Tuesday, July 26, 2011

India's Crusade against Terrorism - Time for a reality check !!

We continue to be the mute spectators we always are, as terrorists continue to rip India apart year after year. After the gory triple bomb blasts in Mumbai on 13th of this month, our honorable Home Minister wastes no time in putting his point across that every city in India as much gullible and that the blasts have actually come down in count. PC couldn't probably be more blunt. 

"India's post-26/11 police reforms painted stripes on a donkey — and passed it off as a tiger" - screamed a title from the editorial in Hindu. With the media acting as a window to our world around an average man doesn't need to stay with the presumptions of a complex constitution or an even more complex govt. and pass off for not even being intellectual enough !! At least in matters where the govt has promised and even boasts of things which it never desired of strongly. Not to forget the millions disbursed for such reforms.

A lay man's google or a casual browse over papers would give statistics which would make our honorable HM feel guilty after his heroic claims of modernising India's Mughal-era police. For instance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, year after year boasts of exactly
the same achievements in exactly the same language in its yearly reports as if they were new achievements !! There's no fault in promising to achieve and then only achieving partly. But when it blatantly over states its achievements, its definitely worth criticism. 

Government has failed with the transponders it promised on merchant fleets. It is still short of bullet proof jackets, communication kits, training on intelligence and so on if what we need is statistics. The officials who came to visit the CWG games pointed that a very few of the thousands of police personal even appeared to hold automatic weapons !! A joke of sorts !!


We have a serious situation at hand, we have the funds, we have the personnel who could be recruited and we have the govt which boasts it has done things but the patchy reality stays that the funds don't materialise at every point.


Its not about the present govt. or the past govt. Its only about the attitude the ruling body has for an individuals safety. Life is deemed cheap and easy !! It's a mere statistic for a person at power, but life indeed is man's integrity. Even a person dying of cancer would want to live that one extra day and go for the inflicting chemotherapy. The question is why has life got so less importance in our country !! Its heart rending and ever so silly to even imagine that ATS chief Karkare was killed because of a spurious or duplicate bullet proof jacket.


One might find solace when he compares our situation with that of our neighboring Nations (where terrorism is creating greater havoc). But why should we even look at countries which still strive for the true meaning of democracy we have achieved decades ago.We aspire to be a part of the Security council at UNO. We dream of moving ahead to become a developed country from our persistent tag of 'developing country'.  We have already shed a lot of blood to reach where we are already. The collective GDP of many such nations together (which we think are more fortunate) would comprise India's GDP. Why should we look back when come a long way towards a better living ??


We should ideally look at Nations which are better off !! In 3 years after 9/11 the US FBI has the raised the number of its trained counter terrorism agents to double their number for a population which is only 3 times Maharashtra. India's pompous Investigation Bureau and Analysis wing together have less expert resources. 


 

This is where we should self introspect. Its not only about cursing your authorities when terror strikes. Little has materialized since the murderous 26/11 and is a reason for debate and the reason for a Crusade in its actual sense. Corruption hardly matters to a person who rarely gets a square meal once a day. We have a crusade waged against it !! We need a crusade against terrorism and it is by no means justifiable for the government to lend a blind eye to it !!

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