I had wanted to pen my thoughts about the terror strike in Mumbai, the day it occurred. Yet I resisted the urge since I knew my emotions would cloud my judgment (though it’s not necessarily wrong) and my post would just be filled with raging anger, bubbling patriotism and all that.
I wanted to let the dust settle down, literally and figuratively, to help look at the whole incident, or accident if you wish to call it, more objectively. I know everyone and his uncle, newspapers and magazines have all condemned the dastardly act, praised our country’s resilience and have even christened the killing of the terrorists as our great victory over terror.
Did we win?
Run the whole thing down quickly, will you. Terrorists land on the shores of Mumbai, past the patrolling navy and beyond the city police cordon; shoot down people in prime spots – railway stations, pubs, residential complexes and city roads; storm the most iconic hotels of the city; kill more than 200 innocent people, Americans and Jews included; hold out the army, commandos and the police for more than 60 hours; get international media exposure; cause an estimated Rs.50,000 crores of damage both to property and public image; help put the country back on the defensive; force Government to act tough on Pakistan giving them a valid excuse to pull 100,000 lakh of their troops from the Afghan border and move them towards India thus effectively letting Afghanistan-based Muslim militants to move into Pakistan at will. And do all this by losing just 10 of their men (or rather animals).
The terrorists won. We lost. Period.
The terrorists wanted to achieve all of this and they succeeded. They might have planned for more and we might have stopped them. But whatever they wanted, they got. In short, they won; we lost.
Before you get angry and scream at me for blasphemy and downright lack of patriotism, hear me out first. I am seething with anger too. Unlike most of you, I am angry not just because we lost our people, property and our pride. I am also angry because we lost. And I am angry because we needn’t have had to.
This country’s military intelligence had let us down. Or if they had to be believed, the Navy and defense had let us down. Or if they had to be believed, the Central Government had let us down. And if they had to be believed the State machinery had let us down. And all of them together had let hundreds of innocent people down.
But for all of them, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan would have gone home to be with his parents. A certain Mr. Bannerjee would have gone back to Kolkatta to get married by the end of this month. Mr. Kapoor would have gone back to his office to continue being the Chairman of Yes Bank. And hundreds of others would have gone back home to their loved ones.
Alas, those were not to be.
All of us, you, me, the politicians, the media….the entire system let this great country of ours down. Down the bloody drain.
The politicians made the intelligence apparatus serve their ends and means; the Government, including the Prime Minister’s office, sat on intelligence reports about a possible strike. The media, by covering the entire gruesome attack live, were giving out valuable military information and strike possibilities to the terrorists inside the hotels helping them dodge the commandos. The whole system had gotten immune to all these killings and has learnt to restrict them to mere statistics. And you and me are guilty too for not questioning all this and letting this country rot all these years.
We lost the Mumbai battle. But we haven’t lost the war yet. There is yet hope. Don’t expect the politicians to change; don’t hope for the Government to wake up. But we can. You and me!
The seething rage among us had scared the politicians and the Government apparatus. They have gone into a hiding. Did you notice there was hardly a politician who appeared on TV or were available for an interview. They are shit scared to face the public.
If only we could sustain this pressure. If only we stand united and show our clenched fists and controlled anger at them, the Government and the politicians would act. They would know they don’t stand a chance against us. Remember, we have a powerful weapon among our midst. A nuclear Armageddon. It’s called our ‘vote’. It’s called our ‘voice’. If only we could unleash its power, it will reverberate far more than was heard in the corridors of the Taj.
And once we clean up the mess in our country, we can go hunting. Across the border, if it has to be, and search for all those militants and catch them by the scruff of their necks and first thank them for helping us unite together and then ‘kill those bastards’ one by one!
We owe it to Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and a hundred others.
11 comments:
We as Indians dont want to accept the we lost inspite of everyone knowing that we lost beacuse it hurts our national pride...You were right sir when you say "We lost the battle and not the war". If we accept that we lost the battle it would help in sustaining the hurt and anger that we all feel know which is what is actually needed.
A small suggestion, this post would have been better in your other blog theslogovers...by posting it here are you not diluting the marketingmaayaajalam brand?
We had lost much before 25 Nov.We lost when the Indian State faied in preventing the demolision of Babri Masjid.We lost again the the government failed to prevent the massacre of innocent and defenceless people by shiv Sainiks in the aftermath of the demolision. Again we failed when the stae of Gujarat unleashed pogrom against a people whome they were supposed to protect.
Again we failed in finding out who the real culprits are behind the present Bombay tragedy.
hello sir, we are filled with anger this moment, we must do a fight back for sure,. the government failed to save armless inocent common people. if the government can't save us, let the country go to the hands of army. atleast we'll feel secure then. our country doesn't 've political stability. its foolish to say that mumbaikars are back to their normal life. aren't we ashamed to be get ruled by two biggest dumbasses manmohan and prathiba.D.S.patil. we dont 've other option also because there is only one option to chage the party. BJP, if this buggers come to rule the nation, then whole nation 'll break in to christian, hindu and islam territories.. we hiped up this mumbai bombblast issue as something happened in our locality. but we never thought about the people living or dying in the northeastern states.. people loosing their lives daily in hundreds.. this is something like only richpeople has the value for their lives.. we need to change the whole political setup of our nation,,. after this munmbai bombblast we'll forget the malegaon issue.. all those idiotic sadhvi and hinduthvas will get released in few days after the media forgets them..
Hi Sampath: The enormity of the news made me post it here. Much like the Economic Times and Business Line having this as their cover story though their sister publications viz., Times of India and The Hindu were also covering it.
I feel ppl like you should encourage students to do something of purpose at this point of time. There is a lot of anger going around. I hope you can help them channelize it for a better India. I sincerely feel you have the charisma & passion to lead the youngsters to doing something. Pl dont move along on to a hotter topic like the media. Start a revolution!
Your post said it all..Anger, resentment, patriotism, sympathy, condolences, pride....
Yes, Mumbai's attacks shouldn't have happened...It was an accident but how many times are we going to say it was just an accident? Isn't it sounding cliched? Blasts in Jaipur on May 13th, in Bangalore on July 25th, in Ahemedabad on July 26th, in Delhi on September 13th, in Ajmer on October 11th, in Assam on October 23rd and in Mumbai on November 26th...Were all these just accidents? Don't we need to have a closer look at our defense mechanism in India?
7 blasts in the second half of 2008, the terrorists are certainly trying to shake the confidence and the stability of India and from the fear in people about going to posh restaurants, clubs, theatres, it certainly seems that the terrorists have succeeded...
Don't you think we should invest more in developing powerful defense weapons so that we can defend ourselves better in such situations? Because if so many people had to lay their lives for rescuing our country, it somewhere means our weapons weren't that powerful against the terrorist's...
What are your thoughts on these?
"If only we could sustain this pressure. If only we stand united and show our clenched fists and controlled anger at them, the Government and the politicians would act".
Great words sir..but what is the "if" doing there. When will we get united.???when will all these things stop???is politicians the only one to blame???
What are we citizens supposed to do....just write stuffs and express our anger to one an other??? Cant we do much more rather than kindle emotions???
I am still searching for an answer.....DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW A SOLUTION??
Hi Aarthi Kumar.. sorry to say this is not a accident bcoz alert was give n by various intellegent ... only our stupid politicians havent take any actions ......... public servent manmohan and our president r rubber stammp for there cong head ...
Satheesh sir,
can you also throw some light on the impact that this terrorists attack would have, on the economic crisis prevailing around us?
I agree with your point of view sir. We did lose it. We lost our confidence, our pride and more importantly valuable citizens! But am sure this is the inevitable wake up call that is required to open the eyes of many citizens who still think "India is Shining". Hope they make the right choices in the future elections, provided the choices are worthy enough to be even considered.
A good article capturing the emotions of a frustrated Indian citizen. But, I would like to make a couple points here. This sort of an attack, while condemnable, is almost impossible to prevent. Unless, of course,somebody has specific actionable intelligence in the hands of an authority who can act upon that( the very same anomaly is being addressed through the creation of an National Investigation Agency, it took such a long time for our govt to understand this).
And while i agree that 'vote' is a powerful tool, i am doubtful about the ability of citizens to bring about any changes with it.
This is the price we have to pay for being a multi-party parliamentary democracy, where 'vote banks' are more important than ideologies. What choice do we have, anyway? Choose from 3 or 4 nincompoops who will walk, talk and god-knows-what-all according to the 'party discipline'? Until there is a presidential form of government the politics of compromises will continue. India is in a typical catch-22 situation here, a presidential system will ensure uniform policies, but might alienate more and more segments which will only exacerbate the problem.
While I appreciate your sentiments while advocating "going hunting" across the border, i doubt whether anything concrete will come out of it. Look at Israel. They are bombing Gaza back to the stone ages, but will it really stop Hamas and other suicide bombers? Debatable.And attracting condemnation from all quarters in return, along with Hamas rockets.
The terrorists are unknown faces in the crowd, it requires a sustained campaign even to get anywhere near them, let alone capture or eliminate them. Do we have a system in place ( remember the movie 'Munich'? ) which can do it? Better shore up our defences, asap. And be prepared in the days to come, because hatred can sustain itself for ages,at least longer than we human beings can live.
The only thing we can do (at present) is to vote for a party who (we believe) mean what they say, and hope and pray that they deliver on the promises.
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