It’s finally over. One of the most horrendous terrorist attacks in India which has left nearly 200 dead, over 300 injured and a symbol of India’s history – The Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai badly damaged is finally over. Ten people held Mumbai to ransom over the past three days and with it most of the world, staring at their television screens as the tragedy unfolded live in front of them.
The tragedy, one of many inflicted upon India over the past few years, saw the emergence of a new form of terror, that of targeting foreigners, of taking many hostage, but still not negotiating, going for a battle to the end. After the airplane strikes seen in September 2001 this has been the emergence of another form of terror, so what all is left in the arsenal of these trigger happy, inhuman terrorists is any ones guess.
For the first time the strikes seem to have been performed by highly trained men, some of whom were barely out of their teens, which made the task of combating with them all the more difficult. The terrorists have increased their knowledge to such an extent that combating and stopping them will become further difficult in the time to come. This must come as a wake up call to all the nations plagued by terrorism, that we must all work together to remove this enemy of humanity before they wipe us all out themselves. Considering the fragile nature of international relations, a show of unity has attained utmost importance.
The question in the minds of most of us Indians at the moment is the failure of our intelligence machinery to detect these attacks before they take place and to stop them in their tracks. The past five years have seen us being hit continuously but, there still has been little or no progress made to combat these terrorists. Our government it seems has not enough strength to take on these terrorists. None of our politicians have left an opportunity to protect their vote bank. They have readily jumped at any opportunity to take credit and politicize any issue. Sadanand Dhume has written a brilliant article for the Wall Street Journal on the Blunders of the Indian Goverment. The article can be read here.
Our politicians are only interested in staying in power in the government, progress it seems is a word not to be found in their dictionary. Every such tragedy has seen the politicians make statements on the need for better intelligence work on our behalf, but these statements are forgotten the very next day and Indian lives are lost. They wish to have multiple policemen and commandos roam around with them to protect them as well as a show of their strength, of the amount of power they wield, but nothing is done for the common man. The common man’s life is dispensable, theirs is not.
What our country needs most are leaders who believe in doing work for the people, and not in attempting to benefit from each and every issue. What we need is unity among the people and not division among us on the basis of caste, religion, statehood, language. What we do not need are politicians, but leaders.
Human Life is precious and is necessary for the progress of any country. The slaughter of the people of India will not bring about any progress, it will only hamper the same. Until our leaders understand the importance of the lives of other Indians, looking behind our shoulders and ducking down at any sound which reminds us of Mumbai in November 2008 will be the only option we have.
In the end a word of gratitude and praise for the Indian Armed Forces, the National Security Gaurd and the local police without whom we would have been still stuck in a deadlock with the terrorists and countless other lives would have been lost.
Savneet's Blog 