When I arrived office on Thursday, Mumbai was the focus of all talks.
Why Mumbai? Has something gone wrong there?
Don’t you know there have been blasts there?
Blasts! When? I did surf the news channels in the evening yesterday before sticking to a Hollywood movie.
It was after 9 in the night.
After 9! That means it is not safe to venture out at night too (The recent blasts had a few things in common – they were on weekends and in the evening, closer to 6).
Are we safe anywhere and anytime?
…………………………………..
Deep was the first friend I called in Mumbai.
Arre…blasts are common in India these days. Didn’t you recently have one in your city (he meant Delhi)?
Yeah but they have continued till today. Isn’t that a cause for concern?
Not a bit. Waise bhi I am not going to office today. Isi bahane mid-week mey relax karne ka mauka mil jayega (will get a chance to relax).
But as the day proceeded, his concern was palpable when I called him in the evening that day.
Yaar, I am afraid now. How can this be so prolonged? Also schools, colleges, offices, local trains, and shops too are closing. My parents want me to immediately leave the city.
I had no assurances.
———————-
Later in the night, Star Movies was airing ‘Babel’.
Starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, the movie busted the long held belief of Americans that they are a superior race and that they are born to fight all evils afflicting the world.
Brad Pitt finds himself in Morocco with his wife (played by Cate Blanchett) badly wounded by a gun shot by two curious boys (which everyone believes is the work of terrorists).
While the natives attend to the wounded women, there is no help received from the American embassy, not even an ambulance. Even fellow tourists, with who the couple were travelling, refuse to stay any longer, complaining of non functional AC.
At the same time, there is the illegal Mexican help, who saves the life of two American kids, at the cost of her own life.
Why I mention this film now has a reason.
Raj Thackeray and team has forever looked down upon people from the north, especially UP and Bihar. At a time, when Mumbai was undergoing the worst ever crisis, and Raj and goons decided to be mute spectators, it was people from all over India (Maharashtra included) who decided to give their support. The NSG had not the sons of the Maharashtra soil as the only fighter. They were sons of the entire Indian soil. All of us, from different parts of the country, had their eyes glued to our TV sets, waiting with bated breaths, when the bloody battle would come to an end.
—————————–
The battle of Mumbai is won. But the cost that India has to pay is massive
- 195 dead and over 300 injured.
- Initial cost of attack Rs. 50 Crores (approx)
- Loss of foreign exchange $20 billion
- 10 foreigners among those killed
- 15 police personnel lost their life
- Among them were Hemant Karkare (ATS Chief), Ashok Kamte (Additional Commissioner of Police), Vijay Salaskar (Senior Inspector), Major Sandeep Unnithan (National Security Guards), and two commandos.
And how the policy makers want to compensate for all these losses?
- By making a scapegoat of Shivraj Patil, the Home Minister of India
- By pressurizing the Maharashtra CM and Deputy CM to part with their chairs
- By suggesting a new anti-terror law that is yet to be agreed upon by allies, leave apart the opposition.
- By suggesting more policies that show no immediate effect.
And then follows the reactions of people who have no faith in politicking:
Hemant Karkare’s wife declines any compensation from Narendra Modi. During his living years, he was heading the Malegaon blasts case, the bone of contention for the BJP.
Major Sandeep Unnithan’s father declined to meet Kerala CM.
And then the common man
“After each blast, you tell me this was the last. This was the last time my life was terrorised; life will be safe hereafter, the government assures. Since I have no choice, I go about my life as ever. The media praises me, says that life is once again back on track. And just then there’s another blast – not the last one though”.
ItyaAdi 
I am not a supporter or opposer of any political party but just a person who wants to keep the truth on the table. Mumbai blasts were upsetting and revealed the real face of india’s core weaknesses. They blamed it on intelligence but wait a minute, isn’t the intelligence a part of government? which means the government failed! Other question which people are asking me is that is intelligence the only solution to curb terrorism? not really. Try as hard as you may but anyone can get through the best intelligence and security and the best evidence of this is that osama is still at large. Immediately after WTC attacks america learnt that without proper law it cannot even protect it’s homeland. What followed later was new terrorism laws which aimed at preventing it rather than curing it so instead of concentrating on hollywood movie like black dressed commandos it gave more powers to FBI and CIA which constantly kept a watch on activities of local moolahs and so called islamic scholars, some of which were backstabbing america by providing shelter, funds and logistic support to the terroist organizations. It maybe argued that sometimes the american security agencies misused terrorist laws and harrased innocent moslems but if you look at the bigger picture they never allowed terrorists to set one foot in the great state of america. The world has to wake up to the phenomenon called as islamic terrorism which is far more inhuman than any other forms of war. Even if india is a mixed state which has good amount of moslem population they have to create laws if they want to see economic growth. Since islamic terror is a global phenomenon and india is not pardoned as it’s majority population is hindus and most moslems cannot accept that and feel sidelined, it is a dangerous mix. The islamic community in the world is facing what it is supposed to face because even the intellectuals of this community are involved in terrorist activities and provide various forms of support so when it comes to common people they will face the wrath of others as their leaders themselves are involved in acts of terror. We cannot justify harrasement of innocent people but at the same time we cannot accept the killing of innocent people on the streets. The day shouldn’t come where the world will be ruled by satanic moolahs. I failed to understand why the present indian government ousted a good law called as POTA. Maybe there were some instances of misuse by police but unfortunately that is the case of this present world and india has to accept the fact that some people will have to be forcibly spied to get important evidence to avert the spilling of innocent people’s blood on the streets which includes moslems too.
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good post I must say )
cant seem to find any sharing engine on ur blog. y dnt u put up something like Tell-a-Friend so that visitor like me can easily share ur posts with frens thru mails,IMs,blogs,socialnetworking sites etc…u cn simply register on http://www.socialtwist.com Do check it out 🙂
@ SK – thanks for your comment. I agree with u that POTA was good as an anti-terror law and the UPA govt shudn’t have done away with it until they had a good substitute. Now that UPA is insisting on such a law, BJP is not showing interest in it. Until there is a political will to fight terror, i don’t think anything can be done.
@ Zo – Good that u have found my blog interesting. Yes, i cudn’t spot any sharing tool. looks like they do not work on WordPress.com.
It truly is a sad tragedy. As always I found your post really interesting to read. The last paragraph was especially moving. Very well written!
Yes it is really very sad. This time i am very optimistic that there will be some solution in sight. The government is finally talking tough
I have not really seen a lot of posts written the way this one has been written about Mumbai !!!
glad to have reached your blog !!!
Good that u liked my blog. Even i liked ur pictures and left a few comments on ur blog