The terror attack on Mumbai got world wide attention and coined another milestone in history – ‘26/11’. Most of us, me included, sat glued to the TV, aghast, as the terrifying saga unfolded, never seeming to end, evoking anger, sympathy, horror and disbelief. The television channels were at their best – each trying to outdo the other and up their TRP.
As I watched the TV and read the newspapers, I wondered will this create the necessary change the media is screaming about and we all yearn for – a better and more secure India. Everybody seemed to agree on one thing though and its true, we Indians are a resilient lot but with a short memory. We blamed everyone from the politician to the defence and civil servants – its true they were all to blame, but are we not to blame? After every incident, there will always be heroes and villains to applaud and condemn, but at what cost and how many lives and will we always remain spectators?
It is but obvious, the terrorists would pick the weakest chink (should read ‘gaping chasm’) in our armour – our long and beautiful coastline. It’s not very long ago, after the July 2006 Mumbai bomb blasts, that a local TV channel had demonstrated how easy it was to land on the Indian coast and smuggle in a cache of bombs and munitions and transport it around. So, what have we learned? Nothing and nothing has changed. As long as we, the common man, support the existing black markets for foreign goods, these illegal inroads to our country will remain open and bring along with it the unwanted evil. The underworld thrives on it and the common man makes up the market that keeps it alive. It is also obvious that the terrorists team up or use local criminals and their gangs in their activities; therefore, unless we control and subdue local organised crime and criminals - who manage to evade or coexist with the law - India will remain a healthy ground for terrorists to exploit.
The fervour with which the TV channels reported, made me most uncomfortable, as it was a blessing of information the terrorists could have been provided and would have resulted in a much longer battle with many more lives lost. Surely the terrorists have some local support. Why couldn’t the army and police have arranged for a larger area to be cordoned off outside the range of TV cameras, thus safe guarding their men who were risking their lives in the operation? Viewers could actually count the number of commandos that were dropped from the helicopter. So much for information, that intensified the drama for the viewer but imperilled the lives of the brave soldiers. On the other hand, hardly any details or coverage of the dead and injured at CST station was reported. Unfortunately they were not the elite patrons of star hotels; their family members must have remained unaware, until very late, that they were part of the tragedy at the CST station.
I was astonished to see the proximity of the press and the public to the actual scene of operation. In fact at one instance a member of the press, near the Taj hotel was hit by stray shrapnel. More shocking were senior military personnel trying to explain their strategy and techniques on TV, was this information necessary for us or for future terrorists?
I wonder if our police are trained in crowd management, which is so necessary in a country like ours, but was unfortunately not evident on those fateful days. The police were just not there in the required numbers; maybe the army should have been called in to back up and help tackle the curious bystanders. To make matters worse we had our very concerned politicians, who came visiting the heart of the incident, to make their presence seen and heard. This created serious security issues which the politicians seemed to be either unaware or just callous.
In the Russian school hostage crisis in 2004, during the final operation the media was blacked out, not a single detail of the rescue operation was broadcast. This was necessary for the success and safety of the rescue operation. We must admit though, that finally, the Mumbai rescue operation did not last as long and the casualty count was less than the Russian school hostage crisis.
In most government organisations, it seems, the departments dealing with stores and supplies, is where most of the tax payers’ money is lost and where corruption is most deep seated. The result of this was very evident when our brave police lost their lives as they donned bullet proof vests which were supplied despite being rejected due to poor quality.
The fact that the NSG were severely handicapped due to the unfamiliar layout of the hotels only goes to show, that either the BMC does not have a requirement for public buildings to have building layout plans specifically available at convenient accesses for fire fighters in case of fire, or these prestigious hotels have blatantly ignored this requirement. Talking about fire fighters, not many fire tenders were visible when the hotel was up in flames. Were the fire hydrants functional? It seems they were either non- functional or they were dry, for they used sea water from the Arabian Sea to douse the raging fires in the heritage Taj hotel and the salt water could only add to the damage the hotel had already succumbed.
We do have a lot to be concerned about. If its the man on the street being lax about regulations, then the corporate are doing no better. This penchant for breaking laws seems to be getting out of hand and proving costly. As children it’s adventurous to acknowledge ‘rules are made to be broken’, but to continue that patronage into adult life has disastrous consequences. The fact that the terrorists had local phone sims is nothing to be shocked about. The DoT discovered that 20% of connections issued were to customers whose ID could not be established. This due to submission of fake ID’s and unverified addresses. Corporate has failed to ensure and comply by these security regulations.
Finally, each one of us needs to play our part as a responsible citizen, right down to following mundane traffic rules. We need to respect, cooperate and support the police and offices like the Lok Ayukta. They must be given more teeth, ensuring accountability at the same time and heavy penalties should be enforced for non compliance and the corrupt. Everybody marvels at Singapore’s administrative prowess, but few are aware of the draconian laws and innumerable penalties that keep the people disciplined there. A popular T-shirt sold in tourist outlets there, says it all. On the front it reads ‘Singapore is a fine city’, on the back, it lists some of the fines that burden the Singaporean. It would be an immense challenge to have a similar administration in India, but being the largest democracy has its flip side. If we have to change this nation, then we need to change it one man at a time and we need to start at home – with discipline, secularism and compliance, upholding the right and condemning the wrong, ensuring our neighbours, friends, colleagues and community does the same. Can we avoid these shocking and horrendous terrorist attacks? Maybe we can, if we took our jobs and responsibilities more seriously than the terrorists do.
As I watched the TV and read the newspapers, I wondered will this create the necessary change the media is screaming about and we all yearn for – a better and more secure India. Everybody seemed to agree on one thing though and its true, we Indians are a resilient lot but with a short memory. We blamed everyone from the politician to the defence and civil servants – its true they were all to blame, but are we not to blame? After every incident, there will always be heroes and villains to applaud and condemn, but at what cost and how many lives and will we always remain spectators?
It is but obvious, the terrorists would pick the weakest chink (should read ‘gaping chasm’) in our armour – our long and beautiful coastline. It’s not very long ago, after the July 2006 Mumbai bomb blasts, that a local TV channel had demonstrated how easy it was to land on the Indian coast and smuggle in a cache of bombs and munitions and transport it around. So, what have we learned? Nothing and nothing has changed. As long as we, the common man, support the existing black markets for foreign goods, these illegal inroads to our country will remain open and bring along with it the unwanted evil. The underworld thrives on it and the common man makes up the market that keeps it alive. It is also obvious that the terrorists team up or use local criminals and their gangs in their activities; therefore, unless we control and subdue local organised crime and criminals - who manage to evade or coexist with the law - India will remain a healthy ground for terrorists to exploit.
The fervour with which the TV channels reported, made me most uncomfortable, as it was a blessing of information the terrorists could have been provided and would have resulted in a much longer battle with many more lives lost. Surely the terrorists have some local support. Why couldn’t the army and police have arranged for a larger area to be cordoned off outside the range of TV cameras, thus safe guarding their men who were risking their lives in the operation? Viewers could actually count the number of commandos that were dropped from the helicopter. So much for information, that intensified the drama for the viewer but imperilled the lives of the brave soldiers. On the other hand, hardly any details or coverage of the dead and injured at CST station was reported. Unfortunately they were not the elite patrons of star hotels; their family members must have remained unaware, until very late, that they were part of the tragedy at the CST station.
I was astonished to see the proximity of the press and the public to the actual scene of operation. In fact at one instance a member of the press, near the Taj hotel was hit by stray shrapnel. More shocking were senior military personnel trying to explain their strategy and techniques on TV, was this information necessary for us or for future terrorists?
I wonder if our police are trained in crowd management, which is so necessary in a country like ours, but was unfortunately not evident on those fateful days. The police were just not there in the required numbers; maybe the army should have been called in to back up and help tackle the curious bystanders. To make matters worse we had our very concerned politicians, who came visiting the heart of the incident, to make their presence seen and heard. This created serious security issues which the politicians seemed to be either unaware or just callous.
In the Russian school hostage crisis in 2004, during the final operation the media was blacked out, not a single detail of the rescue operation was broadcast. This was necessary for the success and safety of the rescue operation. We must admit though, that finally, the Mumbai rescue operation did not last as long and the casualty count was less than the Russian school hostage crisis.
In most government organisations, it seems, the departments dealing with stores and supplies, is where most of the tax payers’ money is lost and where corruption is most deep seated. The result of this was very evident when our brave police lost their lives as they donned bullet proof vests which were supplied despite being rejected due to poor quality.
The fact that the NSG were severely handicapped due to the unfamiliar layout of the hotels only goes to show, that either the BMC does not have a requirement for public buildings to have building layout plans specifically available at convenient accesses for fire fighters in case of fire, or these prestigious hotels have blatantly ignored this requirement. Talking about fire fighters, not many fire tenders were visible when the hotel was up in flames. Were the fire hydrants functional? It seems they were either non- functional or they were dry, for they used sea water from the Arabian Sea to douse the raging fires in the heritage Taj hotel and the salt water could only add to the damage the hotel had already succumbed.
We do have a lot to be concerned about. If its the man on the street being lax about regulations, then the corporate are doing no better. This penchant for breaking laws seems to be getting out of hand and proving costly. As children it’s adventurous to acknowledge ‘rules are made to be broken’, but to continue that patronage into adult life has disastrous consequences. The fact that the terrorists had local phone sims is nothing to be shocked about. The DoT discovered that 20% of connections issued were to customers whose ID could not be established. This due to submission of fake ID’s and unverified addresses. Corporate has failed to ensure and comply by these security regulations.
Finally, each one of us needs to play our part as a responsible citizen, right down to following mundane traffic rules. We need to respect, cooperate and support the police and offices like the Lok Ayukta. They must be given more teeth, ensuring accountability at the same time and heavy penalties should be enforced for non compliance and the corrupt. Everybody marvels at Singapore’s administrative prowess, but few are aware of the draconian laws and innumerable penalties that keep the people disciplined there. A popular T-shirt sold in tourist outlets there, says it all. On the front it reads ‘Singapore is a fine city’, on the back, it lists some of the fines that burden the Singaporean. It would be an immense challenge to have a similar administration in India, but being the largest democracy has its flip side. If we have to change this nation, then we need to change it one man at a time and we need to start at home – with discipline, secularism and compliance, upholding the right and condemning the wrong, ensuring our neighbours, friends, colleagues and community does the same. Can we avoid these shocking and horrendous terrorist attacks? Maybe we can, if we took our jobs and responsibilities more seriously than the terrorists do.
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