The Mumbai Crisis - My Thoughts
Exactly two years ago, my parents and my sis visited Mumbai. Having just finished reading the novel Shantaram, my sis took my parents to Leopold Café, one of the locations popularized in the novel and the scene of one of last night's audacious terrorist attacks.
That India is under attack is nothing new. It's almost expected. This year alone more than 400 people have died in nearly a dozen terrorist attacks across the country, most of them bombings. No corner of India has been spared. Three attacks alone have occurred in North-East India and killed more than a hundred people. There have been attacks in Delhi and Jaipur in the North, Mumbai and Ahmedabad in the West, and a bombing in Bengaluru in the South. Not all of the attacks have been attributed to the same source. The bombings in the North-East are borne out of a several decades old conflict between the tribal natives (many of whom are neither Hindu nor Muslim) and the Indian government. Most of the other incidents have been attributed to Islamic extremists. And these are just the major incidents. On a daily basis there are innocent people dying in Kashmir, while the Naxalites have established a corridor of lawlessness in vast tracts of Central & Eastern India. And then of course, there is the violence between Hindu extremists and Christians in the Eastern state of Orissa, nestled precariously between the Naxalites to the West and the native tribals to the East. India & England played an ODI in Orissa yesterday.
After a decade of the annual or bi-annual terrorist attack, the security situation in India has simply gotten outta control. It seems foolish to believe that the English Cricket Board were willing to have their arms twisted by the Indian cricket board to play their next ODI match in Guwahati, less than a month after more than eighty people were slaughtered to death in a series of eighteen bombings in the city and other places within the state of Assam. And to think everybody was more worried about the light situation and early sunset. Madness.
As much as it hurts to write this, the security situation in many parts of India is not much better than the situation in most parts of Pakistan. Very few places in India can actually say they are relatively safe. I'm proud to say Chennai and many other places in Tamil Nadu are among these potential safer havens, but as we know all too well about the growing trend of these attacks, anything can happen anywhere. Though it would also be fair to say that some of the terrorist targets have been chosen intentionally: Mumbai and Bengaluru are among the most cosmopolitan cities in India, Delhi is our capital and Gujarat was the site of the worst violence between Hindus and Muslims this century (six years ago). The government in power in Gujarat is still led by Narendra Modi, the leader accused of abusing his power during the communal clashes six years ago. His role in those events have since resulted in US immigration blocking his entry into the USA.
So where to from here? I honestly don't know. For starters, I agree with Shobhaa De of all people that politicians from Delhi should keep away from Mumbai. Their presence in the city will force an unnecessary redistribution of security resources. The total focus should be with the armed forces who once again are doing an incredible job to flush out the terrorists, while saving precious innocent civilian lives at the same time. My heart goes out to the bravery of these men and women who have dedicated their lives for securing our safety. Every story of the death of one of these forces breaks my heart. Compared to the West, our forces are treated like a pile of shit, yet the perks are good enough to convince thousands of them to join them. These people are the real heroes and they deserve every second of attention dedicated to them. I know for a fact that I love life too much to even contemplate putting myself in the same position as them.
For more than a day now, my attention has been fixated on the news. It is incredible how far we have progressed in terms of finding the news. The first Gulf War transformed CNN nearly two decades ago. Then came the internet and everything since has gone through the roof. I find it ironical that sitting here in my flat in London, I have better access to the news than my mum who is staying in the most luxurious hotel in Muscat. She doesn't have an internet-enabled phone and her television in the hotel only shows western news channels: CNN, Sky and BBC. On the other hand, my computer is simultaneously connected to live streams of Indian news chennals: NDTV and CNN-IBN, while I alternate between BBC and Sky on my actual tele, while also running separate tabs for Twitter, Rediff, BBC News, Google News and the Wikipedia entry on my browser. It's a situation I'd taken for granted till my mum called me and there I was telling her what was happening in a city that was only a few hundred miles away from her (as the crow flies). It's moments like those you realize how electronic technologies have transformed our lives. Mobile phones have played a crucial role in maintaining contact with people inside the hotels.
All-in-all, I hope there are not too many more casualties. There have already been a hundred-plus deaths too many. A friend of mine likened the attack to something that could've happened in the West End. That would've frightened a lot of people. Imagine seeing people brandishing AK-47s and throwing around hand grenades in Leicester Square on the night of a major Hollywood premiere. Some 'experts' say that the security situation is so tight in cities like London that the terrorists have intentionally chosen softer cosmopolitan targets such as Mumbai. In this particular attack, they might be quite right but let's also not forget that the vast majority of people killed and injured are innocent Indians. I've gone through one of the list of dead and injured in the hospitals and you cannot hide from the fact that many are innocent Muslims. I also don't think it's right to call this India's 9/11. We have already experienced dozens of 9/11s going back to the 1993 bombings in this very city. Have we learnt the lessons from all of them the way the Americans have? Probably not, but I'd also suggest that it's a lot more challenging to maintain the peace in a country with India's population, with neighbours such as Pakistan and with our significant Muslim population. It's a tricky job trying to maintain a balance between allowing society to function without the State interfering in the lives of all its residents and ensuring the safety of the same. I wish I could offer a better solution. For now, stay safe and goodnight. x