The Indian Awakening

The Mumbai terrorist drama has just ended. This episode has left the people of India with a lot of anguish, anger and fear. The threshold of tolerance has been breached this time. There is a feeling of helplessness and people are desperate for some proper action.

Some heads have already rolled. The Union Home Minister, The Chief Minister and his deputy. The sacking of ministers is no way concerned with to the cause of the attack or preventing what happened. I say this because all politicians in India are nearly the same. A different person in that position would not have made much of a difference. Until and unless the bureaucrats are given power outside of the government, only then some serious work can be executed. The sacking of the ministers seems to be a face saving move by the Central Govt.Bringing in a replacement is no solution to the crisis situation. What we need is certain systems in place that stands the test of time.

The root cause still point to the Intelligence failure. Our Intelligence Bureau is supposed to be the oldest one and after the Indo-Sino failure, the IB is mostly responsible for Internal Security. Some things went badly for the IB. The IB supposedly got tricked by the snippets of information received. The IB made a face saving claim that it had sent various warnings to the Govt about supposed attacks, but it is not enough if the IB issues advisories; there has to be a follow-up and if found that the State Govt is not taking required action, the IB can contact the Prime Minister directly to make sure there is action taken.

It is amazing to know that there is such an easy entry into Mumbai, the financial hub of the country. Few people hijack a boat and coming sailing into the city. Sounds like movie stuff. But Mumbai being the city it is ; is prone to underworld mafia, smuggling and what not. In such a scenario, Mumbai is expected to half the best Coastal Guards and increased scrutiny on the coast line, especially during night times. The recent attacks is an indicator to the failure of the Naval forces, not only because they didn't detect the entry of more than 2 dozen terrorists armed with heavy artillery; but because such a planned execution needs planning and resources. As per reports, huge number(nearly 800) boat licences have been issued to Bangladeshi nationals during the past 2 months alone. Such an increased rate of activity was ignored.

The 26th Nov attack not only exposes serious security issues plaguing us, but also our inefficient Disaster Management system (if it exists). Firstly the state Govt took more than 2 hrs to call in the NSG. After the NSG had been notified, a no so fast aircraft was summoned to carry them. That aircraft was at Chandigarh and need to be re-fuelled. Some more precious hours wasted. After reaching Mumbai, the commandoes were transported in public buses instead of sir-lifting them. All these crucial moments led to the high death toll. Most of the casualties in the 26th Nov attacks were the ones that occured before the NSG commandos arrived. The terrorists were on a killing spree for hours before they were caused any actual disturbance. By this time, they were holed up in strategic positions in the hotel.

But at a tactical level, it took almost three days to get a handful of terrorists out of three or four buildings. It wasn't a shining moment. The Indian security forces bravely did their job. But in terms of their effectiveness, there were some pretty serious shortcomings. The commandos had absolutely no ground plan chalked out when they arrived.

All said and done, it is time that we take strong measures to prevent any such further attack and also have certain planned measures to be taken when such a situation occurs. The setting up of a Federal Agency is one such crucial measure. It was proposed in 2002 during Vajpayee Govt and till date the proposal stays on paper. The reason for this is that it has been persistently declined by the State Govts including Maharashtra. This is because if the Federal Agency comes into being, the State Govt (Police) will have reduced authority /power over information and will have a lesser say.
It is sad to note that we had to have so many casualties, trauma and suffering before any measure could be implemented.

Another point to be noted during the recent attacks was that unlike the previous attacks, the upper class of the society was the most affected. On the previous occasions, for a week or so the anger would be there and everything died down after a month or couple. But this time around, there is a much stronger retaliation by the public against the happenings. Everyone has been affected. The entire public needs some action. Never has the situation been more feasible than this to turn around the situation. It is the time to change and change for better. It is the time for the Indian Awakening.