The city of Mumbai a week ago has witnessed one of the most gruesome terror attacks ever in an urban, cosmopolitan settlement. Armed men entering a railway station, five-star hotels & opening fire was a sight never seen before. Armed men lodging grenades at a residential building was also unimaginable till that fateful night.
Before 26th November ’08, terrorism was all about bomb blasts in public places & hijacking of aircrafts. Indiscriminate firing & hostage crisis was only heard of in war-stricken regions like Gaza Strip, Beirut & our very own Kashmir. Even when there was a blast outside the JW Marriot Hotel, we probably did nto take so seriously or even expected such a thing to happen to a city like ours. The way it was all executed, very well shows how well-prepared the terrorists were to hold up the city on siege for almost 60 hours… something that had never ever happened – not during the ’93 blasts, not during the ’06 blasts.
The ’93 blasts, of course, had a humungous impact on every part of Mumbai, then Bombay, as they succeeded the Babri Masjid demolitions at Ayodhya & riots all over the city. Though I was a little kid then, I can still feel the impact of the series of incidents that took place all over India.
The 2006 train blasts which happened must have been planned & executed with perfection, as we realized the lack of security of our railways, which is the lifeline of a million people. Yes, it did make an impact. I remember thanking my stars for being a year older so that I didn’t have to take the trains at that hour, or not having gone to Andheri for some classes. Because had I done that, I would’ve either been a victim or a witness. Another impact the blasts made was that many people who had moved to Mumbai had returned to their hometowns secretly attributing the train bombings amongst other more vocal reasons.
But the responsibility of the safety of the public was thrown onto the Railways because the security system of the city’s railways was definitely flawed, if not absent. The target victims of the attack were the ‘aam aadmi’ and thus, even though it affected the middle class primarily, they couldn’t really do much about it as for them, life had to move on, they had to earn their bread & butter. Also, there’s a section of population in Mumbai which has never ever traveled by the Mumbai Locals. So, very evidently, they weren’t really affected much. Another point is that the bombings started & finished in a matter of eleven minutes. Hence the memory was also short-lived.
26/11/2008, this night is probably the longest night of Mumbai. This was one dark night in world history that lasted for more than 60 hours. How it began, the mystery is being unraveled bit by bit. But it ended with a mixed bag of emotions – victory, anguish, hope, despair, pride, grief…
The events that preceded made way for those that followed. And at the end of it, there was one big political fiasco. What the city under siege brought with it is anger, pent up in the hearts of Mumbaikars since 1993, questions – a lot of them. The biggest one being : Could this have been averted? The anger & the questions have now teamed up to form awareness – awareness among a section of people who, till last Wednesday thought that they could never be the targets of the terrorists. They are the ‘elite’ class of the society, whom the militants had never targeted anytime in the past.
After the siege, it now stands proven that terrorism has no class. It could happen anywhere to anyone, BUT IT CAN BE PREVENTED. Intelligence reports by the IB, R&AW, ATS et al have proved that they were anticipating such an event & the respective Government authorities were apprised of the information. Then why weren’t any preventive or precautionary measures taken? Why wasn’t any heed paid to such essential pieces of information? Why was the ruling coalition diverting the interest of the media & general public to other staler issues like the Malegaon blasts in 2006, when half a dozen such incidents had occurred in the current year? WHY, WHY, WHY?
It is these questions that have brought about the attention of youngsters about the state of the nation. The frenzied live coverage provided by the media and the magnitude of the situation are other important factors. But the point is that our youth is now getting the point. They, now, are realizing what sort of dirty politics is being played by our national leaders. They are now waking up, raising their voices against the power games being played.
The youngsters, most of which were only bothered about their own well-being, are raising their voices today for the cause of good governance. They are disgusted, they are anguished. Because the siege has affected them in one way or another. They are gaining interest in the State & the country’s political affairs & are willing to vote for change in the upcoming elections.
The little spark of revulsion & awareness stemmed out of the past events should turn to a raging fire if we really want India to become a clean, controlled democracy. The fire shouldn’t die down early. Change is here to stay…
