Who Should We Blame?

I think the title of my post says it all. Who should be blamed for the fiasco that occurred one and a half days ago that allowed several gun-wielding goons to run berserk in the most posh part of the biggest city in India? Do we blame intelligence for failing to gather information about this event? Do we blame the Coast Guard or the Navy for not stopping the boat carrying the terrorists at sea? Do we blame the police for not responding quickly to the situation? Do we blame Shivraj Patil for candidly announcing the details of Operation Black Tornado without any concern for secrecy? Or do we blame the system for not training our forces, for not giving them adequate equipment, not installing enough warning systems or not instilling a need for decisiveness? The answer is pretty complicated.

First, let me deal with the immediate reasons for the inefficient manner in which the counter-strike was conducted. Yes, the police ought to be blamed for not responding quickly and decisively. Why weren't the perpetrators at V.T. stopped at the station itself? How were they allowed to get out of the station and reach Cama Hospital and Metro Cinema? Pictures show them swaggering down the street, clearly confident that they wouldn't be challenged. This was on Mahapalika Marg where the both the High Court and the BMC Headquarters are situated. Azad Maidan Police Station is just over there. The Police Commissioner's headquarters is not far off either. And yet, those maniacs walked down the road as if they were taking a stroll. What about the shootout at Leopold Cafe? Colaba Police Station is barely five minutes away – by foot. Why wasn't the response quicker than what it was?

What about intelligence? Unfortunately, Indian intelligence leaves a lot to be desired. Over the last one year, we have failed to predict attacks at several places including big cities like Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Why bother to even mention small towns like Malegaon? Moreover, how good is our counter-terrorism technology? Why did we fail to pick up the boat carrying those terrorists when it approached Mumbai? Surely, all the boats and ships entering Mumbai are registered with the authorities or are they? Even if there is a registration process, why weren't any checks conducted on the boat in question as it landed at Mumbai? Again, what was the Coast Guard doing when this boat appeared in Indian waters? Were they challenged? A week ago, the entire nation was boasting about the prowess of the Indian Navy as the INS Tabar sunk a pirate ship off the Somalian coast. Will we do so now?

Our politicians are an easy lot to blame. Not only, like Shivraj Patil, do they bungle up counter-terrorist operations, they also retard ongoing investigations. The whole month was punctuated with the Sangh Parivar and the Shiv Sena angrily attacking the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for arresting Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. The previous month had had the ruling government poking its nose into the Jamia Milia Islamia encounter in Delhi. Far more disgusting is the fact that after making statements like "presenting a United Front", the Congress and the BJP waited for barely 24 hours before launching verbal assaults upon each other for being against the cause of counter-terrorism.

It is with the politicians that I, personally, nurse the biggest grudge. We have always known how corrupt, inefficient and heartless they all are but the past few days have seen them reach new depths in callousness. The NSG Commandos who were dispatched from Delhi were delayed thanks to a VIP who wanted to escort them. I couldn't help feeling angry when I saw Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi arrive in a limousine at JJ Hospital to "meet the victims". Whoever asked them to come here at all? Operations were still being carried out at the Taj at that time and surely the security provided to these two VVIPs could have been diverted there had they decided not to fly in. Have they no such concerns? Narendra Modi did a slightly better job by immediately convening a meeting to discuss the weaknesses in security around the Gujarat coast but then he too stooped to milk the issue for political gain by coming down to Mumbai and making impressive statements. The BJP splattered advertisements all over the place mocking the Congress for not doing enough to tackle terrorism and asking people to vote for the saffron party instead. Do we really need electoral statements when the country is trying to get back on its feet? The Shiv Sena and the MNS, thankfully, haven't featured themselves much in the media during this issue (at least, in the media that I have access to). I only hope they are not biding their time, waiting for the right moment to come out and blow their own trumpets. That will be just as disgusting as what the Congress and the BJP are doing right now.

On an even angrier note, these politicians who make hugely sympathizing statements when we are under attack do nothing when the nation is at peace. The last three days have seen numerous reports about how badly trained and poorly equipped our policemen are to handle attacks such as these. People make excuses saying that India is a developing country and it cannot afford extensive training and sophisticated equipment. Please. By that argument, India ought not to have nuclear weapons. India ought not to have superb warships such as the INS Tabar and the INS Mysore. India should not be in possession of indigenously developed missiles such as the Agni III. A friend of mine rightly remarked that India has more than enough money; it's just that it's not being channelled into the right areas. It's all going into the pockets of our beloved politicians. You can blame our police forces for shoddy responses but the root of the problem is that they are not effectively trained or equipped. And the reason for poor training is the fat khadi-clad politician hogging away our public funds.

There is however, one group of people who have not been blamed for this gory spectacle, largely because they are seen as victims. In reality though, a portion of the blame ought to be attached to them. I'm talking about the common people. Average citizens like you and me do share the responsibility for scale of damage that this attack has caused simply because, like the political class, we did nothing when all was peaceful. Did any of us bother to find out how secure we are against terrorism? We didn't. Did any of us demand to know how much money was being provided for upgrading and training of urban security forces? I don't think anyone did. CNN-IBN had conducted a sting operation more than two years ago, smuggling 'contraband' by boat from the Arabian Sea, landing upon the Maharashtra coast and carrying the crate of 'contraband' right up to the Gateway of India. Did anyone raise a voice then, asking our netas what was going to be done to prevent such incidents? Nope. As a result, the Gateway of India (or rather the hotel in front of it) is burning today. I didn't do anything either and today I'm paying for it.

Over the past few months, I have become more and more convinced that being a citizen of a country is not very different from having a majority stake in a company. When you invest a large amount of money to purchase a major shareholding in a company, you don't sit back and do nothing, do you? Even if you don't take part in active management, you nevertheless keep a track of what your company is doing, what activities it is pursuing and how beneficial or detrimental these activities are for you. If you have a problem with what the company is doing, you say so. If there are no effective channels by which you can communicate with your management, you demand for such channels. You don't just pump in money and ignore what the management is doing with that money. Yet, that is what people do with their most important stock – the government. They pump in almost a third of their annual income into the coffers of this company and then don't give a damn about what the management does with it. Citizens will ultimately pay the price for not taking an active interest in their dividends from the government. South Bombay, assuming that it will always be safe from calamity, never took an active interest in voting or elections. That assumption was shattered this week. Even a fortress cannot defend its residents by itself. It needs good soldiers to man the ramparts. South Bombay didn't bother to look for these soldiers.

In summary, everyone has some blame to shoulder. Policemen for inadequate responses, intelligence for poor and shoddy work and the public for choosing to remain detached from it all. However, in the end, the biggest culprits remain the politicians. I feel no guilt when I declare them the scum of the earth, parasites that pollute our communities and try to bleed out the prosperity hard-working citizens create. It is a sad state of affairs in a country that hopes to become a superpower in the next quarter-century. I frankly don't care about such things. Just give me a respectable source of income, a comfortable home, a loving family and a safe community to live in. As long as we concentrate on that, I don't give a damn about how much of a superpower we are.

In the Middle of it All...

I suppose everyone in Mumbai remembers where they were the night before last (26^th November). It is not likely that they are going to forget it soon. The events of that evening are very much going to be embedded in every Mumbaikar's memory for quite some time. The city is no stranger to terrorist attacks but this was extremely different from either 1993 or 2006. Some people are calling it 'India's 9/11'. It may very well be so but even if it wasn't called that, it was still an attack that I will recount for quite a few years with apprehension.

I had gone to meet someone in Prabhadevi that day and returned to the hostel around a quarter to nine. My hostel is located at the rear end of the St. Xavier's College campus which shares a boundary with Cama Hospital on one side. A small lane leading towards the Times of India office separates the campus from Rang Bhavan and G.T. Hospital on the other side. Walk down the road from the campus and you will reach the BMC Headquarters and V.T. Station. Walk in the opposite direction and you will come up to the Metro Cinema junction.

My roommate was supposed to leave Mumbai that night by a train from Dadar. Around a quarter past ten, he had just finished packing up everything and I was doing some insignificant work on my laptop when we suddenly heard a staccato of explosions in the direction of V.T. Station. Presuming them to be fireworks, I nonchalantly continued with my work when the explosions happened again. This time, I heard people screaming in the distance, prompting me to look out of the window. My window looks out towards V.T. but the view of the station is blocked by several buildings in between and all I could see was the dome of the station's heritage building. The explosions occurred again and this time, the tube-light in my brain flickered and I began to wonder if it was gunfire. My roommate looked worried but he was determined to leave and carried his luggage out, promising to give me a call once he reached Dadar station. As he left, I heard the gunfire once more and this time, the screams were all too clear.

Meanwhile, the sound of the shots had brought many of the hostelites into the corridor but there was no panic. On the contrary, most of us imagined that the perpetrators would be stopped quickly and there would be no way they would leave V.T. Within a few minutes however, one of the hostelites came out of his room and told us that this was a major operation and other places in South Bombay had been targeted as well. He had just received information that both the Taj and the Oberoi hotels had been attacked.

Puzzled and more than a little worried, I went to one of my friends' rooms and there I learnt that three of my friends had gone out and were known to be somewhere near Metro Cinema. Suddenly the gunfire occurred again. This time, it sounded a lot closer. All of us were getting quite excitable now and there were people running up and down the staircase and bursting into rooms trying to find out if everyone was in the hostel. A couple of bigger explosions suddenly took place and our building vibrated slightly from the impact. Some of us rushed to the terrace to see what was happening in spite of admonishments from the rest of us. My roommate called me and told me that he was coming back. A policeman had intercepted him and ordered him back into the hostel. Leaving his luggage with the security at the entrance, he came back to our room. The shots were loud and clear now and seemed to be coming from Cama Hospital. Another fairly big explosion shook the building again. We decided to switch off the lights and abandon all rooms at the back which faced Cama Hospital (including mine). Meanwhile there was no news from the three who had been stuck outside. We later learned that they had had a horrifying time trying to find shelter. The management at Metro Cinema were not letting them in while the police were trying to drive them away. They somehow managed to contact someone who had an apartment nearby and arrange for shelter there. Before they could leave however, the terrorists managed to reach Metro Cinema and an exchange took place between them and the police. Luckily, the three managed to escape unharmed and made their way to the apartment.

Back in the hostel, a few of us had gathered together in one room and were trying to find out what was happening. Our conversations were punctuated with explosion and sporadic gunfire. Those who had gone to the roof came back with a grisly tale of being witness to explosions tearing people apart in Cama Hospital next door. Then, one of the terrorists on the ground saw them and made as if to shoot them. The hostelites quickly abandoned the terrace and came down again to the relative safety of their rooms. Those of us who had gathered together kept looking out of our window, hoping not to see any terrorists on the campus. We kept getting calls from people frantic with terror, checking on us and asking us if we were safe. The hostel's General Secretary was busy trying to find out how many hostelites were outdoors. Meanwhile the terrorists had reached the narrow lane between the campus and GT Hospital and an altercation took place over there. Now the battle was truly happening all around us. Strangely none of us in the room were actually panicking. We were scared, no doubt, but not driven mindless. We kept our cool, continued talking in low voices and waited.

At last, around one in the morning, the gunfire ceased. We waited for another half-hour before concluding that whatever happened had ended, at least for now. We didn't know of course, that the Taj and Oberoi were still under attack (our hostel doesn't have cable tv and therefore, we couldn't check any news reports). Finally, around a quarter to two, I went back to my room and somehow drifted to sleep. I woke up again at around a quarter to six in the morning. The sky was turning a pale blue and dawn was not far off. I cautiously looked out of the window and I could make out several policemen on the roof of one of the buildings outside. I don't like giving in to dramatics a lot but as I munched an apple and watched the sun rise behind the dome of V.T. Station, I couldn't help feeling that it was an extremely unreal dawn. It was clearly going to be a long long day.

(Image: The view from the window of my room taken at approximately 6 AM on the day after the attack at VT Station. Please DO NOT reproduce this image anywhere without my prior permission)