Fast moving locals, humans as soldiers, carelessly running vehicles, regular traffic jams, vada-pav stalls, longest queue in the world(for every single thing!!!!), late night parties and a completely exhausted ‘so-called’ Human Being back home. This is what we can call a brief overview of a Mumbaikar’s lifestyle. Life in Mumbai symbolizes
‘the most beautiful mechanized implementation of Human Energy’. This is a city which touches the extremes of type of survival. On the one hand, you find Head Quarters of HDFC, Bank of Baroda, Oriental Bank, BSE building and on the other hand, you find people trying to imitate
“Life” in the best form possible for them. But inspite of all these things, they say “Life moves on”, which is the spirit of Mumbai.
But, on the 26th day of November, 2008, the city was surely finding it difficult to maintain that spirit. When Terrorists struck around 9:45 pm, simultaneously at CST station, Café Leopold, Nariman House, Hotel Taj and Hotel Oberoi (Trident). This was, according to Media,
“the biggest terrorist attack in the history of our nation”. Before the Government could understand what happened, lots of people were killed and several others injured. Fortunately, Administration was quick to respond and the mishap ended after 60 hrs of hard-fought counter terrorism operation carried out by NSG, Army and local police collectively. If we look at the complete fallout thoroughly, what emerges out is an overall systemic failure of Intelligence agencies, Navy, Coast Guards, Local Police, administration and last but not the least, Indian Government.
Indian Security Outlook:-It was one of the most surprising as well as shameful revelations made by the investigating agencies that terrorists took the sea route from Karachi, arranged for arms and ammunitions in the way, hijacked one Indian ship, traveled for some 3-4 hours in Indian waters( which was supposed to be surveyed regularly by Navy), landed at Budhwar Park, a stone’s throw from the base of western navy and minutes away from state police head quarters, escaped all other possible sources of information and attacked the Financial capital of India.
The path traversed by the terrorists reveal the loopholes in our system, infact security system. This shows not just the failure of one or two institutions, but a chain of non-performed and non-implemented actions of various organizations.
Intelligence Agencies:-
Established in 1968, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), is today one of the biggest employers, collecting intelligence form abroad about threats to India and its strategic interests. Indications that RAW passed on credible information to the Secretariat of national Security Adviser, M.K. Narayanan are worrying. It was made available through various intercepts that this time the terrorists are gonna take sea routes and probably would target luxurious hotels or similar easy-to-hit establishments.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB), the oldest intelligence agency in the world, collects every kind of information about threat to India’s internal security. IB reports, too, suggest that information was passed on to the administration about a likely terror attack in Mumbai. Considering the fact that the claims of RAW, IB and other intelligence agencies are true and correct, the needle of responsibility(about lack of accountability), points towards the lethargy of our administration in not acting on the sensitive information passed on by the concerned agencies.
Inefficient Administration:-
I t is one of the known and understandable fact that it is not possible to act on every single information, as it may prove to be a false alarm. But if we talk about a city which has been hit severely on previous other occasions too and if two of the top agencies are sending alarming signals, than, according to me, it becomes the duty of the administration to urgently look into the matter and do the needful. If we assume for the time being that intelligence agencies have failed miserably in alerting the administration, than too, navy, coast guards and local police are responsible for letting happen one of the worst terror attacks on our country. If we talk about the call of duty, it’s the state marine police’s responsibility to patrol upto 5 nautical miles from the shore. The coast guard’s job is to survey upto 200 nautical miles and the blue water area beyond that belongs to navy. Budhwar Park, where the terrorists landed is minutes away from state police H.Q. and finally as they (Taj and Oberoi) are the top hotels in India, their is ample amount of security arrangement in these hotels. Inspite of the fact that we had these security arrangements in place, terrorists were able to penetrate all the five spheres of our security cordon and enter right into the heart of Mumbai with guns, explosives, grenades and enough material required for their survival. If any two or more of these institutions would have performed their duty accordingly, we would have prohibited the
“9/11 of India”.Salute to NSG, Army and all the Martyrs:-
It is not at all surprising why the whole nation is saluting NSG and Army Commandos. They accomplished, what seemed to be, one of the most difficult operations in the history of India, since they had to free the hostages on the one hand and kill the terrorists on the other. But hats off to these
“sons of Bharat Mata”, who executed the plan successfully in the next-to-death 60 hrs fight with the terrorists.
In addition to many NSG and Army Commandos, we also lost three of the Mumbai police’s top cops; ATS-Chief Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte died in action with the war on terror. Mr. Narendra Modi, C.M. of Gujarat announced Rs 1 Crore for every administrative casualty. To everyone’s surprise, wife of Mr. Karkare, turned down the reward given by Mr. Modi.
Indian Media Coverage:-
Within minutes of the reports of this terrorist attack getting public, a great crowd of TV journalists began gathering up near all the three targeted spots. It was, no doubt, one of the most brave and courageous live coverage of a terrorist attack. Journalists brought home almost every aspect of the attack and counter terrorism operations being carried out near Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House. But, in their run up to maximize the TRP ratings and increase the channel’s viewer community, TV journalists even broadcasted the most vital details of the operation being carried out. These details, obviously helped terrorists reorganize and modify their plan of action accordingly. In the counter argument, Mr. Sardesai of NDTV said, “It is really absurd and stupid of us to think that such modern terrorists would be using our channels to direct their plans.” In response I would like to ask a question to Mr. Sardesai, in particular and media, in general that don’t you think that the terrorists who came from Karachi to Mumbai by sea accurately navigating the state-of-the-art GPS gadgets, the terrorists who stayed in touch using satellite phones, the terrorists who used GPS maps to chart entry and escape routes and who possessed a complete GPS map of South Mumbai, will obviously be in some or the other technology to gain the information from TV reports? Don’t you think the terrorists who can carry such a complex endeavor will surely be accessing the information broadcasted by TV channels, which was of immediate use to them? We should always remember that Terrorists are immoral creatures with deadly approach. The most important task which a terrorist has to perform is of causing destruction, devastation and creating chaos. To fulfill this ever urgent objective, he will use any means possible or accessible. Let us not make their task easy. It is good to have faith on their intelligence, but please, let us not consider them to be fools.
There have been speculations from several quarters in the administration and media also, that some kind of a restraint mechanism should be put in place regarding the media coverage in the time of such sensitive issues.
The Aftermath:-As it happens always after such disasters, statements, resignations, questions, protests and many more similar outbursts in the same line….. I was filled with grief when I heard
“No one would be spared” speech by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. It was very sad to look at, that one of our neighbors attacks us again and again and our P.M. uses
“Neighboring Country” instead of
“Pakistan”, despite of the fact that we have more than required evidences about Pakistani involvement in the recent attacks.
Some people suggest that war with Pakistan is the only available solution to this ever-increasing problem. But, as we all know very well, a war takes the economic health of a country 10-15 years downwards. As we also know that in the process of completing the Mumbai operation, many of our brave officers and policemen have lost their lives. According to me, loss of life is the consequence which is only borne by the solder’s family members. Many innocent civilians were also killed. A war would be just another step towards increasing this destruction of life and this time, we would be responsible completely for every life we lost. Instead, we should learn from US, UK, Canada, Russia and several other countries about the counter terrorism strategies, they implemented and hence were successful in avoiding the future terrorist attacks.
As soon as the dust started to settle down, a flurry of resignations starting from Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Deputy C.M. of Maharashtra R.R. Patil to Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh started to be pouring in the democratic basket. But, will these resignations be able to pay for the loss of life which the innocent civilians and the security personnel had to bear in order to be victimized by these attacks?
Life: This is what matters the Most???
Official figures suggest that around 200 people were killed and more than 300 injured in the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. Some questions worth asking would be:
Who would claim the responsibility of this Loss of Life??
Who will feed those families who have lost the lone bread-earner of the family??
Who will take care of those little children who have lost both the parents in this tragedy??
Who will help those who lost one or more of the body parts in the firing??
And above all, who would help the victims, their families and the city to be ‘back on track’??
These questions are disturbing. But, none of the untouched persons like us can feel the emotional and sentimental loss which, the attacks have caused to those involved. The announcement of money packages to the injured and dead is only going to help them financially, but the sorrow of losing a loved one is what the packages could not heal anytime.
On behalf of all the martyrs, the security personnel and the brave mumbaikars who faced yet another dastardly act of insane cowardice by some inhuman demons, we, being the citizens of India, can only say this,
“Sarforoshi ki tammanna ab hamare dil mai hain
Dekhna hai Zor kitna bazue katil mai hain.”
