Or the Mumbai Terror Attacks. Or India's 9/11. Or as it is written here, 29/11.
10 men held a whole city at siege for 50 hours.
125 Dead. 300+ Wounded. 8 landmarks scorched.
Black Cat Commandos, who were till now a bunch despised for guarding corrupt politicians, finally proved their mettle through a test of fire. Their effective and powerful handling of the incident has impressed not only all Indians, but also people all over the world. Indeed, one backhanded compliment from a typical self absorbed blog commenter was that he believed these were not Indian Commandos, but people flown in from US or Israel. I am not going to reference link that guy here and give him the attention he wants. I would have loved to see his reaction though, when the commander of the commandos started talking in a Punjabi accent...
The government employees of Mumbai also proved their worth. Police officers laid their lives to protect the citizens of Mumbai. It is quite easy to claim that you will sacrifice your life to protect others. To actually follow through on that claim, after you have seen your coworkers dying and wounded, is true courage. The firemen who put out all fires, the doctors who selflessly gave up their nights and weekends, and still continue to do so. The true test of any system is to see how it stands up against a catastrophic failure. Mumbai's system has time and again stood up to this test.
The politicians of India, as usual, came across as predictable and clueless. "Our condolences" and "It was Pakistan" were the first things we heard; but we knew they were going to say that. And the worst part is, it's mostly true, but because politicians always have that snap reaction, you just cannot trust them on it. But then you can rarely trust politicians anyway...
Pakistan's leaders of course denied everything. Also very predictable.
I haven't been in Mumbai for about 4 years now. I don't think of myself as someone from Mumbai. But suddenly when I heard the news, I started to think of myself as a Mumbaikar. I told myself, "don't be emotional". It didn't work.
My emotions are mixed about this.
On one hand I am impressed by the fact that 10 men brought a whole city to a standstill for more than two days. That's badass.
On the other, my blood calls for vendetta. I want everyone who was behind this hunted to the ends of the earth and killed. No courts. No trials. I'm thinking Munich-style executions.
An intellectual part of me says violence will only lead to more violence. Another part of me says, if nonviolence cannot bring about peace, then violence is the only answer.
And when thoughts are finished, questions remain. We need to know more than we know.
Who did this?
How did they manage to do it?
Why couldn't we stop them in time?
What are we going to do if they do this again tomorrow?
What is the price in freedom that we will have to eventually pay out to ensure our safety?
Are we ever going to be safe?
I'm still looking for the answers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
the agitation, the anger and all the sympathy that has come for who lost their lives and whose near and dear ones have lost - i guess every Indian and every Mumbaikar have shown that they have beared enough and what happened in those 3 days should not be repeated again!
The views presented show that you want to be a Gandhian but at this pt of time -- we have to fight back once and for all!
Keep on writing! :)
Ah, but I never claim to being Gandhian... I said that I intellectually understand that violence leads to more violence. But I also intellectually understand that if we are already paying the price of violence, nonviolence is no answer.
Basic game theory. If both alternatives lead to as much loss for you, take the alternative which results in maximum loss for the opponent. That changes the balance of the game and discourages the opponent. The opposition has no reason to seek a peaceful solution if he does not stand to lose more than he can gain from a non-peaceful solution.
Of course, one may also argue that the terrorists are already at this point of reasoning. I choose not to do so.
Post a Comment