Thursday, November 26, 2009

I am with Bombay

It’s 1 year since the carnage today, and the entire country is getting into a state about it though not in the way that we should be. We’re organizing & attending candle vigils, walks, memorial services, tributes etc. The media has been doing documentary dramas, special features & panel discussions. But strangely, no one seems to be asking the questions that matter the most and demanding answers to them, given that an entire year has passed since 26/11/2008.

What has our government done to bolster our security in the past 1 year? Can we rest assured that such attacks will not take place in India again in the future?

For all the America-bashing that we, and the world, loves to do, LOOK AT THEM. There hasn’t been a single attack on America since 9/11/2001. They too were caught unaware when planes rammed into the twin towers, but they immediately got their act together. I am by no means justifying Afghanistan or Iraq. Or the racial & ethnic profiling that may have happened as a by-product of enhanced security at airports & other strategic points. But the bottom line is that America sent out a clear message to the world that it can’t be messed with, and no one has dared to do so since then.

So what WE need is not to carpet bomb Pakistan. But we need not be “talking” to them either. The Pakistani government, as of now, is clearly incapable of preventing terrorist attacks on its own soil. How can it be expected to help prevent attacks on us? You can’t expect help from a government that washes off its hand from its citizens killing people in another country by saying they were “non-state actors”, in the first place!!

In such a situation, we need to secure our own borders. We need to seek out the terrorists who are already within our borders, operating from our soil, planning attacks on us. We need to find them and bring them to book, rather than waiting for America to chance upon a David Headley.

Why is Kasab still in jail? He’s obviously thriving there, demanding biryanis!! And I read this morning in the papers that it’s taken the government Rs 31 crores to keep him alive till now!! 31 fucking crores of the tax payer’s money. The same tax payers who lost their family & friends at the hands of Kasab & his gang members are paying for Kasab’s security. Well, about time we stoped funding his security, don’t you think? And his biryanis too!!

My thoughts & prayers are with Bombay, the people who call it home (and those who have made it home), the people who demonstrated bravery in the face of terror, and those who lost their lives to a handful of deranged, misguided men. Today, and always, I am with Bombay.

5 comments:

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Scarlett,

Just to add to that, Mumbai was 5 stars were the equivalent of TOI front page. At the risk of sounding cynical, great media planning.

Sice 2611 Maoists have gone on a ramapage, Ulfa has more blasts in Guwahati than Peshawar has... and our polity is fighting over what language to swear in in and whether a report on what happened 17 years back should have been leaked.

At least the lot of those whom make candles were improve after 2611

Scarlett said...

@The Knife - I didn't get this bit..."Just to add to that, Mumbai was 5 stars were the equivalent of TOI front page. At the risk of sounding cynical, great media planning." :)

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Sparked off by a chat which I was having with a common acqiantance of ours whose father was in the thick of things. Issue was whether the attack would have got the same covereage if it was on the train tracks or at Ghatkopar and only Indians were killed. We have had those remember?

The spots chosen by the terrorists were equivalents of the Twin Towers and Pentagon... iconic and liely to draw the most attention

Scarlett said...

@The Knife - But that's a foregone conclusion, no? The attacks generated so much media attention b/c they were on high-profile targets,ie, foreigners. Foreigners visiting India WERE the main target.

S & her father were on CNN IBN last night.

Kalyan Karmakar said...

True. The point is that there is a lot that has happened post that and I doubt whether our polity is doing anything about that either.

Yes I saw them through a web link on the site. Amazing story