Terrorism in India
26th November 2008 will be the date that will change india's perception of terrorism. This is a day when India was attacked from inside and into it's soft belly. I have ardently following the tragedy of terrorism in india since last 2 decades. In the 80's Punjab was under terrorist threat, in the 90's Kashmir and now in the last decade, entire india has come under the grip of terrorism.
India was introduced to terrorism in 1993. The serial bomb blast in mumbai ripped apart 13 important locations in mumbai, killing more than 250 people. India did not raise to the ocassion then, it was explained as the revenge of Babri Masjid and several psuedo intellectuals never allowed the indian state to act decisively after that attack. The political class of Maharastra that has saved the D-Company for its own petty interest prevented any substantial response to that attack. The 1993 Mumbai attack was a "Game Changer", but we did not realize the nature of the beast
After the Mumbai attacks of 1993 ,Over last 15 years all major cities in india has seen terrorist incidents. Delhi has been attacked twice, Benaras, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai. Mumbai has been attacked again and again and again in the last 15 years. My heart goes out to the people of Mumbai, they have endured the worst form of terrorism in last 15 years. Commuter train system has been targetted, upscale hotels and restaurants, Commercial Interests and now targetted anti-semitic(jewish killing) killings.
The technique of attack was similar the mumbai attack, similar kind of co-ordinated bomb blasts across the city, targetting markets, restaurants or populated places. These bomb blasts has been covered by the Indian Media. The human tool of these bomb blasts in unimaginable. I have read stories of orphaned kids, widowed wifes and bereaved parents. It is frightning and sometime frustrating to see the AAM ADMI (the congress party's mascot) being killed mercilessly without any response. Sometimes the frustration has reached its crecendo. After a bomb blast, the media reports, politicians give trite comment, visit casualties, announce compensation and then vanish back to their khursi. There is no talk to counter the threat leave aside taking an action.
India got used to these attacks. It is dangerous to get used to terrorrist attacks. We indian have an habit of getting used to bad things. Terrorism is not something that we can get used to. Terrorism not only takes a human tool but it is also a grave national security threat.
But the present attack in Mumbai is very different. It is global jihad coming to india in a big way. Till now all the attacks in india were small terrorism strike that did not require good training or co-ordination of logistics. But this mumbai attack is another "game changer", just like the 1993 mumbai bomb blast. India got introduced to terrorism through one terrorist strike in 1993 and now we have seen another level of terrorism strike in 2008. In the last 15 years, our response towards terrorism has been so weak that instead of countering it we have allowed it to become fester and continue.
RESPONSE
INDIA NEEDS TO RESPOND. The response should be decisive and complete and eliminate terrorism from India. We cannot allow this to continue further, last 15 years has seen no response from india on terrorist front, but if we dont respond now then their wont be any difference between failed countries like Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan and their wont be any india to preserve the IDEA OF INDIA. To preserve the idea of india, we need to provide security.
If you want to have some laugh out of the horrible tragedy in Mumbai. Below is a great link.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index ... oId=210920
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2 comments:
Good to hear the debate from your end in California. Will await more posts and in the meanwhile read this one.
apney india trip mein ye sara event start to end dekh ke I couldn't avoid feeling frustrated/helpless and ashamed of being an Indian. We need to act. We can't be a society of cowards who are afraid of every damn thing out there. Few actions that I think we can take at our level that would help improve our lot..
1. Democracy ....India is a poster child for democracy ...though for all the wrong reasons. In a democracy the majority rules. Majority may not be right but it rules and the leaders come from that majority. Governments have fallen when majority felt that potato prices were too high and made their voices heard. A home minister, a CM and a deputy CM got fired when majority felt that our leaders failed to respond to mumbai attacks - notice that these leaders didn't resign out of their moral obligation - they were kicked out screaming and grabbing on any hope of support. The majority I talk about here is the one that participates in the democracy - they are ones who vote, who make their opinion/intention known to their MLA/MP, who make it a point to show their support in any form possible (verbal or material). How many of us know their MLA/MP and have their contact number/address?
- Action: Vote!!! That's the way you participate in the democracy to choose the leaders. And then make sure you follow-up with your leader on how he's performing. You may not be able to dethrone them with a letter but a 100,000 such letters will. Register your voice in any shape/form that you can. Generate public awareness. You are responsible for your leaders. They didn't inherit their positions ...you sent them there. You can bring them back. It will take time but this is the only way to create a social change that will avoid such events in future. It's not idealistic...it's practical. We just need to try.
2. In short term, there's nothing we can do but unite and help those who lost in this tragedy. We within this group can donate what we can, generate a pool of money and send it directly to the wife/family of one of the deceased security personnel who died making sure we can have this discussion. We may not be able to help all of them but if we can take care of even 1 of them atleast their family will not be deprived of a future and will not feel they live in a society which doesn't care for the sacrifice of their son/husband/brother.
- Action: Mere dimaag mein to bangalore ka local Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan aata hai. Paisa jama karo aur ek draft uske dad ke naam bhej do. Jab se usne kerala CM ko bhagay hai main to fan ho gaya hoon uska.ut anyone among those who sacrificed their lives for us is equally deserving. Let's just start at one and see how many we can help.
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