Height of complacency...
Headlines in various newspapers screamed a couple of days...'Mumbai drowned in heavy rains in just 2 days'
' Mumbai rocked by blasts..200 killed'
n just the next day, the headlines are
' Mumbai, back on track'
'Hats off to Mumbai's resillence'
'Mumbai bounces back'
Sudden change of headlines within a spate of 24 hrs.. with pics of people going to offices, paying tributes to offices with 100% attendances, singing paeans of people who again crowded the same local trains like vegetables in a subzi mandi. Speaking volumes of mumbai's resillience & ability to bounce back from a desperate situation has become a norm of the day. n suddenly all newspapers jumped on this band wagon of 'Mumbai appreciation'. Me too initially thot it was really gud.. but there are 2 factors which started to bother me.
First of all, why this special focus on mumbai. we saw bomb blasts on diwali eve in Delhi but city behaved normally. Yes magnitude are simply uncomparable, but what was common was the shock factor & ability to generate terror n panic. Isnt this pretty obvious that people in other cities wud hv also reacted in similar manner
Second & most important, I feel tht it is not resillience, but just a complacency. This was seventh major blast in Mumbai in last 12 years after 1993 bomb blasts. n because of this strength of resillience or ability to move over, this phenomenon is getting repeated again n again.
We are not learning anything from these crisis. No wonder they are happening too frequently for comfort. The city is getting bombed regularly & rather taking some strict action we are busy praising the indomitable spirit of the city. I was ashamed to hear the innane platitudes from the mouth of our spineless PM about not bowing to terrorism & maintaining peace. These situations bring out the best in leadership & our PM was not even able to lift himself from the mundane template. After all the same govt revoked POTA sumtimes back & some of the constituents openly support SIMI..... couple of ministers went on extent of blaming this on RSS n others. ... clearly reflects on the leadership vaccum that hv currently engulfed the nation.
I feel tht time has now come to realise the importance of an Indian life now.. on one hand i can see Isreal showing its clear determination to root out terror when just 3 of its soldiers are caprured, here we hv 200 innocent civillians dying n no one even bothering to even think of taking an action. Our neighbouring state sent its condolences after the blasts n the time may not be far off when we recieve such condolences in advance, just before the incidents even. I fear the authorities will soon start taking this 'spirit' for granted and not do even the little that they are
doing at the moment. I wont support all US policies against war on terror, but point worth taking a note is tht no terror incident happened in US after 9/11. Someone said
'Khasma shobti us bhujang ko
jiske paas garal ho
uska kya jo vishrahit,
vineet or saral ho'
( Forgiveness can be shown by only those snakes which have venom & can bite. Those who are weak dont deserve to give forgiveness to anyone)
So rather than mouthing innane platitudes about restraint, criticism & looking towards other nations for help. probably the time has come for indians to take charge of their own destiny
posted by amit @ 11:56 PM
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