Whatever

Natrajan Thamizhmani

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Terror strikes

This is a time when every patriotic Indian is angry. They have just seen India go through one of the worst attacks in history of terrorism in India. I am talking about the recent attacks by terrorists on Nov 26 across Mumbai which is referred to as India's 9/11. Was I surprised when I heard Mumbai, the financial capital of India was attacked? Not at all. What has made this attack grab so much media coverage and international attention? After all they hadn't even succeeded in killing as many lives as they did in their previous attacks. It is the nature of the attack and the society of people targeted which has made this attack gain so much hype. The captured hostages seem to have been sorted based on their nationality and tortured before they were killed. One possible reason for this was to ensure India's foreign relations with the nations of these hostages got spoiled. Also, what had all these times been hidden cowardly bomb implant attacks often targeting the middle class had changed to a hostage/human carnage situation attacking the elite society. I don't believe there was any attempt to save the hostages. Rather, the police and the commandos wanted to just put an end to this horrifying situation in the hotels that the terrorists took control over and not let them out and allow them to cause more damage. This was in contrary to the plans of the terrorists who wanted to escape the hotels after causing as much damage as they could using the hostages. I am made to believe this is one of the reasons it has gained more attention than what the terrorists would have expected. However, this operation took a grueling 60 hours before all things came to an end.

We should salute the heroes who sacrificed their lives and entered those hotel rooms knowing they might not be alive the very next second. Those brave hearts also come from families such as us and I feel deep regret for their losses. I wonder how it would be to literally embrace death. All we do for them would be to give them some media attention and forget them in sometime. I wonder if the governments really care enough to financially support their families and fund their children's education. But what has bothered me a lot recently is the resignations of ministers. I find this ridiculous. Our leaders show readiness to chicken out of situations. I do agree there is a lot of pressure from all sides. But, isn't it their responsibility to take care of the situation and bring things totally under control? They could resign after doing this. We wouldn't really mind then, would we? What this suggests to me is that they had no plans and control of anything related to the situation and their resignations wouldn't affect things either, so they might as well.

The Indian government claims that it has sufficient evidence to prove that our most notorious neighbor, Pakistan's LeT has been involved in this. Also that is what Ajmal Qasab, the lone 21 year old terrorist to have been caught alive after the attacks has hinted. I also saw a Pakistani media footage on the internet suggesting this was a well orchestrated drama that was carried out by the Indian government. After being captured, Ajmal said he didn't want to die. Its very sad and might even sound totally ridiculous that even at this juncture, I feel sorry for him. He is just a pawn who has moved according the commands of his king, whoever that was. This blame game will go on for a while and only time can give us the answers to lots of questions unanswered at this point of time. 

People are really pumped up and emotions are running high. They want something to be done but can't really say what that should be. This reminds me of 9/11. They want the politicians to take moral responsibility which is fair enough and expecting them to take financial responsibility as some do sounds too funny to me. Some feel there should be stricter security arrangements which should stop such infilterations. I feel that would stop terrorism, but just for now. Why are we trying to just make sure we are not affected by more diseases? Why are we not finding a cure for the original disease? Maybe it is a bad analogy, but my point is we should be addressing the original issue itself and not try to prevent more of such attacks which would just make these terrorist organizations go passive for now. I do realise it is easier said than done and it is a 60 year old problem politicians have battled with their brains. According to me only that can bring a final solution to this problem though I wouldn't have a clue as to what that should be. 

It is important to show the unity and solidarity amongst people during such tough times our nation goes through. However, already not being in our homeland and showing our solidarity from outside from a place like Bozeman might hardly make any difference. After we indeed show our solidarity, arguing over the colour of clothing that needs to be worn to represent this solidarity and in the end wearing different colours during the occasion just seems to be funnily enough violating the whole concept and definiton of solidarity and it is matter of shame. However, the spirits of the younger generation cannot go unnoticed and their innovative ideas would definitely mature in future and influence some of the most important decisions the country would have to make. I hope they remain this patritoic at all times and not just during such hard times and this spirit lives within them forever. Proud of being part of this young generation, proud of being an Indian, proud of all our Indian martyrs, here I blog.

 
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