Yet it doesn't know what to do next. Funny isn’t it, but dangerous. Because the more time they take more are the consequences. Who knows the terrorists might have even shifted their base and moved somewhere else or even to some other country, guess the neighboring Afghanistan. Time to act is now.

I updated this idea first and will then focus on the steps that can be taken to prevent another massacre.

Finally its over.. 60 hrs of epic battle.. – 29 Nov, 2008

This was the morning I was waiting from the past 2 days. As it is a Saturday, I am a lazy bump and waking time gets delayed by atleast 3 hrs. 11 am I switched on the TV and saw the breaking news: “Taj siege ends. All terrorists killed by the NSG”. Bravo NSG. You have made us proud by saving innocent lives.

I gave my doctor’s appointment a miss and was glued to the TV set. Later by the day, as they started to sanitize the Taj palace, the number of people who were killed in the firing increased enormously.

Considering my last statement in the first para (Bravo NSG), I am still thinking whether I should be proud of them or I should first think of the root cause of why this whole thing happened. Not because they were better then us, definitely not. But because we ignored the intelligence thinking it was some hoax call. Maha police couldn’t do much because imagine what will happen when u fight an Ak-47 (600 rounds/min) with a lathi. Forget it, don’t even think.

The casualties list is even more dangerous. Officials claim that its under 200, but the fire dept said that they removed 160 bodies from Taj alone. Who is saying the truth? But whatever the case be there were many foreign nationals among them, and from different countries including Israel, US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Thailand and others. Who will reply to their families when the root cause lies in Indian government’s failure?

There was one terrorist captured by the police on Wednesday, while the other 9 were killed. The lone terrorist revealed their entire plot and the newspapers were filled with his stories on Saturday. My point does it make sense to reveal what has already happened? We should interrogate him about his origin, the groups plan and other terrorist already present in India.

Whatever happened should not be just buried under the books of history. It’s high time to respond to such tragic incidents will unity and give the current government a run for their money. Next edition I will focus more on the steps we all can collectively perform to make India a better place to live.

Black Friday – 28 Nov, 2008

After a terrible yesterday for Mumbai, when I got up early morning I was expecting some news of relief that the siege is finally over. But before going to office, to update myself about the siege I switched on the TV to get same bad news that the firing is still in progress.

Later on in the day I was closely monitoring the news channels and found that the commando’s were air dropped on the terrace of the Nariman house. I wondered why not they used this tactic the previous day itself. We could have saved more lives. Was it a delay on our part?

As the day progressed I was receiving the same update until at last I heard some good news. There was this update on the Times of India website at around 8 pm:

“The terror war on Mumbai is on the verge of ending with security forces securing the 5-star Oberoi hotel and a Jewish Centre (Nariman House) but gunmen (numbers unclear) continued to hold out inside the Taj hotel”। Some signs of relief at last. But of course there was still a bad news attached to it, the Taj was still under attack.

The death toll was rising continuously (I wont mention it here because it’s still unclear of the exact number). Quite a lot of them were foreigners, which is a shame on the government that we cannot protect our tourists. There was also some confusion as to how many hostages were still held up in the Taj. The government confused the media in morning that there was a lone terrorist in the Taj, but later in the day they changed there statement and increased the count to 6. How can the government be so careless releasing unconfirmed statements to the media and creating more panic?

Evening as usual I visited my doctor. The anger and frustration among the Mumbaikars could be seen even in the small clinic among the patients and the doctors. They wanted a complete change in the political scenario. There I wished we had someone like Obama and his principles echoed in my ear, “Change We Need”.

Expecting the final good news on the next day I laid flat on my bed. I could not sleep for some time thinking what has happened to this country? Why only Mumbai for such deadly event? When will the politician realize that they rare not sitting in the chair just for the sake of it, they are there because we elected them. They should act strongly and think of our safety first.

Thursday’s Bloodbath – 27 Nov, 2008

Got up after a good sleep only to realize the TV in ON state. (PS: I did not have the slightest clue of what was going around me) There has some very rare situations when the TV in my house is in ON condition at 7 am. Then I realized some bad news should have been flooded.

I got out of my bed and while watching the TV I just unlocked my phone to realize 5 missed calls and 10 message all carrying the same message “Bomb blast and Firing in south Mumbai by terrorists. Please take care while going to office” I was stunned. I never imagined I neglected the news of terrorist attacks in the heart of Mumbai the previous day. The very next moment I called up all those who board the bus from Malad of their decision whether to go or not. It was a unanimous response “NO”. My decision supported them and called up my PL to inform of my absence.

That day I was glued to the news channel and Internet for all the latest update I can get. I got updates that the places attacked were Leopold café, TAJ Palace, Oberio-Trident towers, Nariman house, CST, Cama hospital and some firing outside CST. I was shocked about the magnitude of the incident. The death toll was already raised till 101 and injured list was creeping to 287.

A small Islamic extremist group, the Mujahedeen of India's Deccan region, claimed responsibility, but some media cited American sources who suspected the larger, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group or the Indian Mujahedeen may have been behind the attack. It doesn’t matter who it is, because we all know the origin of these attacks.

It’s the most barbaric incident happened in India and it was particularly targeted at foreign nationals (UK, US and Ireland). This signified their major intentions.

Among the people who were killed were some top cops like ATS chief Hemant Karkare (he was also handling the Malegaon bomb blast case), ACP Ashok Kamte and Encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. This was a major loss of some significant people in the terrorist attacks.

I was somewhat relieved to hear that the NSG and Marine commandos were flown to Mumbai. But later on questioned, why was there delay of almost 12 hours? Then I searched the net to find that maharashtra police does not have its own anti-terrorism force. How can you guys even imagine fighting AK-47’s with lathis or 5 rounds rifle.

This is the day I mourned the most and criticized the government’s incapability of handling such attacks which already cost them hundreds of lives. :-(

In the morning I contacted my doctor about the opening timings of the clinic, and she replied its shut and might be open in evening. This signifies the impact of the attacks in Malad even tough it was some 50 kms away from the attack sites.

A Wednesday – 26 Nov, 2008

A usual working day for me. Completed my work on time and left office at 6pm in the so called star bus of TCS. From the past 10 days I have been undergoing a treatment for my left wrist, which is still in a bad shape after a little fall outside my house. So I reached the physio’s clinic at around 7.30 pm, administered the ultra-sound and TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator) plus some exercises.

Reached home at 8.45, had some refreshment and then some time pass with my I-pod (I have been carrying that for more than a year but still haven’t lost craze for it :-), Apple rocks)

How can I forget, it was also a day for a day-nighter between India-England. An exciting one. Then suddenly in between the match I decided to switch the channel to DD News. (I have only 2 channels, DD News and DD National. I don’t have a craze for TV, so no cable TV at my home) There I saw some flash news showing some kind of shootout in Colaba region. I neglected it thinking that it might be some gangster shootout operation being carried out in south Mumbai. Had my dinner and slept at my usual time (11 pm).

Never in my dream had I recognized that I neglected the news about Mumbai attacks which shook the entire world. As I sleep like a kumbakaran (an ancient demon who was known for his sleeping style) I missed a lot of SMSes and calls from friends and relatives who wanted to inquire about the health of our family. I feel so embarrassed about my sleeping habit, which I realized the day after A Wednesday.

Start of a journey...

Decided to write a blog of the daily events happening in my life (a mumbaikar) after the recent massacre in Mumbai. I have another blog for the Global Warming tough, as I am an environmentalist. Of course I wont be updating my daily stuff out here, but some unusual events that altered the course of my thinking for that particular day or permanently.