“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” cautioned MK Gandhi 6 decades back and looks like it would take us as many centuries to gasp the profoundness.
Whatever is happening in Bombay (as a proud Maharashtrian I refrain from calling it Mumbai as I distaste sectarian divides which bear no fruit, kill cosmopolitanism and are only retrograde) is disturbing to the core. The terror strikes send chilling shivers through my bones, lend me meek and spineless. From 1000 miles away, I think of my countrymen, my family, my friends, my sister who works near marine drive and goes there everyday via CST. I tend to think of her and many like her as soldiers not far from LoC, at least the risks are comparable nowadays. Moreover, it’s not that the strikes would end here, looks as if it’s only the tip of an iceberg. I pray to be proven wrong but I believe that we are going to face many such ordeals in the coming years. Our state of intelligence is abysmal; steadfastness to confront such critical situations is ludicrous and the political willingness to unite in trying circumstances is as usual political and pathetic. All signs indicate that there are no solutions nearby and we are set to suffer big way.
Honestly, when I read news for the first time I thought some psychos have hit the roads and the saga would die down in no time. I did not care a single bit as I called home pretty late in the night almost sure that everything would be fine. Looking back this attitude proves to be precarious and worries me. As these things are happening at periodic intervals do they seem not so serious on prima facie? or I have got used to it. I do not know as yet.
Low and down in my studio as I was watching the live streams I penned down the following words. I think
My heart breaks and soul sinks
My patience being tested time and again...
You will hide your impotence and sing for my resilience
As you have left me bleeding yet again...
6 comments:
Why not add Indian rather than Maharashtrian!!!!!
Guru dada,
Same is the state of many of us..
We are being of no help to our nation except for being good Tax payers.
Hope all is well back at your home in Mumbai.
-Ganesh
Hi Guruji,
I can understand the feeling of helplessness and frustration that you are going through. For those of us who are here in India, the feeling is no different. I spent hours and hours pondering over this mess, as to what we can do in a small way in the fight against terror. I feel that, contrary to what we think we can do, actually people in the IT field can do a lot in the war against terror, since this war is being fought not only on the ground but also in the internet domain. Here are some ways:
1. The bad guys heavily use the internet in order to formulate and disseminate their plans and also as a propaganda medium to spread their messages. Such websites should be taken down or disabled.
2. It must be made difficult or impossible to locate such websites on the internet. Search engines such as google and yahoo should be made to modify their search algorithms accordingly.
3. Chat rooms should be monitored for any suspicious activity, such as those that make reference to time, place and/or date. I am sure automatic scripts can be written to this effect.
4. We should create more internet content that tell our side of the story. Not only in English but also in other languages.
5. Don't forget about all those brave men and women in uniform who gave up their lives just for the sake of our country. Make it a point to donate monthly to army veterans fund, army wives/widows fund, education of children of servicemen, etc. They need our support.
6. Stop wasting time going back to watching cricket once this news subsides. We are in a war, let's make no mistake about it. And the enemy is plotting 24x7 to kill us, so we must also remain vigilant 24/x7.
If each of us devotes even one hour a day doing the above mentioned activities then we can not only defeat the enemy's designs, we can bring them to their knees.
Jai Hind.
yes Guru,
Whenever I see the smile on the face of Sandeep Unnikrishnan I feel that I am a pathetic software engineer who is of no use to this country.
-praveen
A despicable attack on innocent civilians who have nothing whatsoever
to do with the political rhetoric. A city gripped by terrorists that
engaged our security forces for almost 60 hours. More than 200 killed
and hundreds injured. Among the killed included 14 policemen including
senior Police officials and 2 NSG commandos. The brave sacrificed their
life so the innocent civilians could live peacefully. Should their
sacrifice be in vain? Or should we get the government to see reason and
for once get them to do something? When will they listen? What do we
need to do so they will listen? We have had enough of the usual “There
will be an inquiry / investigation and we will then know”. No, we never
get to know, and our politicians will never learn unless we do
something.
The black day of 26th November 2008 will be remembered for decades. And there are many questions that need to be answered
# Why did it take authorities so long to cordon the area, secure it and
keep it clear of civilians for a considerable distance from the
buildings and for considerable period of time ? # Even after 40 hours
one could still see traffic flowing in the roads around and people
milling around. Even the media were shot at by the terrorists outside
Taj.
# Why were buildings around Nariman House not secured for so long?
# Why did NSG commandos arrive so late?
# We were told a plane was not available to deliver NSG commandos to
Mumbai. If so, then as an emergency measure, why was PM’s plane not
used for the 2 hour flight to Mumbai and plane returned to Delhi for
PMs use?
# Why were NSG Commandos not delivered by Helicopters on roof tops of the building in Nariman House until AFTER almost 40 hours?
# The Fire Brigade claimed they didn’t have enough water pressure to
reach 6th floor of Taj. Why was a Firebrigade with conventional,
unreachable ladder there, even after the fire had already started
instead of one with a snorkel that came much later and doused the fire
after 3 hours. That delay destroyed most of the upper floor and killed
Taj General manager, his wife and child who were earlier asking for
help from the windows
# Why were there no listening devices in place? The NSG planted these
when they arrived next day and obtained vital info exchanged between
terrorists
# Why did it take so long to come up with Stun grenades, smoke bombs to
get to the terrorists by our Police BEFORE the NSG arrived?
# Where were the thermal imaging devices?
#Where were CCTV images from Hotel cameras and Police security cameras?
There must have been several CCTV cameras in and around all premises
where terrorists struck
# Why was there no central command and control? If there was, it wasnt
working for, we were continually given misleading figures by Police,
Chief Minister, and the Security forces on how many terrorists were
inside and whether there were hostages if any?
# If top police Officials were killed by AK47 at close range, why were
Police constables present with lathis outside Taj, one of who was shot
by an AK47 in front of Cameras and carried by pedestrians to an
ambulance. He had a bullet wound in his chest outside Taj right in
front of the Cameras. My heart cries for this lowly ranked unarmed
constable, I hope and pray that he survived !
# The terrorists were better equipped in arms and ammunition, yet you
still saw policemen holding pistols whose range could not be more than
200 meters, trying to do what? Fire hopelessly at terrorists 300 meters
away and hope one bullet will fly with the wind and reach the terrorist?
#Why have we not had press briefings from Police chief to the media rather than let the feed come from media direct?
# The NSG intercepted communication and determined that the terrorists
hailed from Pakistan, what steps will the PM take other than a
Paksitani ISI representative agreeing to come to India to share
intelligence?
# This cant be speculation, one of the terrorist’s mobile phone dropped
(when he threw a grenade) and picked up by the commandos. They found
calls were made to Pakistan from this phone. How much more
incontrovertible evidence is required?
# Why were NSG commandos allowed to talk to media when the operation
was on-going? It couldve allowed for the terrorists friends to phone
them on whats happening outside, making the element of surprise
redundant?
# Why were so many Police men sent in without proper equipment (chest
pads, etc) that resulted in deaths of 14 policemen? Addl commissioner
Karkare had 3 bullets in his chest before he succumbed. It is simply
not acceptable to be informed that the terrorists are highly trained,
well equipped, etc. An individual is no match for the might of military
and the resources of classified defence equipment that it can bring
Clearly the authorities failed to properly secure the area for a proper
distance other than to simply bar entry to outsiders into the hotel
CP claims we have a long coast line, sure, but there is evidence that
the terrorists landed in a dinghy just outside Taj, what then is our
Coast guard doing?
From information made available by NSG, it is clear there is Pakistani
involvement, but I do not believe the terrorists have been supported by
the Pakistani govt. Most likely the terrorists were funded by an agency
outside the ambit of Pak intelligence services, and I don’t believe the
Pak intelligence services are even competent to do so. But what will
our govt do to make Pak accountable?
Unless we can honestly answer the above, terrorists will continue to
take advantage of the situation and innocent civilians will continue to
pay a heavy price, while the Politicians hide themselves behind Z level
security
The passivity of the masses is endemic and our politicians will
continue to makes statements like “such incidents will continue to
happen”. But we need to make systemic changes, and how do we go about
this? I don’t have the answers but would like brain storming on this
contentious issue
Do you remember the Indian Airlines Hijack drama 10 years ago, when our
plane was in Kandahar and not one politician there. When our Foreign
minister was asked why none of them were in Kandahar to resolve the
situation when our hostages were being held, he replied with “We do not
have diplomatic relations with Taliban” notwithstanding the fact that
Japanese, British also did not have diplomatic relations with Taliban
yet their representatives were present.
When Kashmir’s chief minister’s daughter was kidnapped before that, the
govt machinery swung into action and acted fast apparently because a
top official was involved?
This ineptitude of our politicians and the cavalier attitude toward its tax paying ordinary citizens must stop.
The Indian PM has asked for Pak Intelligence chief to come to India,
and although initially Pak agreed, there has since been a climbdown and
Pak is now sending a representative instead. Could this be a result of
CIA intervention to prevent leakage of sensitive information or
compromising behind-the-scenes activities of spy agencies?
The fact is even if Indian govt is aware of this there is little we can
do about it. Do we have the capability to go to war with Pakistan?
Militarily yes, politically no. Who would back us? EU? US? China?
Southeast Asia? If so, then we would have already gone to war after
terrorists attacked our parliament some years ago, or when they stormed
Hindu temple in Ahmedabad,
Why not? Because we do not have international goodwill from countries
that could possibly back us in a War. Pakistan will get its backing
from Gulf countries, China, maybe US, etc but India most certainly not.
Even in the 1971 war, Indira Gandhi had gone to rally support from East
European countries, USSR, France, Britain, US and informed them to
gauge their response. Agreed it was a different political climate then,
but atleast she had the necessary relations with these countries. Do
you seriously believe our Manmohan Singh could do that? Really? Then
why not?
It is this lack of international goodwill that does not augur well for
India. I am aware that India has been rebuilding Afghanistan’s
infrastructure, rebuilding Schools, Colleges, roads, training afghans,
medical aid, etc. And it is this kind of involvement that builds good
relations with India. Australia has been in overdrive to exercise its
influence in Pacific countries including South-east Asia. When there
was a crisis in Fiji where an Indian PM was overthrown, our govt did
nothing to protect Indians there other than public statements
At the UN, why would other countries support any UN resolutions passed
by us if we have not done anything outside India for them? Why would
other countries vote in our support? I know our troops are in Congo
assisting UN, our ships are in Arabian sea escorting and protecting
Indian Merchant ships, and it these kinds of foreign involvement, to
look beyond our shores that is in short supply. We have been more
reactive than proactive and we need to address that. Until we do so,
there will always be external threats against our country, for our
enemies, would know, that although we are militarily superior, there is
very little we can do without foreign backing, while our enemies
continue to get that vital support from other countries.
Our PM has stated that NSG units will now be based amongst major hubs
in the country.. This means if there is another terrorist attack then
the NSG will act swiftly. Sure it will. But these are cosmetic changes.
Many more acts of Parliament will also follow. And who knows POTA might
also be brought in. But these are short term solutions. We need to
engage internationally and now. Only then can we have the political
might (not just militarily) and the necessary nod from foreign powers
to bear down on our adversaries so they will have to think twice before
they conspire against us.
Vaidy,
Out of the box suggestions really. Honestly, I had not thought many of the schemes that you have suggested.
I believe some of these could be already in place, specially in the western world. But, as it happens with anti virus products (anti virus companies develop viruses too) there will always be lacunae in the system that would always be exploited. Hackers would love to do that for sure...
Anyways, what you are suggesting is one of the approach to deal with problem.
We also need to improve our intelligence, policing to combat such threats and it would take a while to do that but we should really feel restless now.
Thinking over it for a while now, I am a bit optimistic as every disaster provides an opportunity. Moreover, it has been a huge blessing in disguise that we did not trade any terrorists this time around. So, I could find positives in the story...
Missing such Coffee discussion with you in IMEC...
Guru
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