Be there, n make a Difference

Hmm…Alrite, one more “terror strike” in the commercial capital of the country … but this is no big deal for our ministers, right? coz they face these kind of terror strikes every other day, in some or the other part of the country … some get reported, some don’t … some are at a major level, some are not … some result in loss of lives, some … no, actually all of them result in loss of lives … but some counts cross the 3 figure mark, some don’t .. while some counts just spiral up, up and away …

And what do our officials do? Let’s have a wild guess …

Immediately after the strike, they issue public statements … e.g. “The terror attacks in pose a challenge to the entire nation and would be met resolutely.”

They convene meetings in the city of the strike and try to chart out course of action to follow so as to avoid public wrath, and further analysis of the prevailing situation

After the meeting, they form a committee to investigate the causes which led to this bloodbath

They declare compensation for the dead and injured

On the next day of the attack, various reasons are cited that this happened, that happened, we discussed this crap and that crap and all sorts of crap

So, what are we achieving by this … if someone actually sits to count the number of such committees formed to do the so called “investigation”, i am sure he/she would lose the count very fast … And after forming scores of these committees, have we managed to tackle the situation? have we been able to trace out the root cause? have we been able to improve the security situation?
Probably no, otherwise atleast one city in this entire country would be secure in the real sense of the word … !!!

Earlier, it just used to be Northern India on the hit list … but now this terrorism has penetrated the length and breadth of the nation. Different people say there are different patterns being followed by the terrorists. The news media is ever so eager to report the “Breaking News” – even if that means simply telecasting the same footage over and over again through the entire day … with loads and loads of breaks in between … coz after all, it is ‘break’ing news … right ???

One more thing: A consolidated list of Q3 and Q4, 2008 in terms of the horror strikes:
13 May ——– JAIPUR
June ——————-
26 July ———— AHMEDABAD
August —————————
13 September ———— DELHI
October ————————-
26 November ————— MUMBAI

What is to be interpreted out of this, repeated intelligence failures or repeated inactions by the elected representatives of the people ? How come it is that every month there are explosions happening all over the country and so far, there has not been even a single instance of improvement … we are a 61 year old independent nation … we like to call ourselves a “developing economy” … and we are not yet completely secure … !!! I agree that it is not possible to completely root out this weed and even the most developed nations of all are subjected to these kind of attacks, but who can beat us in terms of the frequency ?

The govt can offer monetary remuneration … but how does this compensate for the loss of life of a family member? If the victim of the strike is the only bread winner of the family, then how long is the 5L INR compensation going to last ?

The stats say it all. This has been a nationwide report, that the ratio of the no. of policemen per person in a city is very small …. also, there have been instances when the govt has had intelligence reports or tip-offs from various sources, but no action has been taken. On every independence day or republic day, we hear/read in the news that so many gms/kgms/tonnes of explosives seized from so and so place which were brought-in, in a bid to foil the independence celebrations … This has been the case for almost 60 years now … i really wonder that for how many more years are we going to tolerate these repeated attacks on our independence …

The Indian Government’s Constitution has an office called the Ministry of Home Affairs which is headed by the “Home Minister” and his set of bureaucrats and officials whose responsibility is to look after the law and order situation in the country.

Sample this: the Home Minister’s statement quoted in the Sound Bites section of a reputed daily … “Before I could reach there, the terrorists who had attacked one of the hospitals, had left and those who attacked the railway station had also left …”

WOW … see … even the terrorists fear our Home Minister … amazing !!! I am bowled over by this …. and i am sure most of you would be as well, right?

During the last 4/4.5 years, we’ve been hearing statements issued from the ministry on behalf of the minister … every time, these guys have had tip-offs or intelligence about something which might happen, but no definitive action is taken to prevent the outcome.

May I ask a simple 3-letter question – Why?

Obviously, the IA is not going to tell you the exact place in terms of latitude and longitude or the exact time accurate to the millisecond as to when the unfortunate event is going to rock the nation … you’ll only have some bits and pieces of information … and then, its the job of you and your policemen to try and find out the details and take measures … atleast this is what I understand ! correct me if i am wrong …

For the latest Mumbai strike, it is being reported that the Gujarat govt had given some information that there might be planning of some mishap. Forget Gujarat govt, had the info come from any reliable source, should it not be the top priority of the concerned state government to find out whether the information is a hoax or there is even a miniscule amount of truth in it? If the latter is the case, then ACT !!! and act as if your life depends on it … coz it really does … not only yours but also of so many thousands of citizens who rest assured of their security because of you guys …

Personally, I am fed up of the statements made by the home minister every now and then … he is creative in the sense that even though all his statements effectively mean the same, the framing of words is different every time !!!

The outcome of all this is that ultimately only the common man – for the betterment of whom, this government is deeply committed – suffers. Nothing happens to these high-profile ministers, they have their set of security-men around practically 24 hours of the day … marenge bhi to security guards pehle marenge …

I only hope and wish that some day the Home Minister will stand up and say that some “terror-strike” was avoided because our intelligence agencies and security forces acted swiftly on the provided information and saved loss of precious life …

Because if things continue the way they are, the country will lose population, trade, reputation and most importantly, morale …

 

Kudos to the spirit of the citizens who stand by each other in every crisis, to the policemen and army jawans who not only guard the borders but also lend a helping hand more often than not in trying times and to the ever fighting battle for life …

P.S. – Food for thought – This has been happening for about 3-3.5 years now … Why does almost every terror strike normally occur within 1 or at max 2 days after any controversial decision / policy / statement of the government ?