Here we go again!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Had been wondering it has been many months since a major terrorist attack happened in a major city in India. It was probably the heat, I thought. Planning for a strike ought to be complicated and challenging; getting the entire planning and logistics going should require working with clockwork precision. Which is something you couldn't possibly get done in a sub-Saharan temperatures, with your physical and mental faculties working with less than a quarter of their peak efficiency.
Perhaps the heat got to me more than anyone else; yesterday a bomb went off killing five people on the spot in Hyderabad leaving a lot many injured. A score more were killed in eventual rioting and police firing.
Very likely my theory was completely out of whack, also very likely, killing a dozen people and getting away with it in this country doesn't require the services of the smartest stud in town.
Anyway, if one could call what followed 'predictable' , it would be an understatement. I can almost tell exactly the sequence of events everytime there is a blast. A few politicians release statements calling it a 'dastardly' act (they're really stuck on the phrase aren't they), people complaining that police, firemen and paramedics reached the spot many hours late, hospitals unable to cope, vernacular news channels beaming very substandard quality computer graphics trying to recreate what happened, english news channels doing stories with a correspondent shrieking in monotone "behind me .. " as the camera pans "a young boy who had come for his friday prayers, little did he know...".
The next day everyone starts celebrating 'the spirit of 'Mumbai' (or Delhi or now, Hyderabad)', of how resilient the citizens are, join a revelry of a system which simply doesn't bother, rejoicing in a mob that just doesn't care. A week later onwards , its a wait for the next time you're caught by surprise and a hope that it doesn't affect you personally.
Recently I went to a popular market in south Delhi, where a major explosion killed a lot of people a little over a year ago. I can say with a lot of confidence that a repeat can be performed at the same spot over and over again, every year and nothing at all would change.
A terrorist's motivation in killing innocent civilians, I would imagine, would be to shake the foundations of a responsible government and the consciousness of a population. I am sure many demented souls would do it for kicks, but ultimately, everything needs funding, and you spend money when you have an inkling of a return on investment. In our country, we have neither. Our governance is a sham and our public conscience is a parody of the phrase. We need to make these poor fools understand that killing innocents in India isn't going to get them anywhere. Not for the statement's sake, not because we think we've got loins of steel, but more as an urge to them to recognize our apathy.
posted by Angshuman @ 1:56 PM,
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