A bomb goes off at a particular place in some city of our country, generally a place of tourist attraction or of strategic importance… Convoys of police, security forces, medical help, bomb squads, anti terrorist squads start running helter skelter… Media people rushing to the spot, traffic chaos, phone calls running through everywhere, confusion and panic mounting to the helm… None of the above have any clue of what has hit them… This has more or less become a common occurrence in our country… Something that happens at regular intervals, and happens without fail… When such a disaster strikes, law and order going for a toss is quite obvious… There is nothing embarrassing about it since such things happen in some of the most developed nations of the world too!!!
What is really shameful is the intent and thought process behind the panic… It is saddening to see media people rushing to the spot in a manner athletes run towards the finish line… The one who covers the story first and telecasts the blast first is the front runner in the run up to the TRP Bonanza... Police! It would be better if we don’t get there... Finally, we, the people... Being the citizens of the largest democracy, we take freedom quite literally!!! We don’t seem to understand that with rights come responsibilities... How does medical help, or for that matter, any help reach the spot and the victims? We have vehicles almost (why almost?) brushing each other... Two wheelers make use of every possible inch on the road, footpaths, dividers, if push comes to shove, they don’t mind changing over to the wrong side... Such is the state we are living in!!! And then one by one we start taking positions on the game field to kick off our favourite game... Yes, none other than BLAMEGAME!!!
We start blaming the local authorities, they in turn blame the centre, centre blames opposition and vice versa... Then we all collectively blame the neighbouring nation... Even before the blame ball has reached them, they throw it into the terrorist organisation court... Some terror outfits own up but not before they pass the ball to us for the atrocities their so called sects are subjected to... Where have we come? Back to square one may be...
More important question here is where are we going? We have elected a political system to take care of those nitty gritties that might be out of our scope to handle on a day to day basis... It is really shocking to see the speed of reaction from the authorities, the scapegoating between the ruling party and the opposition, the forums for discussions, unnecessary debates and never ending list of promises and advices... If this is all they are capable of doing, we might as well do it ourselves... Our home minister gets a pat on the back from the senior leaders including Hon. Prime Minister, reason being, there has been no attacks since he has taken over... What kind of twisted illogical rubbish is that? It’s a given that attacks shouldn’t happen... Now if we start praising our people for doing this bare minimum, days aren’t far away when we might start celebrating days when there have been no attacks... As much as I don’t like saying this, but our security is so porous and fragile that at some stage terrorists might drop a bomb for a photograph!!! The only piece of advice after every such blast is to not panic, avoid public places and do not touch unattended objects... Is this all? Could someone please carve out a slice of wisdom and tell us how do we avoid more such tragedies of this magnitude? How do we reassure our loved ones of their safety in the first place and that we would come back home safely too? How do we feel safe in public places?
We are standing agonisingly close to the doors of death, all of us... In such times, these so called leaders of ours are the ones we look up to, in vain... I think it’s high time we stop looking up to someone and start looking into ourselves... Yes, it is a time consuming and cumbersome task, but that investment is worth it... Let us ask ourselves how can we contribute to this cause? For instance, the technically educated people of our society can group together and help us get rid of the primitive security devices and methods... The judiciary sections put their heads together for a stronger (and let’s not forget fairer) law and order system which doesn’t crumble in difficult times... If we have an opinion let us come forward and voice it...
What is really shameful is the intent and thought process behind the panic… It is saddening to see media people rushing to the spot in a manner athletes run towards the finish line… The one who covers the story first and telecasts the blast first is the front runner in the run up to the TRP Bonanza... Police! It would be better if we don’t get there... Finally, we, the people... Being the citizens of the largest democracy, we take freedom quite literally!!! We don’t seem to understand that with rights come responsibilities... How does medical help, or for that matter, any help reach the spot and the victims? We have vehicles almost (why almost?) brushing each other... Two wheelers make use of every possible inch on the road, footpaths, dividers, if push comes to shove, they don’t mind changing over to the wrong side... Such is the state we are living in!!! And then one by one we start taking positions on the game field to kick off our favourite game... Yes, none other than BLAMEGAME!!!
We start blaming the local authorities, they in turn blame the centre, centre blames opposition and vice versa... Then we all collectively blame the neighbouring nation... Even before the blame ball has reached them, they throw it into the terrorist organisation court... Some terror outfits own up but not before they pass the ball to us for the atrocities their so called sects are subjected to... Where have we come? Back to square one may be...
More important question here is where are we going? We have elected a political system to take care of those nitty gritties that might be out of our scope to handle on a day to day basis... It is really shocking to see the speed of reaction from the authorities, the scapegoating between the ruling party and the opposition, the forums for discussions, unnecessary debates and never ending list of promises and advices... If this is all they are capable of doing, we might as well do it ourselves... Our home minister gets a pat on the back from the senior leaders including Hon. Prime Minister, reason being, there has been no attacks since he has taken over... What kind of twisted illogical rubbish is that? It’s a given that attacks shouldn’t happen... Now if we start praising our people for doing this bare minimum, days aren’t far away when we might start celebrating days when there have been no attacks... As much as I don’t like saying this, but our security is so porous and fragile that at some stage terrorists might drop a bomb for a photograph!!! The only piece of advice after every such blast is to not panic, avoid public places and do not touch unattended objects... Is this all? Could someone please carve out a slice of wisdom and tell us how do we avoid more such tragedies of this magnitude? How do we reassure our loved ones of their safety in the first place and that we would come back home safely too? How do we feel safe in public places?
We are standing agonisingly close to the doors of death, all of us... In such times, these so called leaders of ours are the ones we look up to, in vain... I think it’s high time we stop looking up to someone and start looking into ourselves... Yes, it is a time consuming and cumbersome task, but that investment is worth it... Let us ask ourselves how can we contribute to this cause? For instance, the technically educated people of our society can group together and help us get rid of the primitive security devices and methods... The judiciary sections put their heads together for a stronger (and let’s not forget fairer) law and order system which doesn’t crumble in difficult times... If we have an opinion let us come forward and voice it...
