And so it has happened again!! This time it was the elite who were the target. There are loads of discussions in the media this time, both print and visual, there is a lot of furor among the people this time. This time definitely something would change. Patience is running out. This time the sacrifices of all our heroes would not go waste. This time the buck has to stop with someone. This time..
But wait, aren't these things we had said and claimed the last time around as well. The last time this happened in the capital city of Delhi, the last time this happened in the IT capital Bangalore, or the last time this happened in Assam and Ahmedabad. So, why do you think this time you can sit back and hope for a different ending? I don't think the administrators would change anything. To be honest, I’m not sure if they are capable of changing anything.
A few allegations made inside the Parliament. A lot more mudslinging outside it. And that would be the maximum action you’d see our politicians swing into. To expect anything beyond that would be stupid.
What we need to look at is why our intelligence agencies and security systems seem so fragile in comparison to these terrorist organizations. I understand that the people who do these attacks are well-organized and meticulously plan their every move, but are they better planned than the intelligence agencies of our country. If that is the case, doesn’t it make you feel insecure? Officials and politicians would opine otherwise but all evidence is to the contrary.
Is it this easy to get into a metropolitan city through a sea port, that too fully armed with guns and other explosives? Why were they not stopped at the port? How did they enter the city in the first place? Looks like somebody did not perform their ‘due diligence’. Is it this easy to breach the security of a major city in our country? These are some glaring questions that need answers.
Clearly people who are vested with the responsibility are not fulfilling it. These people could be in the government, these people could be in the bureaucracy and these people could be you and me!
Having being in the US for roughly a year and a half now, I have realized that there is one major difference between their intelligence agencies and ours. They are much smarter and much more aware of what's happening in their country, barring a couple of instances of course. Back in India, the agencies don't seem to have a clue. I have seen no security checks of any sort, any time I board a bus or a train here. That’s because they don't need that. Since they do not allow people to get into the country, until they are certain that the person is not a security threat. In India, we don't know as to how many people are living illegally in our cities. In spite of security checks at just about every place you go to, be it the shopping malls, be it the theatres or the metro stations, these things still happen.
Why do you think it's so easy for these people to come into our cities and stay there? Once again, its people like you and me who are not doing their duties diligently. Officials in almost all government offices are corrupt. Fake passports, fake identities are not difficult to fabricate. You pay somebody a thousand bucks and you have a brand new identity, who nobody can dispute. What I am getting at is that the system is rotten to the core. And corruption is the biggest evil that plagues us. I believe that it is this pervasive evil which is the cause of all our problems. It boils down eventually to the fact, that these people are putting their own selfish motives over their country's best interests.
But isn't that what we all are culpable of?
It’s time we change our attitudes and do something about it. Because if educated people like you and me would not do anything, then nobody else can and the next time terror strikes it could be me and you at its receiving end.
Some common arguments that are echoed are ‘what can I do alone? Just one person can’t change the entire system !’ and I think it is indeed true. Let’s not try to do it alone then, let’s do it together. Let’s do it in great numbers.
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack !!
More soon…
This one is for my friend Anish, who was perhaps the only reader of my last post, roughly a year back :p
9 comments:
I read this one.. and i agree with most things you've said.. :-)
Babar, a persian commander who invaded the subcontinent in 16th century and started the Mughal rule categorically stated in his auto-biography Baburnama- "Indians are poor in history. They never maintain any historical record."
The scenario is still the same.Though people in this part of the world, have started maintaining their historical records, they constanty fail to learn everything and anything from their past.
The results of state assembly elections are coming in a week, plus the test series with England are going to commence, soon it will be business as usual..
And yes, Futile to compare US with India.. US is like vast prairies plains with extensive homogenity of culture, language and purpose, and India is like rugged himalayas with intensive heterogeniy, that too stuffed in about one third size of US. Its easy to gaurd prairies than to monitor himalayas.
Thanks for the comment, Anish. Though I don't think that we could use the diversity of our people as an excuse for not being able to protect our land and it's people !
So you haven't been subjected to checking in US eh?
Well to tell you my story, my shoes were cut open by some overzealous nincompoops of a security agency called TSA (we all know these people modeling jackets with the federal label else no one would be scared of them and give them a punch or two).
US is more scared than any other country. The reason why there haven't been a lot of attacks is simply because of the amount of money the government is able to push for purposes as diverse as funding government agents to bribing radical groups. Maybe my imagination is working overtime but the fact remains that 3 plane crashes and 2 buildings falling down were able to make this country so panicky that they went and attacked a country which is still bleeding their country (of course they have to funds to fight for a few more years before they quietly back out or seek fresh allies like India)
No one knows what the right solution to the problem is or even if trying to solve the problem is a solution. But we do know that a soft stance by India and an aggressive stance by US don't work.
Thanks for the comment, Rohit.
But I think you have not really got the import of my words. Or perhaps I was not clear enough. What you are saying is tangential to the discussion, I believe.
It is not about the soft stance that the Indian government has taken on terrorism time and again. And it is not about the war that the US declared on Afghanistan after the 9/11.
The point about the incapacity of the government to take an action, could have led you to believe this. But the action that these attacks warrant, is not to look outside and declare a war on another country with the help of some allies, but to look within and see why we are so frail. Shouldn’t we be able to preempt these attacks?
As for a solution to the problem, I think the best option is the 'solution' itself. Second best would be to look for one, and not looking...well that should not be an option.
Hmmm, in that case what action are you exactly suggesting?
Pre-empting attacks? Not possible IMHO. Even the 'big brother' US is able to prevent attacks by gun-toting students on its campuses, what does India have that puts it in a stronger position? Such things can happen anywhere and are difficult to track. All so-called jehadi info might not be available so easily. An example for this is Al-Qaida whom US has not been able to destroy completely till now.
Looking into the reason why we are frail? Well, it has been known for a fact that since the last 1000 years or so, India has been ruled, either by kings from the land or from Central Asia. Though this might seem irrelevant to the discussion, this highlights that no one has been able to unite us for a long time. And my belief is that a united stance is necessary to make a country resilient enough to withstand attacks. And there lies the problem, India is so diverse in terms of cultures, beliefs, (agendas?) that any cause that unites them for even a second, becomes undone in a few days. Can people in India ever rise up above petty causes to unite for a greater one?
My views are pessimistic but then it is important to recognize the problem before trying to come up with a solution.
Thanks for your comment but your rationalization that these things "happen" and are "difficult to track" is unacceptable given the number of terrorist attacks in India this year.
May'08 saw some seven bombs rip through the city of Jaipur killing almost 63 people. The same cacophony set off in Ahmedabad in July, after terror had struck just a day before that in Bangalore.
In September, Delhi stood witness to terrorist attacks, right in the heart of the city, killing 20 people and wounding scores more. And then the paralyzing dismay in Mumbai.
These have been the major attacks in our country this year hitherto. Mind you, there have been more, virtually one every month.
Had this been a one-off thing, I could have agreed with you and put it down to the terrorist organizations outwitting our intelligence agencies, just this once!! But sadly enough that is far from where we stand.
To your comment about the attacks that have happened in the US in the past, I would just implore you to look at the number of times these have been perpetrated here.
In this case it could probably be termed as a one-off thing. And the reason or rationalization (whatever you may wish to call it) that these things can "happen" anywhere seems somewhat more palatable in this context.
See its not a single group of people who are attacking the cities one after another which would be easy enough to track. The only place their trail converges is a foreign location that people talk about. The other links in the trail seem to point to disconnected local sleeper cells which are difficult if not impossible to monitor.
In such a situation, it becomes hard to ascertain when and where an attack may occur. You might get intelligence from their masters by infiltrating their group but what about the rest of the 100 cells that are awaiting orders or may be motivated enough to strike on their own?
Clearly we both agree to disagree on this.
But if it is your opinion that these things are "difficult to track" and hence they would "happen" going forward as well and cannot be stopped, then so be it. To each his own!!
Anyways, the point that I really intend to make is to take these attacks as an excuse to introspect as a society, and fix things that are wrong.
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