My Expressions After The Mumbai Incident

Anguish of The Useless Common Man

We take pride in saying that we have lost two prime ministers to terrorism. When are we going to stop highlighting our failures as our bravery?

It is more than 48 hours since the attack on Mumbai is over. I am still coming to accept the fact that my country is under attack is real. It is a sick feeling to know that a handful of persons between the ages of 20-25 can hold a country to ransom. Not being in India made me feel hopelessly insecure for all my dear ones. And watching the Indian news channels heightens the helplessness even more. I am just trying to put my anguish on paper as the news starts coming as to why the elite National Security Guards (NSG's) took so long to begin their action. Here is a sequence of events as they appeared in almost all the Indian newspapers -
9.30 pm The terrorists struck Mumbai. CM Vilasrao Deshmukh was in Kerala. He was reached and briefed about the attacks on prime locations of the city.
10.15 pm Deshmukh grasped the enormity of the situation.
11.00 pm He called up Union home minister Shivraj Patil and asked for NSG commandos.
"How many men?’’ Patil asked.
"Two hundred,’’ said the CM. Patil called up NSG chief J K Datta and told him to send 200 men to Mumbai.
Most of the NSG men had to be roused from their sleep. They slipped on their uniforms, strapped on safety gear, collected ammo and firearms. It was realised that the plane that could carry 200 men, the IL-76, was not in Delhi but Chandigarh. Precious minutes were ticking by. The IL-76 pilot was woken up, the plane refuelled.
2.00 am The plane reached Delhi. By the time the plane took off, more than four-and-a-half hours had gone by since the attack. Experts say unless counteraction starts within 30 minutes of an attack, the attackers can take up key defence positions.
5.00am The plane touched down at Mumbai airport. The IL-76, unlike a Boeing or Airbus, is a slow plane.
5.25 am NSG commandos came out and got into waiting buses.
6.10 am The buses reach the designated place in south Mumbai where the commandos were briefed, divided into groups and sent out on their mission.
7 am They started their operation —nine-and-a-half hours after the terror strike.
Many lives might have been saved if this delay had not taken place.
The obvious questions are -
- Is the local police equipped morally, functionally, intellectually to tackle this sort of attack?
- Is the political leadership and bureaucracy at state as well as national level, mature enough to tackle these situations? Isn't it time that we kicked out these Tapori politicians from every part of governance - right from Municipalty and Zilla parishad to Lok Sabha. These pygmy politicians with a 19th century mindset are ill equipped to tackle the issues of a 21st century ambitious & emerging India. And they refuse the grow up.

-Security is something that all us took for granted. We know that there were a few good men who were doing the dirty job for us. But is the government allowing them to do their jobs honestly?
- Is the intelligence gathering actually working at ground level as well as higher level? The cyber threat is very real. Does the government have enough resources to tackle this?
- Why is the NSG only stationed at Delhi? Now that India is urbanising at such a speed, why not have similar outfits created in all major cities?
- Why were the NSG sleeping? Can’t they be made to work in shifts?
- If the IL76 is a slow plane, why has it been given to the NSG? Why was it stationed at Chandigarh when the NSG is based in Delhi?
- Why was the pilot of IL76 sleeping? Can’t they too work in shifts?
- Why not have speedier planes at the disposal of the NSG?
- Why weren’t maps of the buildings involved kept ready for the NSG? Surely the municipal corporation would have the maps.
- How did the terrorists enter Mumbai? What was the coast guard doing?
- Why can’t we install CCTV cameras in every busy crossing and unmanned areas like the coastline? It is common sense that if the door to your house is left open dogs will definitely enter.
- How could the terrorists walk in to CST with weapons and ammunition? Weren’t the metal detectors working?
- When are we going to give bullet proof jackets and light weight helmets to the police? Why don’t we spend money on equipment, training, vehicles and such things for the police?
- Why aren’t people trained not to panic? Simple tips like do not run incase of blasts lie down on the ground - These lessons have to be included in the school curriculum.
- The news suggest that there was some information available that something BIG is being planned. The secret agencies job does not stop at issuing advisories. What was the follow-up to that?
- There has to be a time bound plan to have the counter terrorism infrastructure in place and the political leadership has to have accountability.
- The Prime Minister started parroting as usual about Pakistan based militants. Isn’t it time this nonsense about Pakistan be ended for ever.
- Is there a political will to expedite court cases and hang those accused of terrorism without getting into a debate of religion?
- What action will be taken on politicians like Amar Singh and Abu Azmi who belittle the sacrifices of police officers and even declare grants to the terrorists families?
- One police officer while rushing to the scene of crime, brandished his automatic weapon at the constables manning the check post in an attempt to allow him to go past without stopping. While the intention was honourable the method was not. Tomorrow criminals can follow the same method. An easier system would be to stop and show his identity card.
- The media while being very brave acted in the most immature and unacceptable manner . Minute by minute live coverage of the security forces activities, asking all the wrong questions to all people and going on air with the conversations with the terrorists are just some of the blunders. The media even tried to interview the commandos on camera. It is the anonymity of these guys makes them more effective. Are these guys in the media paid by the terrorists to gather this information or are they plain stupid? They gave away all information on the placement of fire brigades, armed forces and the equipment that the armed forces carried. The comments made by the reporters varied from the most childish to the most super intelligent! There wasn't any plain speak - always the hyperbole. The media ensured that there was panic. Instead of guiding the citizens on the precautionary measures and boosting morale they kept on giving their own interpretation of what must be happening behind the walls giving half baked misinformation most of time. They kept pressurising the home minister and security chiefs about what was being planned, how many commandos were being moved and what weapons they carried. The home minister, the *** person that he is told on camera that NSG’s are reaching Mumbai in the next two hours! God, are we a nation of dumb, moronic nincompoops and jackasses? Is this the leadership of a nation of billion people? The government has unlimited resources at its command. Couldn’t they just keep the immature media away from these operations? Why do they have to show flesh and blood on screen? Don't they realise that kids can get traumatised? A very poor show for the media.
- Why can’t every citizen be given an identity card? But with the corruption that exists in issuing of ration cards, cell phones and driving licenses who will guarantee that the Id cards will be issued honestly? Is the government so naive to the threat of identity theft?
- This incident has happened in Mumbai today, it may happen anywhere tomorrow. Is having NSG’s in every city the only solution? The threat of guns and bombs is just one thing - There is even a bigger threat of chemical and biological warfare. Is the government equipped to tackle these? Are we as citizens aware of these?
- We take pride in saying that we have lost two prime ministers to terrorism. When are we going to stop highlighting our failures as our bravery?
I am not a professional on counter terrorism measures but just a simple citizen who expresses his opinion only in his select company of friends and blogs such as these, but I wonder that if these most basic questions come to my mind and disturb me, don’t those who are supposed to be in power know the answers to these?