Isn't the so called Mumbai ‘resilience’ its helplessness?

After every terror attack in this maximum city, I hear political leaders and mediamen  repeating, "Mumbai will overcome", "Mumbaiites are resilient", "Mumbai has withstood such attacks in the past" etc. Wow! What a flattery! Or, is it the secret way of assuaging Mumbaiites’ wounded feelings by injecting a kind of false pride in their resilience? I am not a Mumbaikar, but like any other countryman, I feel when something happens in this wonderful city that feeds millions of people both locals and immigrants.

Is it their resilience or helplessness? I am sure it is the latter. What do you expect them to do when a tragedy strikes? Do you expect them to mourn for weeks? Come on, don’t be silly. Every human being is resilient. However, we have to respect Mumbaikars’ patience. Even after facing tragedies after tragedies and losing many of their loved ones, they never protested in a big way. After every tragedy, they are back to their usual self the next morning because they have to work. Do you expect a tea vendor or a diamond merchant to close their shops and lament loss of lives in the tragedy? I don’t think so because they have to earn to support their families. This is the harsh reality. And it is not the resilience stuff that guides them.

I feel for my countrymen there. They have to bear the brunt of all the terror attacks directed at our nation. They alone bear the pain…I know they do it for their countrymen. Don’t you think so? Or, by circumstances, they are alone forced to bear the sufferings. The terror attacks are not directed at Mumbai; it is directed at India.  Everyone from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, or Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat should know this. Mumbaikars suffer for other Indians.  So, we have to be with them.

So, please don’t repeat the phrase “Mumbaikars’ resilience”. It is their helplessness. It is the same everywhere, be it in any other city in the country or anywhere in the world. Let us pray for our countrymen who lost their lives in the terror attacks.

Rahul Gandhi says all terror attacks cannot be stopped. Was he right?

The Congress scion remark in the aftermath of the 13/7 Mumbai blasts that all terror attacks cannot be stopped has naturally stoked controversy. The opposition has upped their ante condemning such “irresponsible” statement by the prime minister-in-waiting.  Was Rahul right? Perhaps the statement was untimely in the sense it comes at a time when the nation is mourning loss of precious lives. Hold on. Don’t dismiss his statement as his usual blabbering without any factual content. I feel he is right to a great extent. (Sorry, I am not an avid fan of this man.)
Is effective policing possible in a country without effective intelligence backup? Our crowded cities and market places are simple sitting ducks. I don’t think effective policing would not be that possible in a nation of billion people. I wonder if it is possible to watch out each and every person and single out terrorists from among the crowds. After all, terrorists take advantage of this precarious situation to their benefits. They can simply remain among our crowd without being noticed and get their acts together.  I don’t mean proper supervision and effective policing is an impossible mission. It is possible. But there are difficulties.

Can you imagine police rounding up suspects without being labeled anti-minority or anti-majority in the country? I am sure even if a genuine suspect is arrested, there will be political hue and cry. (Blame it on our vote bank politics.) If a person from minority community is rounded up, he will be projected innocent and such acts will be termed machinations against minorities. (Remember the infamous Batla encounter. Even now, a so-called secular politician claims it to be an encounter. Remember a great police official’s life was lost in the action.) In the same way, when a person from the majority community is suspected, it will be projected as an attack on majority community. (Remember the Samjhauta Express tragedy.) I don’t think it will be easy for our valiant security forces to enforce strict policing after such allegations. They pay a heavy price in the form of their lives in their efforts to make our country secure, but they are finally rewarded with ungrateful comments.

Then, there are people who say, “Look, there are no major terrorist strikes in the US or the UK after the September 11 attacks.” I agree with them. The Western nations were able to thwart major terrorist strikes for a long time thanks to their effective intelligence mechanism and counter-terror operations. Even then, are they completely safe? They live every moment in the shadow of terror. They can only prolong it. Only time will tell whether they could stop such attacks forever.  And alas! India is not America or Britain. They were never surrounded by hostile neighbours like India is. We are facing terror from our own neighbour or elements planted within the country in connivance of forces loyal to our enemy.  Our intelligence mechanism can collect terror inputs and work on them, but they don’t have the power or resources to preempt them.

Rahul might not have considered these points before making such a statement. However, I feel he is right. In a country where politicians are working their way through victims of terror attacks for their personal glory and power, nothing more can be expected.