This has not been the first time; and it may not be the last time either. The scenes are becoming 
that much more routine and common. In the last seven months or so over 500 people have been killed – most of them innocent civilians – in merciless terror attacks in major cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Guwahati, Malegaon and now once again Mumbai, by both Islam and alleged Hindu terrorists.
The audacity with which these terror attacks are carried out is one angle to these rampant strikes. What is even more shocking and terrifying, especially in the present Mumbai terror, is the obvious message that comes alive as a powerful symbol: India is a haven for terrorists and easy target to vent someone’s anger on someone else. The almost complete failure of Indian intelligence during this terror strike can only further destroy the faith of common man in the State. The life of common man has come to naught, what with he/she finding no security anywhere. Indeed it is surprising that the Mumbai city which is on the shore of the sea had such poor security with hardly any coast guards or security agents at important
places like the India Gate, that the terror outfits could sneak in so casually and hold the entire city to ransom.
If we look around the world and see we should further be troubled to learn that no other country, including Pakistan, has had so many and such brutal terror strikes in the recent past. The USA had one major attack – the 9/11. That’s it. After that no one ever heard of any kind of terrorism in that country. Similar was the case in the U.K. After minor terror strikes in 2001 and Glagow international airport car bombings in June 2007, no one heard of terrorists holding the cities to ransom. Only in India can such terrorism be meted out on innocent civilians and how. This is because the powers that be are either afraid to act or they do not have the political will to respond. They did care, of course, about themselves – when the Parliament was attacked on December 13, 2001. Democracy was under attack, they said, as though democracy contained only in the stony Parliament structure and had nothing to do with civilians.
It is now or never. Unless the state acts immediately, these strikes will only increase. Terrorists, whoever they are, have to get a strong message that India and Indians cannot be an easy prey for their hate mongering. Passing anti-terror laws like the POTA and MCOCA will not deter the terrorists from carrying out their sinister designs. What India, at this stage needs is stringent security measures in places of high human activities like railway stations, bus shelters, government offices and also market places. Further, we cannot fight the disease by fighting the symptoms. One needs to go to the root of the problem and see why India is an easy target for the militants. Our think tank has to deliberate s
eriously, pooling together the resources of the experts in the subject and then act accordingly. Only thus can the terrorists get a strong message and not otherwise. The common people are not asking authorities to provide them with z type of security. What they are just asking is to at least keep cities and towns safe for them to freely move around. If the state cannot do even this much, then it has indeed no credibility to be in power. The common man only hopes that the honourable Home Minister will at last take this wake up call seriously.
As for the media, it was a heyday of sorts. What one viewed on TV, as described by the anchors, may not have been the actual scene on ground zero, even if it was tense and frightening. What one saw throughout the day on TV was melodrama and great work of dramatics doled out by the TV journos. Of course, electronic media is all about dramatisation as journalists there are expected to describe and visualise news. But we till now thought that it was not to be melodramatic and Bollywood style narration. With Barkha Dutts and Rajdeep Sardesais and Arnab Gosamis vying with one another for viewers’ attention, you could only forgive them their misdemeanor.
that much more routine and common. In the last seven months or so over 500 people have been killed – most of them innocent civilians – in merciless terror attacks in major cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Guwahati, Malegaon and now once again Mumbai, by both Islam and alleged Hindu terrorists.The audacity with which these terror attacks are carried out is one angle to these rampant strikes. What is even more shocking and terrifying, especially in the present Mumbai terror, is the obvious message that comes alive as a powerful symbol: India is a haven for terrorists and easy target to vent someone’s anger on someone else. The almost complete failure of Indian intelligence during this terror strike can only further destroy the faith of common man in the State. The life of common man has come to naught, what with he/she finding no security anywhere. Indeed it is surprising that the Mumbai city which is on the shore of the sea had such poor security with hardly any coast guards or security agents at important
places like the India Gate, that the terror outfits could sneak in so casually and hold the entire city to ransom.If we look around the world and see we should further be troubled to learn that no other country, including Pakistan, has had so many and such brutal terror strikes in the recent past. The USA had one major attack – the 9/11. That’s it. After that no one ever heard of any kind of terrorism in that country. Similar was the case in the U.K. After minor terror strikes in 2001 and Glagow international airport car bombings in June 2007, no one heard of terrorists holding the cities to ransom. Only in India can such terrorism be meted out on innocent civilians and how. This is because the powers that be are either afraid to act or they do not have the political will to respond. They did care, of course, about themselves – when the Parliament was attacked on December 13, 2001. Democracy was under attack, they said, as though democracy contained only in the stony Parliament structure and had nothing to do with civilians.
It is now or never. Unless the state acts immediately, these strikes will only increase. Terrorists, whoever they are, have to get a strong message that India and Indians cannot be an easy prey for their hate mongering. Passing anti-terror laws like the POTA and MCOCA will not deter the terrorists from carrying out their sinister designs. What India, at this stage needs is stringent security measures in places of high human activities like railway stations, bus shelters, government offices and also market places. Further, we cannot fight the disease by fighting the symptoms. One needs to go to the root of the problem and see why India is an easy target for the militants. Our think tank has to deliberate s
eriously, pooling together the resources of the experts in the subject and then act accordingly. Only thus can the terrorists get a strong message and not otherwise. The common people are not asking authorities to provide them with z type of security. What they are just asking is to at least keep cities and towns safe for them to freely move around. If the state cannot do even this much, then it has indeed no credibility to be in power. The common man only hopes that the honourable Home Minister will at last take this wake up call seriously.As for the media, it was a heyday of sorts. What one viewed on TV, as described by the anchors, may not have been the actual scene on ground zero, even if it was tense and frightening. What one saw throughout the day on TV was melodrama and great work of dramatics doled out by the TV journos. Of course, electronic media is all about dramatisation as journalists there are expected to describe and visualise news. But we till now thought that it was not to be melodramatic and Bollywood style narration. With Barkha Dutts and Rajdeep Sardesais and Arnab Gosamis vying with one another for viewers’ attention, you could only forgive them their misdemeanor.
5 comments:
Brilliant words there.. the truth all the way down to the last full stop... the state really does need to wake up and beef up security. the unfortunate maharashtrians are already had their hands full with the sena and 'goonda raj', and now this. truly a most undeserving tragedy. not just Maharashtra, but our entire country needs peace. somehow that seems like a distant hazy reality.
if our state is incapable of providing justice and security, then they can be excused. but it is not so. when we can test sophisticated missiles and send a mission to the moon, why can't our innocent citizens be protected?
this is an attack against the common man's right to live. And instead of doing anything practical, our ruling govt and the oppositions have mastered the art of blaming each other. what irony.
Its true- laws like POTA and others only make matters worse for innocent people. we have enough laws already. that is not the issue at all...
lets hope and pray in the words of a person i heard over the tv last night that 'the politicians wake up before the innocents sleep forever'
great article. a masterpiece indeed. keep the good work going.
So what message do you carry through this article? Are you suggesting that India by becoming christians would be saved.Aren't the terrorists funded by your Joshua Project? You Christians and muslims know to join hands, which has happened in the past. Why don't you reveal the symbolic message in open words! NIce preistyou are!
Terrorism consists not only in exploding bombs and using AK 47s. Terrorism is at play whenever there is an attack/ massacre of innocent people. Terrorism is at play whenever there is hate campaign. By this definition of terrorism your list of terror acts in India is awefully short. To the list of Mumbai and Hyderabad should also be added Khandamal, Malegaon, etc. etc.
Terror, murder, alienation, destruction - these are results; bombs, AK 47s, swords and clubs are the means. However the worst among the means is a systematic and vicious hate campaign, which is capable of promoting the use of weapons more deadly than those mentioned above. The Government and citizens of India indeed should wake up and confront many such means of terror that normally go unnoticed or are hidden.
>>Terrorism is at play whenever there is an attack/ massacre of innocent people. Terrorism is at play whenever there is hate campaign.
I agree this, and this is what happening at Orissa and did happen in Karnataka recently on the Christian community.
I would also take you to a tour of another version of Bombay attacks. please see this letter published in
http://www.nwmindia.org/
The mayhem in Mumbai
A few thoughts on TV coverage, which I thought you could publish and start a
debate since I think it is high time we brought under TV channels under some
kind of regulation.
First of all, was it necessary to provide 24-hour coverage of the hostage
crisis? Did it do anything for the viewers, the security forces, the
helpless hostages, Mumbai city or the nation except to make matters worse
for all concerned? According to the security forces, the TV channels had
helped the terrorists and were directly responsible for the death of the
Times of India journalist who was staying on the top floor of the Taj Mahal
Hotel. At the end of the day, after all the hysteria, the maniacal coverage
by the hordes of TV reporters it was the newspapers which gave us a proper
picture of what was happening along with some expert views which helped us
to understand the gravity of the situation. If you went by the TV coverage
it was just another circus for them where the usual shrieking brigade which
plays to the gallery by taking to task the politicians, the security
agencies, neighbouring countries, etc had a field day – for four whole days.
Why do the police, the army and the NSG, which is very good at picking on
drivers in Delhi who stray into the path of VIP cars, not clear the TV
channels from the area of operations? In the Western world you will not find
TV reporters behaving like fish wives and sticking their microphones into
the faces of hostages just released, much less badgering the security
forces. The channels were so keen on providing coverage that they were
willing to risk the lives of their reporters.
Why is there no code of conduct for TV reporters? Surely, their performance
over the past decade has given us ample cause for concern? Why do the
channels not give their reporters some training? Instead we are subject to
unprofessional, unethical and insensitive reportage, forced to endure the
verbal diarrhoea of reporters who come across as extraordinarily banal. I am
aware that it is not easy to keep talking intelligently for more than three
minutes at a stretch so why go in for an exercise where one is talking
mindlessly for hours on end?
Besides, nowhere else in the world, not on CNN (incidentally their coverage
was the best in my opinion with a good mixture of analysis and news
coverage), BBC, AL Jazeera, Iran TV or whatever) will you find reporters and
anchors hectoring and castigating whoever they think deserves to be ticked
off. The liberties Indian TV news channels take with panellists, security
officials, politicians and viewers is simply appalling.
Unfortunately, it is the senior reporters/anchors who are the worst
offenders. We had one editor-in-chief who claimed friendship with one of the
unfortunate ATS top brass who were killed in Mumbai. And what does he tell
the world? That Ashok Kamte won a banana-eating contest in his college days!
Is there no sense of a time and place for such revelations? Is there no
sanctity for any of us even in death? Some of his interviews with those who
had managed to escape were unbelievably fatuous and inappropriate. "Did you
expect such a thing to happen here? (!) Do you plan to come back to India?"
God help us all.
Sanctimoniousness is sometime harder to stomach than plain stupidity.
Another editor who heads a rival channel and is fond of telling viewers how
moral his channel is and believes it is fine to hector those taking a
different stance was put in his place when two experts he had called in told
him all TV channels had played into the hands of the terrorists by their
nauseating and endless coverage of the hostage drama.
Yet another star, famous for her dangerous and witless reporting from the
trenches, put on a suitably grave expression verging on the tearful, but
turned out to be the most insensitive of them all. When she was not busy
sticking the mike into the faces of all and sundry, even relatives gathered
outside the Taj Mahal Hotel desperately waiting for some news of their
captive kin, she was yelling on camera to fellow reporters ("you shut up")
or badgering the security people. Last seen, she had brushed past protesting
policemen and paramedical staff at the Taj around noon today (Saturday 29)
when they had just begun to clear the bodies to show us the sights. "Look at
this window, look at the damage here" before she was chased off.
If TV channels cannot teach their employees how to conduct themselves like
professionals, we need to ask the government and the security agencies to do
so. This is not the best option but would seem justified in the
circumstances. The security agencies also need to be given a code of
conduct: where to keep the media in such situations (at a distance where
they cannot do damage to others and themselves) and who should be briefing
them and when.
One TV channel told an irate viewer who complained about the unprofessional
coverage of the terror strike that she had the option not to watch. Is that
the solution?
I hope this letter will provoke some introspection and some remedial action.- Rajalakshmi
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