: Will we ever learn ?

K.P.S. Gill in this beautiful article explains the different approaches taken by the security forces, press and most importantly the politicians in the terrorist attacks in London recently, and the foiled attack on the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in India. What intrigues me is the fact that even after decades of experience fighting terrorists at home, we still have not devised efficient means of tackling them. Our methods are crude, and rely heavily on hearsay and rumour. Check out the news cast from the two incidents. There are conflicting reports of the Ayodhya attack, whereas there is only one (and only one) comprehensive information we hear about the London attacks. Really distressing, more distressing is the fact that even after so many years, we still have not come up with a more efficient system of disaster management, conflict management and information interchange. Like Gill pointed out, compared to Ayodhya (not comparing the nature of the attacks here) there was just one source of information interchange. So all press around the world said the same thing, no guesses, no heresay, no speculation. How efficient is that????? And look at the politicians. Blair I should say did an amazing job of mobilizing public opinion, condemning only the perpetuators, and also most significantly, included muslim MPs to discuss further actions. Did we see anything of that sort from our politicians??? Naaaa. Never. Its image folks. Mr. Advani promptly took the opportunity to bash "Pakistani backed terrorists" and "security lapses" (y'know, all those politically charged words) and also called a nationwide BANDH. All for a successfully foiled attack on the most controversial 80 acre land piece in the whole world!!!!!!!!! We Indians are to blame. We elected those people to power, to say things like that and make our lives miserable.

I usually do not like to post political blogs, but this really upset me, in the way things were handled. This is the information era. Information about something is bound to reach the public anytime. It is upto the officials to see that the information comes from a trustworthy source, and that it is coherent. Also, the lack of proper communication channels, and clarity really makes us look lower than third world. Soon after the tsunami, the way we reacted to the the relief efforts was worth a pat in the back. But it kind of died a premature death, as we quite evidently did not go ahead with it to the full extend.

A friend of mine emailed me from Hong Kong and said how beautiful and clean the city looked. Why? The people want to keep the city clean. They take every effort to make it look good and clean. They take pride in doing it. What about a city in India, say Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai. What do we do? We blame it on the large population that these cities are dirty and filthy. But is someone doing something? The same indian who lives in Singapore keeps his neighbourhood clean. He does not throw the banana skin on the roadside, but finds a trash can to dump it. He returns to india, and does he do the same thing? No. He litters. What a paradox. He knows well that he is gonna get his a** fined if did that in S'pore. If we really want to see India Shining, we have to start at the grassroot level. If we see ourselves as one of the economic powers of the world, we have to change the way we think of ourselves, and our country. I do not think most Indians understand that power rests with them. Vote for reliable people. People with integrity. People with vision. And help them achieve it by providing full support. Hey, we elected them goddamit. Best example? This guy called G.W. Bush and this nation called America. Look at the support he has in the US, even after every TD&H knows the things he did to "fight Terror" did not work. India desperately needs a visionary, a new age Gandhi (NO. Not Sonia or anybody from the Nehru family. I was just mentioning about Gandhi the visionary, not Gandhi the politician).

Only then will we really be able to say "Sara jahan se acha, Hindustan hamara....."

~ciao