I had been to hell for the last few days. Things were a little quite over there! But when I came back and saw TV-reports about Mumbai – I understood why hell was so quite…all hell had broken loose in Mumbai…

Though we proudly boast that India is such a big country with lots of verity…But in the end all Indians are one…Unity in Diversity. I see all the diversity – But surely there is a mistake about the unity part. I have not seen in my lifetime any incident or occasion where Indian’s have truly come together as united one front.

Let us take the Mumbai Terror attack itself. This was the largest terror attack in the country – in terms of intensity and damage caused. Almost 200 people dead; 300 odd people injured; Billions worth of property destroyed; and the best – English tour to India canceled and the Champions League postponed! (For a country where cricket is a religion – this surely was a big loss!)

My heart full condolences to the families of the people who died in the tragedy; My respect and Salute to those Police Officers and Commando’s who laid down their lives protecting our great country; My congratulations to the Army, Navy, Air force, NSG, ATS and the Local Police for flushing out the terrorist and saving so many lives! and finally to all those injured in the attack – get well soon!

Coming back to our Unity (Rather our dis-unity)…the only thing that we all seem to agree on is to disagree! I was really happy to hear LK Advani’s statement calling for national unity in this hour of tragedy, only to be betrayed by him the next day when BJP started making it a Poll Issue. Look around you – who is not indulging in finger pointing and partisan politics. Surprisingly enough – it was not only our beloved politicians – the media, the bloggers, the bollywood…virtually everyone – with only one aim in mind – my 15 minutes of Fame!

I saw a lot of Blog’s and comments on the internet Blasting the thackerey clan! I do understand people’s anger towards the MNS and the Shiv Shena. Even I am angry about the way they conducted themselves. They surely do fit into the MF category! (Sorry about the Language) But where was everybody when these guys were terrorizing Mumbai and Maharashtra a few weeks ago? Why did the Indians not object in the same (dirty and forceful) manner? Why did they have to wait for 26/11 to happen before they opened their mouth???………??? Looks like none of us will be able to answer…cause that was their 15min or fame and this is our chance for 15min of fame…

TV channels made a joke of the whole episode…giving second by second report of the whole issue and telecasting anything and everything people had to say. First the incident – then the brave reporters covering from the spot Live! That is followed by every effort to get some of the Victims to talk to the media. Then they go to the extend getting some of the perpetrators on the show and get a panel of experts to give their opinion – then finally get the public to vote for the whole tamasha. Their TRP’s were at stake…

I read the initial reports where people termed it as a massive intelligence failure…what do you mean by a intelligence failure? First and foremost does any of these guys who named it as an “intelligence failure” know how these different agencies are structured and how they work? It is really easy to blame someone or everyone when something goes wrong! Try coming up with a solution…And where did this Massive intelligence failure come from? Was it not failure of intelligence, when all those other bombs went off inside the country? Was it not intelligence failure when suddenly new evidence emerged of Hindu right wing groups that were involved in acts of terror? Now where did this idea of intelligence failure come from? Somebodies idea of his 15 minutes of fame…

There were other reports lambasting the politicians for getting us into this mess with their dirty politics. Both the ruling party and opposition are equally guilty! No administration after India achieved Independence has successfully tackled this menace (Except maybe Indra Ghandi – who was successful in suppressing forever the terrorist in Punjab – but she was finally killed in an act of terror. She was also known for promoting terrorism in Eastern Pakistan which later became Bangladesh and in Sri-Lanka thru LTTE ). Which government has stood up against terror and said – enough is enough? (Don’t tell me about the BJP led Government – they were the ones who fanned the Gujarath riots (which is equal to terrorism) – they are the ones supporting the alleged “Hindu” terrorist! and just yesterday when a all party meeting on how to tackel terror was going on – guess who did not turn up? … BJP.) For how many years has the terrorism issue in Kashmir going on? For how many years has the Maoist issue in W-Bengal going on? For how many years has the Naxal issue going on in Andhra? I do understand that – by killing people we don’t kill the ideology of these extremist…but what does it take to kill an ideology? a proxy war for the next 10 centuries? Have we not learned from the Israel-Palestine experience? You kill a few of my men I will kill a few more of your men! The first thing that these politicians do when they are caught in such extreme situations is to resign claiming moral responsibility! Nice escape! Why don’t our courts prosecute them – they have already take the responsibility that it was failure on their side? Does their taking moral responsibility solve the whole problem? Does it bring back scores of people who have been victims of these crimes? The politicians 15 minutes of Fame…

Then there is Pakistan…India’s Scrape Goat. Not that Pakistan is not guilty of anything; Pakistan is as guilty as a fish is wet for promoting terrorism. One thing that amazes me is Pakistan’s attitude towards India and it’s general attitude towards the world. Pakistan had been part of India and after the Partition was equally poor and equally in bad shape. The only Advantage that India had over Pakistan was more resources. But when you look at Pakistan and India now – the difference is Huge!!! Show me one Tata or Birla from Pakistan (Some may claim that Tata and Birla were rich for centuries – even before the partition – well I agree – then at least show me one Ambhani or A Narayanamurthy…) I did a Google search for “billionaires in Pakistan” I was shocked to see the result – apparently there are a few Billionaires in Pakistan – most of them Politicians and Army Generals!!! And the country is on the brink of bankruptcy!!! Coming back to Pakistan’s attitude towards India – Unlike India they never seemed to have growth in their mind – all this 60 years all they thought about was Kashmir. And that is it! Look at Pakistan – none of their industries have a mark in the world market (Hey Pakistani’s – Sorry about the bashing – but I believe that is the truth) Even war torn Vietnam has made a mark in the world by becoming the Nike Shoe factory for the world. All these 60 years all Pakistan spend was on – How to get better weaponry than India. “6 Decades of fame for Pakistan“

And the worst – above all – we seem to be discussing this same thing after every such incident. The same public demanding an answer and compensation…The same Opposition that fight’s in your name to get some more votes and the same government promising to take concrete action against the perpetrators and the same media reporting it over and over again to get more TRP ratings! This has become more of a routine in India now. We have come to accept it as part of life – part of our daily routine. The BJP and the likes supporting and fanning Communalism – The likes MSN & Shiv Sehna promoting regionalism – The likes of Congress promoting indifference…The likes of NDTV promoting Sensationalism…

There has been a lot of finger pointing…everybody blaming everybody. (I guess I am also doing that – but that is my 15 min of fame…) Just think of how much we could achieve by being truly patriotic! The Kerala Chief Ministers Statement “Not even a dog would come to meet you – if it was not for your son!” when the father of slain commando Unikrishnan closed the door on all politicians who came to visit him – reflects everybody’s attitude – unless there is a Commando like Unikrishnan who is killed in combat in a spectacular attack – none of us – including our leaders will care about any one! Why do we have to wait for someone to be killed before showing some respect? Commando Unikrishnan’s father showed the right sprit by saying – “we do not belong to Kerala – but we belong to whole of India – we are Indians“

In death also we want to make sure that there is maximum advantage for us – like Narendra Modi who announced 10 Million Rupees for the victims of Mumbai terror attack (By the way – apparently Modi has not yet paid out the last compensation he declared for the temple attack in Gujarat – I don’t remember which one) The right sprit was shown by the wife of ATS chief – by refusing the money!!!

In the Previous post Kenney said that the Muslim community was going to be affected – I think it is time for all of us to become like Commando Unikrishnan’s Father – and for at least one time become Indians – stop looking at people as Muslims – Hindus – Christians….Mumbai Manus – Mallu’s – Bihari – Bengali…It is high time we stopped dividing ourselves – this failure is our failure – each and every one of us failed as citizens of India…every time we give money to get things done – we fail as citizens of India – every time we don’t declare tax – we are giving an opportunity for terrorist to attack us – by electing useless people to the parliament – we are giving a chance for another Mumbai terror attack…It is high time we all stood together and said “We are not Muslims; we are not Christians; we are not Hindus; we are not from Mumbai; we are not from Punjab; we are not from Kerala – We are Indians and we hail from India. We have our own little differences here and there – but when it comes to fighting terrorism, communalism, hatred, corruption…We stand united!”

Let us use this anger not to hate the Muslims – let us not use this anger to hate the Politicians – let us not use this anger to hate the thackerey’s… let us rather use it to make a resolve today that we are not going to stand as mute spectators to this kind of treatment melted on us! Be it the politicians! Be it the Terrorist! Be it anybody… Let us all stand together in this moment of crisis – at least!