10 terrorists, 7 locations - including 2 landmark hotels and a busy railway station, a 3 day siege, 190 people killed, hundreds more injured and yet the home minister feels its just "a stray incident in this big city". The CM deems it fit to visit the ravaged hotel with his actor son and a film director. An attack which brought the city to its knees.. and yet it wasn't the first one even if it was the most horrifying one. And its aftermath sees the usual finger pointing, a few resignations here and there, grand declarations, a whole lot of chest thumping, studio activists with the ever ready sound byte about the resilience of the city, the spirit of the city.. and an angry, terrified but finally helpless common man.
And then as the wounds heal, life returns to normalcy all is forgotten except probably by those whose wounds run too deep to fully heal. The facade of solidarity now discarded for divisive votebank politics, ambitious anti-terror plans are stalled for a few votes. The parliament stands divided when now more than ever it has to be united.
Every time we think the worst is past us, that the government has finally woken up, there is yet another attack. The serial blasts of 93, Kargil war, the attack on the parliament, blasts ripping through local trains.. the list is long with each attack more audacious than the previous. And yet successive governments choose to sleep over the issue of catastrophic failure of the intelligence and security agencies in all these cases. The heroes of 26/11 will be lauded but were their deaths necessary? How many more incidents should occur before the government can finally wake up to the reality of terror attacks? Before dedicated units are setup to ruthlessly counter the terrorism, their hands not tied by either politics or religion? And till when will the common man continue to be a silent spectator to the entire circus? Maybe he has forgotten that he controls the circus.
Vote sensibly for the right person and the right party. If there is no sensible person standing then choose the "i do not want to vote" option at the polling station (if these votes are in majority then a re-election is held with new candidates) but most importantly VOTE.
PS: Why is Raj Thackeray so silent over the attacks on his beloved city?
