THE CARNAGE IN MUMBAI

The Indians finally had it now, in abundance. Earlier, every time a terror incidence happened in the past, the country took it in stride and went on with its life. Nobody really bothered about the size and substance of the terrorist strikes that happened. It is only after 10 seaborne terrorist belonging to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (L-e-T) outfit easily invaded South Mumbai and did blood bath in the Taj Heritage Hotel, the Oberoi Trident, the Nariman House, the Chatrapati Shivaji Railway Terminus, the Cama Hospital and other places; that the Mumbaikars, the Maharashtrians and the Indians fully realized that in our country anything like this is possible anytime, anywhere. Our surveillance systems, warning systems and the security systems are so lax that even an untrained terror outfit can create havoc in the country.

I heard Shekhar Gupta, the high profile Editor of Indian Express commenting in a TV show that among the last 4/5 governments that had ruled India, this one belonging to Manmohan Singh was the most ineffective in handling country’s security. Every time an incident happens, the PM would condemn it and get on with it. There was no proper action taken (neither reactive nor proactive). Look at what had happened at Mumbai. The Indian police force with antique model bullet proof vests and archaic protective measures is fighting fully armored terrorists. Their AK 47 is replied with 303 rifles! I just saw footage of what happened in CST where the two terrorist were indiscriminatingly and continuously firing with their AK 47 and a police constable desperately trying to load his 303 rifle up to shoot them. I do not know if that cop is alive and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been martyrered.

The Intelligence agencies had already started their blame game. The RAW & IB had stressed that they had passed on information to the security forces about the impeding seaborne terrorist attack at Mumbai. The Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and the Mumbai Police have been replying that the intelligence input was of generic nature that nothing actionable could be done on that. Every agency is trying to cover up, what else? Once the attack began, one must admit that Mumbai police fought valiantly. High profile officers like Karkare and Kamte led the retaliation and perished in the process. The country owes to them immensely. Though under resourced with antique equipments, the Mumbai Fire force did a splendid job, that too in front the spraying bullets. And that was indeed a higher call! The NSG commandos came in (thought late) to complete the annihilation of the terrorists and get Mumbai out of the siege that it was for close to 72 hours. They too had lost men in the process and that includes Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. NSG did what is required of them and turned out to become the heroes, getting the gratitude of every Mumbaikar.

Every one - the people, the press and the experts were unanimous in their expressions of utter contempt of Indian Political leadership. Throughout the siege, on every channel, the scared and anguished citizen of Mumbai were asking what had the Government and the politicians done for such incidents not to happen, in spite of the fact that it had been happening at regular intervals in Mumbai. Looks like the Government and the leaders haven’t thought of the safety of the hapless citizen and took the intelligence warning very casually. India is full of these self centered, illiterate, corrupt and inefficient politicians. It is high time these good-for-nothing guys are thrown out. Hearing the comments of RR Patil, the Dy Chief Minister who was also the Home minister of Maharashtra, one feels ashamed of having such people ruling us. No wonder, so many high profile heads rolled after the carnage.

What is the role of Pakistan in all these? Well, its political leadership could not have done anything but the role of other powerful elements such as Army and ISI in this event cannot be ruled out. How true is former American Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when she said that Pakistan is an international migraine. Its leadership is helpless and clueless and its control on the state affairs is very minimal. The Jihadi groups are completely free and is continuing with their act of training militants, killing hapless citizens & foreigners and sabotaging democratic processes & institutions. The country is bankrupt with high levels of unemployment. The education is still through madrasas where the radical clergy is injecting every student with feeling of hatred for anything un-Islamic. The lone terrorist who was captured at Mumbai seemingly had confirmed the direct role of Hafiz Saeed, the founder chief of L-e-T and the former ISI chief in training them and indoctrinating the group. People such as Hafiz Saeed, Moulana Masood Azhar (founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed), Dawood Ibrahim (D company!) etc.,who are listed in the international list of banned terrorists live and move around freely and easily in that country. It is time some semblance of discipline and order is brought about in Pakistan. Will it ever happen?

As for India and its citizen, we continue to live with the anguish of the carnages, the sadness on the loss of our dear kith and kin to terrorism and with the eternal fear on what will happen next, where. This is a terrible feeling. It is time our leadership rose to the occasion, kept rhetoric aside to get into proactive actions of preparing the Nation, its administrative and security machinery to prevent such mayhem from happening. The people are waiting for such confidence building measures to happen.

I think it is time.