Is Aggression the Solution?

Morning, noon, day and night I spent before the television and watched in horror the events unfold. Since then I have been following the tragic aftermath. The 'war' on Mumbai and then the mourning and the blaming and the strategies and the anger. The ranting and raving of the public lapped up by the media. The exit of a defunct home minister who did not have one strong word to say against the terror strikes for so many months leave alone any plan of action. The public is crying war, the channels want war....kill kill kill. more lives for the ones already lost. More hate for the hate already present there. I am devastated so see the kind of hatred we inspire among these young terrorist boys. " We have slapped you in the face" says the captured terrorist....imagine the amount of trouble many people are taking to 'slap us in the face', training , practicing and even giving up their lives to destroy symbols of our economic power. How pitiable these boys are...killing and dying for nothing!

The most foolish, insensitive, asinine and irresponsible people in our country are our politicians the whole episode has revealed that yet again (as if we did not already know)- there is no hope in this quarter nothing can change. Did you see the smiling finance minister at the press conference telling the press that he will now be home minister? His speech was full of himself , his challenges, his term of office being uneventfull or not, the economy...all the while smiling benignly. No mention of the dreadful circumstances and the duty which he is now going to do. Not even a mention of the terror strike just two days after it was over. I felt sick! If this is the attitude of such a learned man how can we blame the riff raff? Clearly nothing is going to change in the home ministry.

The whole episode shows that there is no close link between the organisations who are responsible to protect us. The intelligence department, the police the army and all the defence forces should work together. If there are so many special task forces created then by the time they arrive half the people would be dead as they were this time. There should be one organisation which should address the problem throughout the country. We were hearing of a possible attack on mumbai since the Bangalore blasts and yet the policemen at the VT station were unarmed or carried stuff that would be equivalent to water pistols before the guns of the terrorists. Why, may I ask, who is responsible for this. Rs 10 lakh has been given to the constable who bravely faced the terror duo by throwing chairs at them! Imagine the desperation of the situation! No guns for the railway police a CCTV for what purpose? So that we can see this tragi-comedy unfold?

I asked the girl at forum mall who checks my bag every time I go in "What will you do if you find an AK-47 what will you do?"- she smiled at me without answering. The truth is, she does not know the answer! We have put in place surveillence mechanisms and we are thinking that the terrorists will be so scared that they will not dare to do anything in the face of large scale checking! For our information the terror guys do not bother to wear masks anymore. They have become defiant in the face of our callousness. For every CCTV there should also be a fully armed state of the art attack team who can stop these gun toting youngsters. There is no time to call upon commandos. The anti terrorist forces should be always present at key points, near the CCTVs otherwise the device is of no use.
This was our failure, not paying heed to prior warning, not arming our men, not standing up together. Even now we are so divided- some asking for war, some asking for an NSG for Mumbai, some talking of police reforms, some tirading against the politicians. What use is a new CM if important lessons have not been learnt? Thinking that Pakistan will turn over a new leaf and capture the kingpins is utter foolishness. They are themselves under the thumb of these men. Could they stop Benazir's killing? Could they stop the razing to rubble of their five star hotel? to except help from people who cannot help themselves is utter foolishness. I am wondering whether we cannot develop strike forces that can raise fear in terrorist hearts- why can't we attack these 'stateless' criminals as Zardari calls them. What if we blow these kingpins up ourselves without relying on protocol. What if these chaps get a bullet in their skulls when they are watching a cricket match? We need a James Bond style secret police force, and we need training from the US and UK anti-terror forces. If we can import coaches for our sportspersons we can surely import trainers for our police and coast guards. We should invest in more state of the art arms for the police force guarding important public places and commercial hubs instead of undertaking a full scale war against a country which is already down and out. It is an hour of showing solidarity not divisiveness. We should accept the offer of Pak to hold a joint committee for investigation all the while developing a secret task force who can bomb the training camps in POK- leave the diplomacy to the politicians and the protection to our brave soldiers! Jai Hind!