The future as I see it...
Air Land and water: the terrorist have used all the three, hijacked an Indian Airlines in its flight from Kathmandu, proving our inability to deal effectively with a hostage situation ( proved earlier as well), fought a gruelling war in Kashmir, showing our inability to guard our borders (easy to give an excuse of being inhumanly cold and difficult terrain but what about other options guard our borders), attacked the Parliament House, showing poor intelligence and now unleashed terror through the sea route, once again showing our incapability of guarding our coast (remind of 1993 blasts) .
Now what next!!!.....really can’t imagine but the LeT and AK will come out with a new strategy to unleash terror, may be attack two cities at the same time.
But when......very easy to answer. When they are ready with their new plan since other resources are a plenty and no security system in place in India (trained personnel, money and political backing)
Extent of damage and terror..... Well obviously more than we can imagine in proper senses.
So where are we leading to..............?
But when......very easy to answer. When they are ready with their new plan since other resources are a plenty and no security system in place in India (trained personnel, money and political backing)
Extent of damage and terror..... Well obviously more than we can imagine in proper senses.
So where are we leading to..............?
My personal ordeal......
Let me try and understand: what is the effect of these ‘acts of terrorism’, on the masses.
When I heard of the incident on the 25th of Nov at 10 30 pm. the first thing that went through my mind was “thank God, it was not a Saturday or a Sunday”. I think many of us would have had the same reaction need not to say why.
I have received lots of phone calls from my family and friends, enquiring about my well being and how far away were I staying, form the scene? I always felt good that there are still people who love me and care for me.
But as I keep explaining the same I feel, it shall never be the same for me in Mumbai. Whenever I have seen a terrorist attack on the TV I have always wanted to be at least once in such an emergency situation but today I don’t feel the same any more.
Let me try and understand: what is the effect of these ‘acts of terrorism’, on the masses.
When I heard of the incident on the 25th of Nov at 10 30 pm. the first thing that went through my mind was “thank God, it was not a Saturday or a Sunday”. I think many of us would have had the same reaction need not to say why.
I have received lots of phone calls from my family and friends, enquiring about my well being and how far away were I staying, form the scene? I always felt good that there are still people who love me and care for me.
But as I keep explaining the same I feel, it shall never be the same for me in Mumbai. Whenever I have seen a terrorist attack on the TV I have always wanted to be at least once in such an emergency situation but today I don’t feel the same any more.
The present situation reminds me of the scene in a Hindi movie, “Mumbai Meri Jaan” which took us through the thought process of the hero, ‘Mahadevan’ who was a travelling in the same train which met with a bomb blast 2004, and could not garner enough courage to board the same train the next day, after the blast.
I know the same thing shall not happen to me; I travel in trains. I shall still visit the restaurants located at Kolaba Causeway, be at Marine drive, visit my friend who stays at Kolaba or visit the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotel whenever I get a chance. But the difference shall be that whenever I am reminded of this ‘war of terror’ unleashed on Mumbai, I shall feel unsecured and look for cover against a probable firing. Sadly enough this is what the terrorist wanted to achieve in their endeavour: they have been successful.
I know the same thing shall not happen to me; I travel in trains. I shall still visit the restaurants located at Kolaba Causeway, be at Marine drive, visit my friend who stays at Kolaba or visit the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotel whenever I get a chance. But the difference shall be that whenever I am reminded of this ‘war of terror’ unleashed on Mumbai, I shall feel unsecured and look for cover against a probable firing. Sadly enough this is what the terrorist wanted to achieve in their endeavour: they have been successful.
Failures in present crisis.....
It has been some time now that I have been trying to understand what makes us so vulnerable to terror attacks. The terror attack that ripped though Mumbai this Nov ’08 had answers to all that.
It has been some time now that I have been trying to understand what makes us so vulnerable to terror attacks. The terror attack that ripped though Mumbai this Nov ’08 had answers to all that.
Let us revisit a few of the facts that have come up in course of the terror attacks.
· Lessons from previous terror attacks have not been learnt. The western coast being used once again, for entry into the city with heavy arms and ammunition.
· There seems to have nothing significant being done with the fund allotted for securing the coast line.
· There have been coordinated terror attacks in Delhi, Gujarat and others in recent times.
· The Maharashtra government had been informed about the possibility of a terror attack.
· The RAW and the IB were aware about training camps in marine warfare for militants in Karachi and the same had been communicated to the state government and coast guard well in advance.
· Though there are emergency plans in place for such terror attacks but they all seemed to prove inadequate under the present circumstances.
· There was complete lack of coordination between the centre and the state in this case of emergency and this is reflected from the fact that it took about 8hrs for the NSG commandos to start operations that too without proper brief about the sieged building.
· More such information is still coming in proving the inability and lethargy of our leaders and systems to react in time.
· When the case gets solved we shall have more striking revelations about this terror attack.
· Lessons from previous terror attacks have not been learnt. The western coast being used once again, for entry into the city with heavy arms and ammunition.
· There seems to have nothing significant being done with the fund allotted for securing the coast line.
· There have been coordinated terror attacks in Delhi, Gujarat and others in recent times.
· The Maharashtra government had been informed about the possibility of a terror attack.
· The RAW and the IB were aware about training camps in marine warfare for militants in Karachi and the same had been communicated to the state government and coast guard well in advance.
· Though there are emergency plans in place for such terror attacks but they all seemed to prove inadequate under the present circumstances.
· There was complete lack of coordination between the centre and the state in this case of emergency and this is reflected from the fact that it took about 8hrs for the NSG commandos to start operations that too without proper brief about the sieged building.
· More such information is still coming in proving the inability and lethargy of our leaders and systems to react in time.
· When the case gets solved we shall have more striking revelations about this terror attack.
Well what we common people saw was a high level of fire fighting with no visible signs of implementation of pre-existing plans to counter such acts of terrorism. It has been oft repeated on the television during the deferred live telecast of the operations that the state administration was caught unaware; you don’t need a journalist to tell you that. It was so obvious for any common man, following the operations.
A country that has been the target of the terrorist from 1982 with coordinated attacks ever year did not seem to have an emergency plan in place. We are a nuclear state, going to send manned mission to the moon by 2015 yet we cut a sorry figure to the country men as well as to the world population about our unpreparedness towards such emergencies. The terror strikes could have taken any country unaware but what after that. We have seen contradictory communication coming from the centre and the state, playing the blame game, creating utter confusion in the minds of the common man. We may say, how does it affect the operation or how does it matter to the common man.
Well it creates a sense of insecurity in the hearts of the country men as well as the world. The insecurity arises due to lack of coordination and the feeling that the systems and administration in our country cannot take care of our security; creating a sense of helplessness. We all understand that unless the world comes together to fight terrorism and remove its roots that lie in our neighbouring state, we shall have frequent such attacks but the administration should in-still some confidence in us that they can stop such fidieen attacks to happen, or in-case it happens will effectively be able to deal with it.
A country that has been the target of the terrorist from 1982 with coordinated attacks ever year did not seem to have an emergency plan in place. We are a nuclear state, going to send manned mission to the moon by 2015 yet we cut a sorry figure to the country men as well as to the world population about our unpreparedness towards such emergencies. The terror strikes could have taken any country unaware but what after that. We have seen contradictory communication coming from the centre and the state, playing the blame game, creating utter confusion in the minds of the common man. We may say, how does it affect the operation or how does it matter to the common man.
Well it creates a sense of insecurity in the hearts of the country men as well as the world. The insecurity arises due to lack of coordination and the feeling that the systems and administration in our country cannot take care of our security; creating a sense of helplessness. We all understand that unless the world comes together to fight terrorism and remove its roots that lie in our neighbouring state, we shall have frequent such attacks but the administration should in-still some confidence in us that they can stop such fidieen attacks to happen, or in-case it happens will effectively be able to deal with it.
Leave aside in-stilling confidence.......
Failures of the past......seems purpose of learning history not taught to our leaders
In the past they have shown our incapability to handle hostage crisis with and inability to take informed decision about the after effects of releasing terrorists.
We have seen political parties, instead of coming together to fight it out together have tried to gain political mileage in elections. They are doing the same this time as well.
Considering the statements about, information had been passed on to the state leadership about the chances of such an attack from the sea route to be true, it has again been the Indian beaurocracy that has taken so many lives.
Finally even after having terror attacks rocking our country across regions in recent times, it is only after a terror attack of this magnitude and nature unleashed on Mumbai that made our country’s leadership to think of decentralising the NSG.
Failures of the past......seems purpose of learning history not taught to our leaders
In the past they have shown our incapability to handle hostage crisis with and inability to take informed decision about the after effects of releasing terrorists.
We have seen political parties, instead of coming together to fight it out together have tried to gain political mileage in elections. They are doing the same this time as well.
Considering the statements about, information had been passed on to the state leadership about the chances of such an attack from the sea route to be true, it has again been the Indian beaurocracy that has taken so many lives.
Finally even after having terror attacks rocking our country across regions in recent times, it is only after a terror attack of this magnitude and nature unleashed on Mumbai that made our country’s leadership to think of decentralising the NSG.
What we can do......
It is much easier to find flaws in the system than to propose some corrective measure. Let us not fight the symptoms rather identify and fight the root cause. We should all realise that we cannot stop terrorism in the world, it is a global problem and the whole world has to come together to fight it. Our objective should be to create a country so strong from within in terms of Intelligence and security that the terrorist stop thinking about India as a target and look for other nations.
This can only be done by developing a strong intelligence network like the CIA or the Mossad and a culture that supports acting on intelligence reports.
It is much easier to find flaws in the system than to propose some corrective measure. Let us not fight the symptoms rather identify and fight the root cause. We should all realise that we cannot stop terrorism in the world, it is a global problem and the whole world has to come together to fight it. Our objective should be to create a country so strong from within in terms of Intelligence and security that the terrorist stop thinking about India as a target and look for other nations.
This can only be done by developing a strong intelligence network like the CIA or the Mossad and a culture that supports acting on intelligence reports.
In this context I would like to remind one and all that, as our constitution is an amalgamation of the constitutions of US, UK and many others; why can’t we learn something from them once again and others.
We have seen the outcome of our country’s nuclear and space program which was outside the control of the politicians. Let the central leadership take a leaf out of the book and have an independent mechanism to take care of the security in case of any emergency.
India investment in defence is the maximum in terms of % of GDP so we should concentrate on optimum utilisation of this investment. than call for more like; to create infrastructure for the Coast Guards to monitor vessels moving in and out of the Indian waters or sailing within it which would help them to combat infiltrators.
All phone calls to and fro Pakistan and may be middle-east to be tapped, even if it means personal and political talks are recorded. It may intrude into the privacy of individuals but we should all remember that no one is above the country and the security of its people.
There needs to be a clear policy in case of hostage situations. I am confused at this stage since I have come across two contradictory statements with regards to dealing with hostages in the present time both coming from top officials dealing with the present crisis. One talks about killing the militants or catching them alive, while the other talks about saving the life of the hostages utmost priority (not sure what was the brief given the commandos).
We should also remember that it isn’t the only responsibility of the centre or the state to take care of our security. We as citizen can also contribute to the cause by reporting anything that looks fishy however insignificant they may be, doubly checking the identity of anybody new in the locality and many more.
The joint meeting called by the Prime Minister of the country to all political parties can be the first step towards developing a mechanism to combat terrorism or emergencies created by them.
I am not an expert in defence or terrorism but as a citizen when I can think of so many strategies to combat terrorism and instil confidence among the country men then there must be many more.
If someone feels that conditions can change dramatically; to him my answer is a big no. We need to be patient in this regard and have confidence in the leadership at the centre whoever it may be; may be keep ourselves ready for a few more of such attacks.
Mumbai has limped back to normalcy; it has no other option but to do so; but things shall never be the same as before.
I would like to end saying:
I prefer to face a gun at point blank, rather forever, stay in a state of terror thinking of it to happen
1 comment:
I agree with u probal ... there has been failures on multiple fronts by different organizations the coast guard, navy , maharashtra police and lack of power in the intelligence agencies ....
the talk of a federal agency to handle terror is all good, but will it have teeth to act and autonomy like the ISRO is a question to ponder on
I can see young india is outraged by this terror attack ... lets us hope we can channelize this energy and make the govt accountable and have a safer country
The existing systems must be stream lined and layers of bureaucracy but be cut down so that prompt action can be taken.
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