Wednesday, July 12, 2006 





When a city gets bombed..

What is common between Srinagar, New York, New Delhi, Mumbai, London? All these cities have been bombed or attacked by terrorists at some or the other point of time. Now, whats uncommon between these places? The response given by their government after these attacks. A few days after the 9/11 attack, the US attacked Afganistan and almost rooted Taliban out of that country. Within 7 minutes of the bombings at London, the entire city was taken over by their armed forces and one year post that, there has been no let up in the security measures.


Now we come to the cities which were attacked in India. What was the immediate and long term response post all these attacks? Each political party came up with inane statements. Some parties went to the extent of defending islamic forces behind that in order to keep their vote bank safe, some other blamed some unknown foreign forces, opposition blamed the ruling party and the ruling party blamed Pakistan and gave them a really stren warning without taking any stern action. After all, we have offered them our friendship and we just cant afford to offend a friend who for years has back stabbed us by sponsoring terrorists and sending them over to our country to kill innocent people.

And the long term effect is that everybody has forgotten about it and moved on. Our government may remember the Parliament attack but they wouldnt want to remember the 1993 blasts in Mumbai or the blasts, which happened in Delhi last year or the everyday killings in Kashmir. Even the recent Mumbai blasts will be forgotten soon. Thats because it didnt involve a politician or a big guy. It resulted in common, middle or lower class people dying.

I guess, in a country where more than 1 billion people live, a mere 200-250 deaths dont mean much. We sit here and condemn US policies but fail to realise that in the US or Europe, or for that matter a lot of Asian countries, life of a common man is valued. They may react really strongly at times but all of that happens in the best interest of their people. Every small or big attack is taken seriously and action is taken to try and ensure that such an incident doesnt happen again.

Then, what is it about Indians that makes us behave like such nice guys, who at the most will warn and then sit back and relax till the next attack happens? Why cant we take a stern action which will give the right kind of message to all terrorist outfits that we cant be taken so lightly and that we are capable enough to handle any god damn force? Have we become immune to iy? Or is their a political game in all of this, which makes us easy targets? Since no party wants to stand up and make the first move as it may effect their political scenario or is it too much of an effort for them to make especially when they are so used to leading a comfortable life.

It angers me when terrorists kill innocent people. Whether in India or anywhere else. But what angers me even more is the way my government reacts to such a ghastly act. I may salute the spirit of mumbai but I feel so disappointed to be a part of a government, which just doesnt give a damn...

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