derick.in

I thought of writing such a post few days back. Every time I wanted to write something, I held myself back — because I was angry. This was for the first time when I was in a city when some terrorist attacks happened. I came to know of the attacks Thursday night, when my friend called me up and told about such an incident. We tuned on the television and then saw some reports of firing at CST (VT) railway station. The initial reports was that there are no casualties. Things turned around in matter of minutes.

Everyone was discussing this incident. Bloggers all around the world blogged about this, media was giving 24 hours coverage and what not, there were discussions that we should act tough and attack those responsible for this. I would like to point some issues I have seen; but I am not a subject matter expert.

Politics

It was very evident that every politician was using this ‘opportunity‘ to gain political mileage. Statements from all the political leaders across the parties show this. Home Minister Shivraj Patil was clueless about what was happening. Opposition leader L.K Advani was blaming the government and intelligence agencies for whatever happened. These people could have played their blame game later. The shocking statement was from Maharashtra Deputy CM, RR Patil, who said that such small things happen in big cities.First they needed to address the issue we were facing. They took the people who voted them into power for granted. There should be sensible people in power. I am sure that the people of the respective constituencies will take a call – whether they want these people be representing them or not. I know that it is very easy to say all these things, but hard to practice. As I am writing this, my friend told me that Home Minister has resigned, taking the moral responsibility for the attacks.

Armed Forces

Indian Armed forces played a notable role in Rescue Operations. But this event has some big weak points that our Armed forces are facing. Most people I spoke to are of the opinion that they took too much time to resolve this issue. But I can not agree with them as they were not empowered to act quickly. We did not use any technological advancements to fight the terrorists, we were fighting with old weapons. It is an irony that the militants used technology in their favour for planning and execution of the attack plan. It was only because of the courage that our armed personnel has shown that we could minimize the destruction. Even politics rule here, and it needs a political will to change all these.

Media

I am of the opinion that media should have been banned from telecasting anything live. There should have been only government briefing. I have seen the foreign channels also telecasting these live around the world. It was clear that the terrorists were in constant touch with their leaders abroad and they came to know about the plans of the government and armed forces through the media. They had time to prepare counter measures and that is another reason why the hostage drama lasted too long. What did the media gain by interviewing the relatives of those were directly affected? They should be ashamed of themselves.

The bottom line

You may ask why I am blaming everyone? i am not blaming anyone. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts. And I have the right to do so – I pay tax. Mumbai will be back to its normal don’t care lifestyle within a few days. The media and government will discuss it for sometime and everyone will forget this after some time. They will get new issues to debate on and there will not be any corrective action. Why do I say things with such a high degree of pessimism? I have seen so many such debates in Kerala and it does not yield any result. Politicians and media will be using each and every one of us for their mileage and we will continue to debate…

I would like to hear your thoughts.

Note: Some detailed pictures are available in Boston.com