Tragedy and Hope

With the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I felt it was time for me to write an entry related to them. A tragic loss of life, no doubt, and the bravery of all those involved in the freedom of the commandos, leaves little to say with respect about it. During this catastrophic time, we stand with Mumbai and express our solidarity and condolences to all those who died. To our enemies who have dared to launch such an attack on our psyche and our symbol of hope and reason, I hope the leaders take decisive action and punish those involved to the fullest extent of the law and beyond. To use the words of another man, “Deciding whether the terrorists go to hell or heaven is God’s choice, but fixing their appointment with God is ours.”

            Whether it was an intelligence failure or a political failure, or a security failure is now a moot point with this tragedy now behind us. All we can now do is examine what led to this event, and hopefully take corrective action, that the lives of those that were lost were not in vain, and prevent such horrific attacks. Blindly asking politicians to resign over this is not the solution. Though it might give a short term psychological relief to the people, the problem still remains and the new minister still has to solve this problem. In fact, by the time the new minister comes to grip with the problems, we could have lost invaluable time, time which could have been used to take preventive action. Due to the factitious nature of our government, considering its allies and the coalitions formed, it is difficult to expect a single solution that keeps all those involved happy. Compromises are made and in this case, Mumbai emerged the loser due to all the deals, both over the table and under the table. We might never know which horses were traded or how much money changed hands, but it is this nature of our government that leads to chaos and disorder. However handing a mandate to a single party in a country like India is also cause for trouble due to the diversity present in India, as it would give one group ascendancy over the rest of the groups. It is not a problem with an easy solution; however, we can see that in its present form, it causes paralysis of the state. I sincerely hope that the people of Mumbai recover from this tragic incident, and that the famous spirit of Mumbai moves forward.

            One thing I noticed during the news coverage of this incident was how the news reports these days tend to be more of a sports commentary laced with adjectives, rather than reporting the news. In a sentence, you get to hear words like tragic and horrendous etc. without actually saying whats happening. I guess that is due to viewer ship issues, but still I would like to hear the unadulterated news without actually having to hear the newscaster’s opinion.

            The other thing I wanted to talk about was the Mumbai riots that Raj Thackeray was responsible for. I want to ask, where were they when the attacks happened. Champions of Mumbai, that they call themselves, where were they when the grenades and bullets went off. Posturing in front of camera, or beating on unaware travelers is much different than actually fighting the good fight as they might have found out. Unforgiving as this scathing attack may be, not a single word expressing grief at the loss of life or for the brave commandos has been uttered by either of the Thackerays. With the general election about to come up, I hope that the mask of these self righteous groups has been torn off for all to see. The fact that it was India that defended India’s Mumbai from foreign attacks is probably lost on the MNS activists as they continue their fight.

            And one thing from my earlier blog entry predicting a win for John McCain, the voters of the United States have proved me wrong comprehensively by electing Obama with one of the largest mandates to be handed out in recent times. A gracious speech by McCain, conceding the election and President elect- Obama’s speech accepting the elections results shows the strength of the American democracy, that a loss is not perceived as the end of the line, or the end all be all, that tomorrow, you still are ready to serve the country working with the person you fought with for an American future. I guess India would do well to learn lessons from this election as our own come up. The problems I mentioned in the earlier blog, still persist and have gotten worse; I hope Obama is the president who will deliver on his election promise.