“Terror Uninterrupted”, “War on Mumbai”, “Enough is Enough”: The screeching headlines of the past 2 days say it all. It’s been a shameful and regretful period of 48 hours, wherein a handful of terrorists held an entire city, an entire nation hostage. The worst part, the terrorists displayed brazen audacity in terms of the plan that they used for the attacks, as well as the targets that they selected for the strike. The Taj, The Oberoi, a couple of the defining icons of our country, where the who-is-who of our nation/world rub shoulders, were under siege. Here is a thought to ponder on, if the terrorists can enter such high-profile places, which have high-tech surveillance equipment and trained security personnel, and carry out a planned attack in such an audacious manner, how safe can a common man on the street feel?
In the aftermath of this attack, when we look back at what happened, there would be multiple reactions. The politicians have already started playing the game of one-upmanship, and are trying to sway the moods and emotions of people in their favor for political gains. On the other hand, there would be a growing consortium of voices blaming a certain community and a certain region for this tragedy. Without enough evidence, making such statements is only dangerous and inflammatory, and could act as a fuel for more such acts in the future. Personally, I don’t subscribe to these thoughts, because I have many really good friends who belong to varied religions. At the end of the day, each one of them is just like me: a simple, peace-loving person who wants a happy and meaningful life for his family, for himself and for his friends. So leaving these one-upmanship attempts and jingoism aside, the real question is what can we do to ensure that something like this never happens again?
NDTV ran a very good segment titled “Enough is Enough” late in the evening today. It was heart-warming to see some of the most-respected journalists and citizens of the country put forth their thoughts and urge fellow citizens to not let this incident die down as just another unfortunate incident, or to let politicians start another war of mud-slinging, but rather to unite together and lead our “supposed” leaders to take stringent actions that result in a more comprehensive and cohesive security regime. As Barkha Dutt and Pranoy Roy talked to multiple people, it was almost a surprise to see our ever-effervescent and cheerful Harsha Bhogle seethe with anger on this segment. While what he and Sanjana Kapoor reflected a thoughtful, mature and educated approach to tackle the issue and it’s aftermath, there was a senior female columnist (looking more like a Page 3 socialite out for a party) who chose wrong words to comment on the tragedy. Her comments about “faceless casualties” in “bomb attacks in crowded markets" versus “individual tragedy” in this instance, just because she knows one of the victims, had overtones of snobbishness and fake sympathy. Before her comments could do major damage in making viewers think if we were reacting more strongly this time because the affluent were under attack as opposed to the lower and middle class who have been the major victims in the past terrorist incidents, it was great to see a couple of other senior journalists, who were standing there with her, give a spin to her comment and lead the discussion towards a more profound difference.
Here is the most-defining comment from the segment. A doctor couple, who themselves were trapped at the Taj, saved the life of a critically injured staff member. This is what they (Doctor Prashant Mangeshikar and his wife) had to say,
“Every life had to be saved, irrespective of who it was. I was really angry when someone made a phone call to check what kind of department he (staff member) belongs to. I thought what is he trying to say? If he was a Vice President of Taj, would he get special treatment? I said, forget it, he is a human being, his life has to be saved”.
If only our Page 3, socialite, journalist, Madame had chosen her words so meticulously!
Anyways, coming back to the question about what needs to be done, while I am not qualified in that field to suggest concrete steps, here are some thoughts (some others', some mine)
- Frame and publish a national policy on “zero tolerance for terrorism”
- Have a central intelligence agency – as opposed to multiple state/central agencies who are currently working with little or no co-ordination
- Have a thoroughly trained and highly equipped crisis management force, with a single command center, on the ground
- Have more units of NSG, deployed in a distributed manner to prevent and counter terror attacks, rather than have them act as bodyguards for our VVIP politicians
- Engage other nations and establish a global anti-terror organization that has a single agenda, "Wipe off terrorism from the face of this planet through education, through economic growth, through peace, and if needed, as a last resort, counter-offensive".
Having listed these, an even more important ask is the need to convince ourselves that it is up to “us” to fight this terror! For a moment, let's think "How would it be if instead of having illiterate/rogue netas, who don’t understand the ABCD of economics, technology, security, or global politics, we had smart, educated and immaculate leaders like Harsha Bhogle and Barkha Dutt hold the reigns of our nation?" We have many more such names that could easily put our nation on the right path, and lead it into the future. Wait a second. If we do have such able people, who might also be willing to lead us, what is stopping them from entering the fray? Again, the answer is “us”. We, the educated, the urbane, are never there to support these candidates even if they are willing to put in their candidature. When it comes to electing our representatives, we all shy away due to various reasons. This leaves the job of deciding, as to who comes to power, in the hands of the uneducated masses, who can easily be swayed under the influence of divisive/petty politics.
So as I end this post, I commit to change myself! When I wake up in the morning,
To conclude, we have adopted a “Chalta Hai” attitude for too long. If
For those who might be interested, here are the videos that capture Harsha Bhogle's and Sanjana Kapoor's discussion from that segment
