...and there was blood: The Mumbai Attack

Every countries’ worst fear, breach of its security, putting the public in serious threat of life: a National Security situation and that was exactly what we saw, when Mumbai was attacked by a handful of terrorists. As they took, Nariman Building, Obeori, Trident and Taj hostage and sprayed bullets across the city killing 184 people and leaving more than 200 injured, India experienced its most horrifying terrorist attacks on 26th Nov '08, that lasted over 59 hours. Some of the brightest police officers of Mumbai police force and NSG reached martyrdom while trying to rescue the innocents.
It was the worst thing that could have happened to any democracy. The Govt definitely has failed and as we heard a greatly perturbed Shobha De on the national television we could hear the voice of many Mumbaikars, who were highly disturbed and interrupted. For once the city that never stops was brought to a halt. For once the indefatigable spirit of Mumbai was not the talk of the town, something has definitely made the people think, enough is enough. Politicians acted late and there was a lot of Faux Pas in everything that they did and they say. So when Dr. Manmohan Singh came on National TV to make an inspiring speech to the nation that needed it the most, all he could do was sound mechanical and politically correct. Shivraj Patil, Home Minister, must have been used to making speeches that go into the “Don’ts” of good speech book. I mean he did it when there was attacks in Delhi, Gujrat and now in Mumbai. So when the Politicians were caught on the wrong foot, the saving grace were the men in uniform. The army took up the charge to rescue the hostages and clear the city of the terrorists.

Richa SMSed the other day saying that Sabina Sehgal (Good Food Guide fame) passed away and she had been one of those who followed her columns regularly, she was of course very hurt and disturbed. I understood one thing that the attack was not on Mumbai alone but on every single Indian, telling us that it can strike us anywhere anytime. Tomorrow celebrities/politticians would carry a candle march to some strategic point in the city, say some non sense praising the valiant effort of our soldiers and making themselves and their party heard more than anything else, and the next day we all would go back to our daily routine. And then, are we gonna wait for another blast to rock us, wake us up from our sleeps. Probably the time has come for us to stand up to the terrorists, counter the same. They have the audacity to break into our homes and sabotage it. We burn a few candles, make a few sound bytes and then go back home. Why can't we have our own Munich, our own Mumbai. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”, is what Mahatma Gandhi said but I think at times its an eye for an eye that helps to save the whole world from being blind.

’84, ’93, ’08 – three major dates of dark history of terror attacks in India. The faults lies in us, we never took our politicians to task. They were never made accountable. Ain’t we at fault too.
At the same time I think all the politicians should understand that terrorism is a matter of national security and should not be politicized. We are not done in by terrorists but our very own politicians and those cowards who call them our leaders.
It will take time to find the real culprit but right all the fingers are pointing across the border and this is time to be a bit more stern and leave the cross border friendship for some other time.
Let’s pray for the souls of those departed and show our gratitude towards the people who restored the peace. And hope that this time we stand up to the dark hands behind this inhuman act and for a change take the attack to the other side. We were always been disappointed and hurt but this is the time to be more, to make the angst grow into something bigger and something that would be definitive.

So let’s get together to make a difference, coz we are the difference.