4100 Terror Attacks in 34 years. India scared and scarred

 

Welcome to India, the land of the Indus, the land of snake charmers , the land of urbanization and now the harvesting land for the marauders of death. The stats put out in the header are something special of India. These attacks have claimed over 12k lives officially and around 70k unofficially. This puts us next to only Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of no of casualties due to terrorism and barbarism.

    This is thanks to some very efficient (sic) administration and governance. The recent Mumbai attacks bear testimony to this. The cue about this attack was made available way back in feb but our very innocent police officers couldn't decipher the cues in time. Our political top brass is busy meddling with internal matters and solving the ultra complex caste equations. The administration is completely disconnected from reality and follows a plan laid out way back in the 1940's. Our security forces carry arms that are no different from the one's used during the world war II's and probably older than that.

    Ultimately the whole blame falls on our inefficient political fraternity. But we need to introspect on what we as public have contributed to the government in these 6 decades. The only responsibility which we have fulfilled is the vote our representatives. What about our responsibilities of guiding our governments, allowing our security forces to function in an efficient and transparent manner? These are some of the things on which we fall short. We need to step up to the plate and act as responsible citizens.

    No doubt Pakistan is a breeding ground for terrorism and we are definitely their targets. Taking these into considerations its imperative on part of US the citizens of India to follow the rules laid out by our law enforcing agencies and help , guide our institutions in this war against TERROR. Lets take a pledge today for the good of our country.

We the people of India solemnly pledge to make no fuss

When security personnel frisk us

At malls,railway staions and other locations

We pledge not to bribe anyone when and

Honestly pay the fine

We pledge to Inform the police

About any lapse in security measures

We pledge no to damage any security infrastructures(CCTVs,Barricades)

We pledge not to create create tensions on the basis of cast,creed and religion

 

We pledge to help our country in any possible way in this fight against TERROR

DE INDIAN GOVTs -ander ki baath

My take on how decisions r made in indian govt. Itz prbbly my 1st fictnl wrk. Hope 2 get some commetz abt my wrk.Dis is episode 1. derez more 2 follow

Manmohan Singh(MS) :

Sonia ji kya karien. Bahut badhi musibath aa gayi. Log hamare piche padien hain. Kuch karna hoga.

Sonia Gandhi(SG)

:

Stay calm MS ji. I ll take care of de situation. U please maintain ur composure and don't give any inflammatory statements in de press.

MS:datz k SG ji. I have got used to it all these years. But the problem now is we need to answer the public now. The public mood is hostile and if we don't take swift action den de situation may go out of control.

SG:

Phew. U bureaucrats r so apprehensive about the public. Cmon MS ji grow up. U r a politician now. U r de head of the UPA govt. We have our leaders in every nook and corner of the country. They have the caliber to mould the public mood as per our will .

MS:

Really!!! Datz gr8. Howz dat possible SG ji? I am really curious.

SG:

Datz something very very intricate . Itz Indian politics not economics. U stick 2 ur economics while I look into politics.

MS:

SG ji if u don't mind can I ask u a question. This is something I have long been wanting to ask.

 

SG:

Go ahead MS ji. Y u so hesitant. Atleast we need to be transparent if not our govt.

MS:

K . I have been bamboozled by the rapid rise of urs in Indian politics. And not only that u have taken up de mantle of a age old party. I know the aura of Gandhis. But how did u manage to straight away take over and manage Indian politics. Coz unlike ur predecessors of Gandhi clan who had a decent enough exposure to daily chores of Indian politics. But u as far as I know never was intrstd in politics when ur mother in law and ur husband were at the helm.

SG:

Hehe. Nice 1 MS ji. Datz something I am sure is dere evry1s mind. But u r de first person to get dat out of ur mind. Hmmm k. 1^st u need 2 understand this MS ji. U were r8 when u said I had no intrst in politics at dat time. Even aftr my husband's death , I neva wantd to enter into this.

But in the late 90s I got a sudden urge to follow de footsteps and get my family bak into limelight. Ofcourse initial impetus was given by u congressmen. I would like to disclose this to u and now 1 more thing. Dis needs to be very confidential. U r neva gng to let this out to ny1.

 

MS:

Sure Sonia ji.

SG:

K de thing is even now I run it not on my own.

Weneva a prblm arises I fall back on my core group dat includes u,pranab,arjun and other stalwarts of congress. I give some touch ups and put that in2 action. Datz de simplicity in execution.

MUMBAI MASSACRE

Terror made its arrival on the land of Indus in grandeur by attacking some of the most opulent hotels of the financial capital of India. The long and unending debate on the rise of terrorism in India has been put to an end with this attack which marks the pinnacle of the terror activity in India. What now seems more like one of the J&K hostage dramas is spilling over and threatens to destroy the Mumbai city. The attack on Taj and Oberoi (Trident) hotels were followed by attacks on railway station and CAMA hospital.
 The busy and bustling Mumbai came to a screeching halt in the wee hours and unlike other terror attacks this one has refused to fade away as the terrorists made themselves comfortable in these five-star landmarks. I don’t know where and how these people managed to sneak in. Reports have been pouring in saying they came by a merchant ship from Karachi, some reports say they came from Gujarat and some say they hailed from Hyderabad AP. 
 But what have been ghastly annoying are the lackadaisical security measures in these important areas which are frequented by the high class society. The terrorists did not SNEAK but royally entered into the busy corridors of Mumbai city. This very fact is something that’s very disturbing and leaves me with no hopes from our security personnel.
 My misery deepens by the way the Home minister gave a cold shoulder to this event of utmost concern. His press conference was completely emotionless and his words were meaningless and of no significance. The way the things shaped clearly showed the gaping holes in our security cordon. The death merchants managed to breach the Indian coastal borders in their merchant ships carrying tonnes of ammunition. They managed to dock at one of the busiest areas of Mumbai city i.e. near the Gateway of India.
 Having docked there they unloaded the deadly stuff while many a onlookers just kept staring at it. I guess some suspecting peoples complaints fell in the deaf ears of Mumbai police. This proved too costly and the repercussions were felt in the very heart of Mumbai. What started off with ‘93 bombings slowly improvised into what was a concentrated attack on the Mumbai metro and now has culminated in a full-fledged attack on Mumbai . The fact that the terrorists went about with their infiltration process without any fuss makes things messier. This leaves us with a knee jerk feeling of hatred and frustration. While the world is waging a war on terror, the terror is waging a war on our Beloved city of Mumbai. This attack am sure has moved every Indian heart. This is an issue of great international concern after all Mumbai was an international destination for many. 
 There have been parallelisms drawn with 9/11 of USA. For me, this incident has been much graver than what 9/11 was. One reason is this incident has stretched over a period of two days. For the first time people have come in direct contact with the face of terror. This has created a trauma and sense of insecurity which is difficult to overcome. 9/11 just was an incident that spanned over a few hours. But the response from the government machineries were completely in contrast with what was seen in case of Mumbai. While in New York the relief work started off in half an hour, in Mumbai it took more than 7 hours for the NSG to be summoned in.
 The appalling delay in relief work had a detrimental effect and resulted in an exponential increase in number of casualties. In spite of all these , our politicians refuse to take the blame and shy away from their responsibilities even in this hour of deep crisis. Terrorist activities have spread across the width and breadth of the country from Mumbai to Guwahati and Kashmir to Bangalore.  
 After a 60 hour long battle against the immensely skilled and heavily armed terrorists, Mumbai was liberated from the clutches of the grim world of terrorism. But the objective of the terrorists was more or less fulfilled. No one in Taj Mahal hotel was spared. From bell boy to barrister everyone were shot at mercilessly. The tales that are spilling over about the survivors and the brave warriors are filled with agony and anguish. The public mood is hostile and politics has to take a backseat else it’s going to get a beating.
 Politicians need to be mature enough to not try and take political mileage in this hour of grief and mourning. This terror strike has left us with no hope from our security and intelligence agencies. Even a faintest of idea , we could have sealed the coast of Mumbai and nabbed the bloody terrorists right at the foot step of Mumbai and all this ruckus wouldn’t have been there.
 A holistic approach needs to be taken up and measures put in place to not let events like these to recur. Only then will the politicians be able to satiate the expectations of the billion denizens of this great country. 
 
This is a piece that I came across in anews channel. A young man was holding a poster having the following words:
Mr.Terrorist: I am alive. What can you do?
Mr.politician:I am alive DESPITE you.
This piece summarizes to mood of the Indian public. This incident is something that we should never forget. For all the innocents who laid down their lives, For the brave mumbaikars who had to go through this unending misery, For the brave jawans and last but not the least our beloved TAJ , we need to take this battle to its rightful end and bring all the traitors to the court of law.

MAY MUMBAI AND TAJ REGAIN THE GLORY!!

A World Without religion-Perdition or Paradise

There seem to be an awful lot of people out there who think the world would be better off without religion. I don't mean less religion in politics or schools, I mean none at all. Frued is an example, he says that religion is a kind of nuerosis. A kind of child like condition much like that of a teddy bear that a child sleeps with to keep the boogie man away. Frued predicts that one day mankind, like the child, will finally realise how silly religion is and discard it like a child who no longer needs teddy. He said that we would leave religion, and replace it with reason and science.
There are a couple of problems with this however. Science cannot account for certian things that people must have some kind of answer for. Things like: How was the universe created? What happens when we die? Another thing science and reason cannot do is define the "objective good". What is "good"? When we say something good what do we mean? I would argue that we get our sense of "good" from our respective religions. No matter your faith, almost all religions say essentialy the same thing about how to treat your fellow man and what the difference is between right and wrong. For that matter if we cannot define "good", how can we say something is "better" than something else? Because "better" is the comparative form of "good" and we cannot define the objective good with some kind of transending "good", like we get from God, we would not be able to compare things as "better than" or "worse than" since those ideas would have to be completely subjective to he(or she) who making the comparison. I will argue that without any idea of objective good, man will lose any notion of alltruism and mankind as a whole will fall into a sort of Hobbsian state of nature. Of course in this cas the word "good" would not disappear, it would simply mean "good for me." In which case the entire social contract will change. No longer would you respect others' right live or pursue his or her own happiness, the rule of "might makes right" would envelope the human race and we would inherently lose our humanity. People would become animals, doing only what they must to survive and perpetuate the species.
I know this sounds like an extreme idea but think about it, is it really so so hard to imagine? Look at the wolrd we live in today as apposed to the one your grandparents grew up in. Today material goods, money, and fame are glorified instead of things like, charity, ethics, honesty, hard work, and humility. Now you have to worry about what shoes to buy, what celebrity did what, how can I best benefit myself as apposed to those around me? I would argue that mankind right now is headed down a path that going to a place very dark and hotile. We certainly won't see it, and mostly likely nor will our chilldren, but generations in the future will. We must stop this social decay gripping our nation and world for that matter.

RUCKUS OVER RELIGION

India boasts of being a nation that provides shelter to people of different races and religion . We all know the phrase "Unity in diversity" that has been iterated myriad times in our social studies books during our schooling. But are we really living in peace with people of different religions.This is what i have been introspecting, ever since I had seen namaste london. Akshay enlightens the english men who still feel India is land of snake charmers with some wonderful patriotic dialogues. The dialogue that stands out is "India has a culture where a catholic women steps aside for a sikh to be sworn in as a PM by a Muslim president for a nation of over 80% hindus".
But is there same amount of tolerance amongst the public? That’s the question that needs to be answered. Though we live in peace with people of different cultures and religion, there is every chance for violence to erupt on religious grounds any moment. The religious and chauvinist groups are tightening the noose. The society is becoming increasingly intolerant when it comes to religious issues. Any trespassing is strictly looked down upon. A single instance of disrespect to a particular sect is enough to get the religious and chauvinist groups to get onto the streets and kick of a violent protest. The local administration doesn’t have enough teeth to tackle these issues thanks to the increasing interference of politicians who prefer to keep themselves away from any issues concerning violence on religion. Even the court is unable to play a role as the police in most of the cases fails to make thorough investigation fearing a backlash.
The godhra riots, massacring of Sikhs in the streets of national capital, the large scale violence at Sisar over inter sect issues have all caused large scale damage and left indeliblescars. Each and every time such incident has happened , it went uncontrolled and threatened to spread to other regions. I believe there is still tension among people of different religion. Indians definitely are lot more sentimental but this needs to be controlled or things might turn worse in future. The government needs to be unbiased in situations involving religious clashes. They need to get the vandals of peace to court. This definitely is a problem whose solution can’t be worked out by discussing in closed rooms. It’s a problem whose solution gets tougher as time passes by. We have all lived in harmony all these years. But when someone causes harm to religious beliefs , emotions take over and its almost a reflex action to attack other sects. It’s a problem unique to our country and the society has to come out with a solution.

CARBON TRADING

Katrina, Nargis well known pulchritudinous movie stars of Bollywood in India are better known t in the world as the horrendous hurricanes that wreaked havoc in one of the most developed(USA) and under developed regions(Myanmar) respectively.There has been an alarming rise in the GHGs(green house gases) and this has augmented global warming. At this rate snow at the poles will disappear by September 2060 and will submerge all the coastal metropolises.
 A month ago world environment week was observed. All the 24X7 news channels painted green and flashed environment sensuous stories and highlighted the good deeds of the very few Indian environmentalists. NDTV went a step ahead and kicked a nationwide hunt for environmentalist. A few weeks later the IIFA selected environment as its theme. The stars were welcomed on to the green carpet replacing the traditional red carpet. But all these acts wont help save mother nature. What is required is a sincere and dedicated effort.
But a large chunk of world population is self centered. They do acts with the results in mind. Very few people would be ready to do selfless acts. Having realized this , a novel idea was born during world earth summit 1997 at Kyoto , Japan. Ideas like dreams are unbelievably romantic. The idea was “Carbon trading” that lay its foundation on “Earn by giving” .
 Unfortunately this idea hasn’t been well received by India. Though this idea was mainly for the developed countries to regulate their GHG emissions, it can help alleviate the problem of poverty in India. Most of you must be wondering how carbon in any way is linked to poverty. Let’s see how carbon trading can be beneficial to India.
 First, we need to know what carbon trading is all about. Through carbon trading a firm or individual gets monetary reward for the amount of carbon emissions prevented. Now how can a individual or a firm prevent emissions. Its not something about going about with awareness campaigns and appealing to the public to reduce the usage of automobiles and other things that result in carbon emissions. It’s something that can be done by YOU in your backyard and neighbourhood. The best way to prevent carbon emission is plant trees. We all know that it’s the best way but we lack the motivation and dedication to plant and take care of the trees since there is no instant return that one gets for planting a tree. This where carbon trading can play an important role . Carbon trading can provide the motivation for planting trees. As we all know the process of photosynthesis that takes place in plants can absorb certain amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere and give back oxygen. Hence a plant can reduce carbon emissions. So the more you plant trees the more is the carbon emissions prevented the more you get paid. Some NGOs have been authorized for carbon trading. Each tree’s carbon content is transformed into carbon credits by these NGOs. These credits can be traded in the international market by the owner of the trees. The present rate is 15-20$ per ton of sequestered carbon.
 Now the question arises that who will be interested in buying these credits? During the World Earth summit , all the industries in developed countries were told to regulate their carbon emissions to a certain decided level , failing which the defaulting company will have to pay a huge penalty. For example say a power generation company generates 100000 tonnes carbon and approved emission standard is 80000 tonnes of carbon then the company buys the remaining 20000 carbon credits from the international market which allows the company to raise the bar to 100000 tonnes. It is a win-win situation for both the buyer and seller. 
 A hectare of land under forest cover can generate 300000 US$. This can help the tribal organization to be self sufficient. Even a person in urban area can get 200-300 US $ by planting trees. So start planting and earning. Carbon trading can make our country and lives green. The environment ministry should raise to the occasion and start promoting carbon trading in our country. 

DO WE NEED A DEVELOPED NATION?

I am blessed to live in a world where technology has become a part and parcel of daily life. I have personal laptop to hang out with and vent out my views any time, to keep in touch with all my friends in an economical way, have a air conditioned room to shield myself from harsh weathers outside. But in this fast paced track of development boosted by the burgeoning IT and BPOs and an increasingly materialistic society I feel we are losing out far too many than what we are gaining. India has made a leap to become a developed nation a bit too early. Rewind back 3 decades and we were nowhere near to claiming that we were a developing nation. There was political instability, famines and many other problems, peace was hindered by frequent wars. Farmers were forced to end their lives owing to failure of crops due poor irrigation facilities. Then came the GREEN REVOLUTION which changed India’s fortunes. There was a boost in crop productivity and the government of the day responded favorably by introducing farmer friendly policies. This made India one of the leading food producers in the world. India had finally achieved food security. Having achieved food security, the government hopped onto the bandwagon of countries to become a developed nation. In this Endeavour the license regime met its end and the markets were opened up to let the private players on to the turf. This was followed by Technological revolution. A few statesmen were fascinated by the technology that they came across on their trips abroad. Hence they created favourable environment for major players in Information and Technology to enter into the Indian market. From that day India hit a purple patch. The MNCs not only got a large market but also cheap labour and infrastructure. This brought technology into the households. Then came BPOs which started cropping up in every nook and corner of modern day metros. Places like noida,gurgaon which were  unheard of in the world were now buzz places thanks to the burgeoning number of BPOs in these areas. All this has so far been a smooth ride. We are almost near to becoming a developed nation. But what actually is happening is for every 1 step forward we are moving 2 steps back. Bolstered by the astounding success of green revolution resulting in achieving food security , India went on to participate in race to become a developed nation. But in this mad race to become a developed nation We forgot what was quintessential and that is SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. We put the food sector on the back burner and put focus on IT sector. What IT sector did was , filled the coffers . Our country is now home to some of the richest people in the world. But what we are missing out is that the banks are getting stacked up with cash but the stocks in granaries are fast disappearing. The concrete jungles(cities) are expanding owing to the burgeoning real estate market thus urbanizing some the village on periphery. Some of the most fertile lands have now become prime locations for setting up shopping malls which are nothing but a hang out place for the rich while the poor who were making a livelihood on the land are left in the lurch. The lands that have turned infertile due to unscientific farming have been converted into SEZs by the government instead of making an attempt to revive the fertility of land. As a result of all these activites the net sown area has been on a decline. There is a growing demand for food. This has resulted in shortage of some essential commodities , resulting in shooting up of prices . This is one of the main reasons for increasing inflation rate. No austerity measures can save us from inflation. The only way out is to increase net sown area and increase the productivity of agricultural land by scientific research.This is just a start of our journey down the helical path. Very soon food stocks will reach alarmingly low levels and all these malls and technology parks wont come to our rescue. I would be more happy to stay on the roads with an assurance of 1 square meal a day than starve to death in an air conditioned room. So dear denizens ARISE AWAKE HELP OUR FARMERS REAP THE MAXIMUM BENEFITS OUT OF THEIR FIELDS.

LET THE YOUNG TAKE OVER

A fortnight ago Hillary gracefully accepted defeat and went forward to appeal to all her supporters to support Obama as democrat’s presidential nominee. While I was seeing the speech I was wondering whether such an instance would come in our Indian politics. A women of the stature of Hillary who has seen everything in American politics accepting defeat to a young dynamic person like Obama was a treat to watch. She very much respected the people’s opinion. If we shift over to India the scenario is completely different. Today if at all there are some young leaders with potential to lead the country they must satisfy the following conditions:
(i)Has to be son/daughter of an influential national leader
(ii) Shouldn’t show any interest in changing the current political scenario
(iii) Turn a blind eye to grave problems of people but travel threw out the country on road shows like a hypocrite
If all these conditions are satisfied and he/she manages to impress all the octogenarian leaders of their party then he/she can hope to get nominated as the prime ministerial candidate. The agony doesn’t end there. If at all a young person(35-45) gets elected as the prime minister which I know is very hypothetical then opposition forces instead of respecting the people's mandate starts their mudslinging activity saying he/she has been spoon fed by their parents and dynastic politics . Infact I can draw an example from present scenario, Rahul Gandhi a 38 yr old MP from Amethi fought the election and followed all norms of constitution to become what he is now. But the opposition keeps attacking him even after 4 yrs as MP, labeling him as a child on the block being shielded by his mother . I fail to understand on what grounds are these people attacking him?. He has been elected by the people of his constituency (Amethi) . What these attacking people want to convey ? Do they want to say that these people were fools?. Did the people who elect him not know his background?. That’s the sad state of our Indian politics. The Politicians are disconnecting from people . They give more preference to their agenda than to their people. What for have they been elected? Definitely not to accommodate them in the lutyen’s bungalows and pamper them with all the perks and allow them to come out on roads and shout on the ruling government on every single issue. These days the opposition is not concurring with the government even on a single issue. For example the BJP very well knows the plus points of nuke deal but they don’t support it because its being carried forward by its rivals. Its simply school boyish in nature. There are cat fights happening every where with the the blame game going on everywhere. In AP the state govt was going ahead with auction of licenses for alcohol shops. On the media asking the CM for such a move which would encourage alcohol consumption he puts the blame on the previous govt which had done the same. Its absolutely insane. Doesn’t the CM have a mind of his own to judge what is good and bad for his citizens? It’s a tit for tat game going on. I don’t know when this is going to end. Even the parliament which was witness to some great debates till the early nineties has seen very few debates over the last few years with the opposition boycotting most of the sessions without even thinking of how much loss it is for the exchequer. I appeal to the political fraternity to act in a sane manner and please allow the young who have managed to come on to the national political scenario to implement their ideas if they have any.
JAI HIND