Lighting a candle on facebook

I have been bombarded with petitions, solidarity letters and posts, when there is a bomb attack, or on Tibet etc. All I am saying is this, 15 million people marched across the world in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq, it still happened. Perhaps one million people across India and Pakistan can sign a petition and give it to respective governments, but would it really stop the ISI from funding Lashkar to train terrorists? Would it stop any kind of retaliation that we might see now from the Indian government?

Do you know something? There was a warning from the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) to major hotel establishments that there is a bomb threat from LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) and they (hotels) had beefed up their security arrangements. Only a week ago, they were relaxed because of complaints from hotel guests. That is a different thing that the terrorists entered from behind the hotel. But the point is this, there are certain rules and regulations, many of them made for our own benefit, but do we really follow them?

All I ask is this, next time you break a traffic signal, or don’t pay a fine, think about it. Next time you buy something in a plastic cover, think about it. Next time you are unreactive when something happens around you, a broken streetlight, someone spitting on the road, think about it. Next time you sit at home, too lazy or unmotivated to go and vote, think about it.

We need to be vigilant citizens, that’s it, and do our jobs well, that, is the more important thing. If tomorrow the security check is more vigilant when I board a plane, let me not crib, but put up with it. Or when I am asked to open my suitcase to reveal what I am carrying, let me comply with it.

If you want to salute the spirit of Mumbaikars, salute it everyday. Smile at the bus conductor and say thank you when he hands you the ticket. Don’t call the porter ‘coolie’ but call him by his name; don’t put down the waiter in the small restaurant if the spelling in the menu of ‘pasta’ is wrong. Don’t make fun of every single pot bellied havaldar you see, he might not be fit for his job, but he may have the spirit when it’s needed.

I agree token gestures like these help in morale building, but we need to have more than that. We need to have it in our everyday activities and not just as an emotional reaction to an event.

With due respect to everyone who is lighting a candle for this on facebook, or signing a petition.

Am I living in Kinshasa or Mumbai?

I woke up today, to a feeling of utter shame and fear, to the news of blasts and hostage takings in the Mumbai blasts. Fear at the thought of how unsafe one is in this country. And shame at the level of chaos that we are into. I would call it as bad as DR Congo. You can get raped anywhere if you are in the capital of the country. And if you are in the biggest business city, you get targeted by terrorists. In cafes, in railways stations, in restaurants, in five star hotels. This has never happened before. It is unimaginable that grenades and AK 47s are being hurled openly. The site at the CST passenger lobby sent shivers down my spine. And all I could think of were three incidents that took place recently. One, the long debate and the whole hullabaloo created over the Batla house incident by the media, by the likes of Arundhati Roy, and the JNU student’s groups. Why? Because 2 suspected terrorists with ample proof were gunned down. And what did they demand? They demanded a CBI enquiry. And second, that of the media coverage of the Malegaon suspects case. The entire ATS was focused on a blast that killed 2, without much surety as to who was behind it. A third incident that I thought of was that of the Congress party, begging for pardoning of Afzal Guru, terrorist and refusing to get POTA.

I understand that the Minority votebank is important to a lot of people. But don’t they realize this now? Even a Muslim will not dare vote Congress back in power. Because from Assam to Jaipur, from the Dargah in Ajmer to Benaras, terrorists are targeting us. If terrorists openly flaunt guns and kill people in one of the world’s busiest airports with all its high security and then scots free in a jeep, if the hotel where everyone from Bill Gates to the PM himself prefer to stay has 10 gunmen entering it (in a high security area) and going on a shooting spree, what of people like us? We, who take the Mumbai suburban trains and the Delhi Metro everyday, who like to hang out at Leopold’s and Connaught Place?

Are we the lesser civilians here?

After the 9/11, there has not been a single attack on the American soil. Yes, they have done their own blunders. But one has to marvel their homeland security systems. Not a single terrorist has dared to step on their soil and harm an American. And no, the argument that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter is outdated. The moment an innocent is killed, be it the boy who picked up the tiffin in Delhi which was a bomb, or the nurse, who was blasted off the hospital ward in Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. The moment, any of these civilians are targeted, the person is not a freedom fighter, but a terrorist. And that is when, we do need POTA, we do need to be hard on terror and we do need to stop putting the majority at risk for a few minority votes.