Saturday, November 29, 2008

Ich Bin Ein Mumbaikar

I am no Kennedy and this no Berlin, but as an Indian and as a global citizen I am a Mumbaikar today. I really do not care if Raj Thakerys of the world accepts me as a Mumbaikar or not, but I am one today.

Like many others this morning, I was glued to the TV watching the happenings in Mumbai. As the Army and commandos were mopping up @ Taj Hotel, ATS Police Chief Hemant Karkare's final journey was being broadcast live by CNN-IBN. The scenes coming in were heart rendering with thousands ordinary Mumbaikars showing up to pay homage to a brave and upright soldier who led from the front and was one of the first ones to fall to terrorists bullets.

But one thing that angered me was the sight of politicians at such a solemn occation. They came in their spotless white kurtas with their gun toting security to pay homage to an officer whom they were blaming till a few days back as being partisan.

Where was Raj Thakrey when the Army and NSG were fighting terrorists in Mumbai ? Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan & Havildar Gajendra Singh are no Mumbaikars but they laid down their lives for Mumbai and India as Indians.

Where was BJP & Shiv Sena when the ATS chief Hemant Karkare paid the ultimate price by leading from the front. These political outfits were blaming ATS as being partisan and had called for Maharashtra Bandh on Dec 1, 2008. If common sense prevails, they would call off the bandh, but then these politicians and they could still surpirse us.

If there any good that can come of this, it must have to with our political class. They must change and I hope and pray they do.

Ich Bein Mumbaikar

6 comments:

  1. Ram,

    I am also thinking the same way as you have thought. Where are they? Everyone knows where they stand now. I think the positive side of these incidents are to expose them.

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  2. Ram,

    I was waiting for this blog post.

    Thank GOD for the committed NSG commandos, we managed to salvage some pride. They have left me dumb founded. No words to praise their effort.

    What I could not take was, after NSG Commandos had finished their job, they were being boarded into a state bus. Where as the politicians / top cops, were in fully equipped air conditioned vehicles.
    It is high time, that India starts respecting these TRUE HEROES more than the politicians, who run for cover on hearing the news.
    Unnikrishnan's father did the right thing by throwing the Kerela Chief Minister away and keeping politics out of his home.

    GREAT GUTS. WELL DONE SIR.

    I'm pretty sure that the NSG commandos had the oldest outfit any commandoes of any country would have. They have pretty old weaponry and have a rotten helicopter, which could fall down any moment.

    The Useless Government should consider spending more on defense capability, as dialogue with Pakistan is something which will never work. If we continue to ignore such incidents, one fine day, Pakistan terrorists will be running rot in streets of India ( as if they are not, but at least not in public)
    We are not even in a position to attack, for our Russian made MIG might not fly more than an hour and crash land in Pakistan.

    For any thing to happen, it requires effort. We need to make some effort to beef up our security. We can start issuing National ID cards with a chip on it and every cop should have a device which can scan the chip and hook up to a central database for authenticating the chip. This way, it is easy to black list people. Yes, it is going to be a difficult job, but if China, being larger than India can achieve many a things, why not India?
    It might take 10 years to complete, but once complete, we will be in a position to do some random checks.

    Every five star hotel /place of extreme importance ( excluding the politicians home & parliament) should be protected by a squad of para military people equipped with sniffer dogs and some sophisticated equipments, which can even point plastic bombs.

    As of now India is in such a situation that any one from either Bangladesh / Pakistan or Sri Lanka ( LTTE ) can walk in and get mixed among the crowds. After getting used to the place for 6 months, launch an assault similar to that of Mumbai and even plan to escape from India.

    Even though the NSG Commandos managed to secure the hotels and return it back to Government, we are still not safe. The same incident can happen any where in India and we all have to be silent spectators. That's the irony.

    Also I'm sure that the Navy / Coast Guard is ill equipped to handle any major assault.

    India has a long way to go and looks like the politicians are only a road block and no propellers.

    Only GOD can save India.

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  3. Should the common man pay to protect Raj Thakrey and his ilk with Z class security ? Shouldn't all taxpayer paid security to all the Thakreys be withdrawn?

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  4. I don't quiet get it. When the politicians show up in white kurtas, you are upset, but rest of the post, you keep asking where are they!?
    Ram, even i am horrified and upset over the incident but since its a democracy, i don't blame the politician for this. Its the people, who voted for them. We Indians always love to blame someone else. When people vote for TV sets and religion and region and caste, this is what we will get in return.
    By the way i was not happy with our army/ NSG either. No disrespect but then, It took 4 days to flush out a couple of guys from one hotel!!?? Now, how will i trust these guys when a million people attack us during a war!!??

    Patrick, SFO

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  5. What we need is to stop blaming each other and unite to solve and rootout the big issue of terrorists. We have put up with this kind of attack for a long time and the Mumbai attack will also be forgotten if Indians, as a whole, do not take this problem as our problem and help in restoring respect for human life.

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  6. Ram,

    Good post. You may want to correct your german though. It's Ich bin ein Mumbaikar (I am a bombayite).

    -Ram

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