26th November, 2009 – It has been a year since the grim Mumbai terror attacks that took lives of many innocent bystanders and shattered the fabrics of a society. As people try to celebrate the first anniversary with prayers and lit candles to show the indestructible Indian spirit, I would like to look at the changes (if any) that occurred in our country or changed its preparedness in surviving future attacks.
When I opened the Times Of India newspaper in the morning, I was surprised to find that the Maharashtra government spent Rs 31 crores (strictly unofficial) for keeping India’s public enemy #1 – Ajmal Amir Kasab safe and secure to stand trial. It is really hilarious, when India is also reeling under recession and the Democratic Front in Maharashtra is cash-strapped and in debt. His trial began in May, 2009 and it might take a year for wrapping the case up, even after he has accepted his crime. Indian judiciary is well known for keeping cases in comatose for ages.
The governments in State and Centre have emphasised that security of the nation is their top priority and has planned to spend $40 billion for defence modernisation by 2012. But, for the ‘urban warfare’ that the terrorists are well known for, how would 2 aircraft carriers and 126 new fighter jets help in the fight for survival? The front liners in the modern ‘urban warfare’ are the local police. There hasn’t been any adequate resources allocated to them - they still lug around the antique bolt action rifles against automatic guns that the extremists carry around. They use the old school VHF radio sets when terrorists use GPS and sat-phones to stay in touch with ‘handlers’ outside the country. The cops need better guns, communication systems, sensors, night vision goggles, heat detectors, explosive detection training and simulation training on the real life conditions. However, the harsh truth is that most of the force is obese and has just 2 rounds of cardboard target practice (not even clay pigeons for moving targets) in a year and there is lack of ammunition and Kevlar body suits.
Our best hopes are the NSG black cat commandos, but like God, they can’t be everywhere saving cities and citizens. They ain’t no superheroes themselves! Further, if we go by the breaking news that comes pouring in, the NSG never received any co-operation from the local cops, nor have city maps or heli-lift capability to find their way through crowded traffic in case of emergency. To heighten the agony, are the political clowns who rush to these places to “access the situation”, get more camera time and cause obstruction to justice with their Z and Z+ grade security (that should be assisting the mango people and not a wealthy, good for nothing clown elected by the mango people).
Another cause is intelligence failure and co-operation between various segments of the defence and intelligence department. The intercepts from the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) informing about terrorist movements towards Mumbai were sent to the national security advisor who chooses to look the other way. Eventually, the entire blame was shifted to maritime intelligence! How appropriate, to blame others (totally humane). Then the government decides to set up costal command with maritime defence zones, aerial and ISR surveillance equipment under the Indian Navy and it remains a paper tiger with nothing concrete being done since a year from inception of this idea.
The Gujarat coastline still remains vulnerable both as a conduit and a terror target due to investments worth crores in port and refinery projects along it. The state government had promised to give a GPS set to each boat to guide fishermen and help track their boats on land after the 26/11 attacks, but instead were given iceboxes to store fish and subsidy on LPG kits to run boats. The security aspect involved simply drowned like the Titanic. It has to be noted that Kasab, the captured terrorist had confessed on how the 10 of them had utilised the coast and a trawler for their pre-planned Mumbai terror attack. Also, in 1993, Dawood Ibrahim had used the coast for landing RDX and arms cache for the serial bombings in Mumbai to retaliate the Babri Masjid demolition. We can not ignore the fact that such an incident won’t be repeated in the near future.
On the eve of first anniversary, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that “India will not rest till it has brought the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.” Pakistan on its part took a decisive step by framing Lashkar commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six others for masterminding the Mumbai carnage. But, Manmohan Singh suggested that much more needs to be done; including dismantling the complete infrastructure of terror and this was reiterated by Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor in the parliament. Barack Obama with his Hindi welcome has assured our Prime Minster that USA’s influence on getting Pakistan to eliminate terrorism on its soil will work. How kind, Mr. President! But, it seems that some fractions of the US administration is interested in equipping the Pakistan army with armaments and handling the supervisory role to China in South Asian politics. I’m not to happy to take US role in South Asian stability as well as its role in taming Pakistan, as they are well known for hypocrisy and everyone knows how they blotched up Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan in their race to be the world’s super power and watchdog over policies and issues.
Today, after a year of the carnage, we should ask ourselves – Are we are prepared to handle such situations in future? What role can a citizen play, in securing our country? Should we have an RTI about the use of tax payer’s money? What happened to the promises of better equipments and infrastructure to fight terror? The main problem with Indian citizens is that we forget the promises made by our elected representatives and carry on with our life until we lose someone important or close to us. We don’t stand up and fight as we are a peaceful nation. Can we change ourselves or just play innocent victims, is up to us. The ultimate question is - Are we ready to change ourselves?