Spirit, Safety, and Selflessness – We are to blame!
We’ve been hit. And we’ve been hit hard. Physically, emotionally, mentally. The news channels run tag lines like “Mumbai Liberated” and “Mumbai Fights Back”. But have we really liberated ourselves yet? Are we fighting back? Will we dine again at a cafe or 5-star hotel without shuddering at the slightest noise of a door shutting?
“Spirit of Mumbai!” What a phrase? A phrase that I appreciated, until a fellow PFC author Kartik Krishnan rubbished it saying that the people of Mumbai don’t have a choice but to get back to work and get on with their lives. I couldn’t agree more that Mumbai just gets back to work. But I cannot agree that we don’t have a choice. We need to create that choice.
It is this very passive nature disguised as “spirit” that adds to the complacency of our leaders. Spirit is why we don’t have safety. Spirit is why our leaders can afford to ignore early intimations of terrorist threats from the CIA and Maharashtra Fishermen’s Union without the slightest fear of accountability. Our loved ones continue to get blown to pieces, but we don’t ask questions. We simply “bounce back” and get back to work.
Mumbaikars are not the only ones threatened at this point. If Mumbai is vulnerable to terrorists sailing across the Arabian Sea from Karachi, Chennai is equally vulnerable to their counterparts operating out of Bangladesh, Indonesia, or Mindanao (South Philippines). Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkatta, and Hyderabad are equally vulnerable to the unimaginable number of terrorist cells germinating within our own country.
We pride ourselves as the world’s largest democracy, but are we really practicing the concept? What is stopping us from shutting shop and taking to the streets collectively to demand our safety like Europeans do time and again so successfully?
We need to be selfless and forget our day jobs, our businesses, our opportunity costs for a day or two and force our complacent leaders to equip our forces to protect us more effectively. When the NSG commandos who are literally only minutes away off the western coast take hours to reach the scene because of ridiculous red tape bureaucracy and ineffective chain of command, it is our responsibility to hold up a mirror to the impotent government. It is our responsibility to demand that the coast is secured, that our main cities have impenetrable security checks, that the size and potency our security forces are increased to overcome the level of threat that we face.
Why didn’t we demand all this after 1993? Why didn’t we demand after terrorists ran amok with AK-47s into our government edifices in New Delhi? Why didn’t we demand our right to safety after our trains were blown up? How big a tragedy do we need to strike us before we take responsibility for ourselves and act? We blame the government for inaction and rightfully so. But what have we done as citizens to coax them to act?
Assuming we do take the streets in protest, assuming we persuade the government to enforce stronger security in our cities, are we willing to give up certain liberties we are so accustomed to for the sake of our children’s safety?
When we enter a mall or multiplex and the security guard checks us with a metal detector, we make faces and complain. When we drive home late at night and a cop pulls us over to ask questions, we cringe. When officials at the airport security checks open every suitcase and we have to wait the extra hour in line, we create havoc and yell at the staff. When we are asked to show identification at places we frequent, we get egotistical and offended.
The situation in most of the world, and most certainly in our country today is such that we have to be willing to give up these liberties in the interest of our very own safety. The Americans gave up these luxuries after 9/11. The Israelis continue to give up more and more so they don’t have to worry about getting blown to pieces while walking out to buy a bottle of milk. As a result, in the recent past, numerous attempts at disturbing their peace have been thwarted or deterred.
India with its population, and the simple fact that the face of the enemy can blend in so easily with members of our society, needs even tougher security measures. Not just Mumbaikars, but all Indians collectively need to come to terms with the fact that we have to act.
Our safety is in our hands!
Tags: mumbai, safety, security, spirit, terrorist, threat
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Exactly my view Vijay, candlelight rallies, bike rallies, “Spirit of Mumbai” charades, are not going to solve it.
All we have been doing since 1993 is applying Band Aid to the Wounds. But right now we need a major surgery, because the wounds have become septic.
High time for us to create a votebank in every constituency in India, and pressurize the leaders. Make it clear to them, that unless they give an assurance that they are serious about the Nation’s security, that they will take steps to protect the nation, they are not getting my Vote.
We have been bleeding for far too long, but we have kept ignoring it, in the name of “Spirit” and “Resilience”. There is nothing now to be resilient. If we don’t act, we are doomed.
News has just broken that Shivraj Patil has resigned. It’s a start. Lot more to come, I hope.
P. Chidambaram is the new Home Minister!
the terrorists shld have succeeded in their Parliament attack……unless and until, all these corrupt politicians get killed nothing is going to happen…at least from the politicians side…..its upto the aam junta to decide now what to do…..
Yes ashish. When you have the CM taking a movie director (RGV) and his actor son (Riteish) as part of his entourage to survey the affected areas, you know you have problems!
And there seems to be total apathy towards politicans now. We need this apathy so they know that the public will not keep bending over and taking it up the ass.
The Kerala Home Minister & Chief Minister went to visit slain Major Unnikrishnan’s house in Bangalore. His father refused to meet them and asked them to leave.
There is an amazing video on Times Now showing Mjr Unnikrishnan’s father storming in and literally throwing the Kerala politicians out, yelling at the “stinking dogs” to get out!
Jaago India!
There is too much celebration over little things in every facet of life in India. Being resilient is one thing, but celebrating it like that is the answer to everything is completely wrong approach. Why must we celebrate like world champs when once is a while the cricket team beats Australia, how about consistent winning behavior. Why must we start calling ourselves superpower of the world when Sensex crosses 20000. Really do we have any thing that makes us superpower ? Why point fingers at Pakistan first without going through our own mistakes ? I mean really 50 plus years of hatred and wars and yet we still expect help from arch rivals ? If not Pakistan we still have issues with China and Bangladesh, and we shouldn’t expect good behavior from them. If we are not prepared to defend our borders, if we cannot stop few men to come of boats and terrorize a whole city for 60 hours. why and what should we celebrate ? Expect nothing from any country and do everything possible for the country.