There is nothing new in the saber rattling in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. Indian jets straying into Pakistani space on December 13,2008 is the latest jejune trick of real politicks. To say so is not to diminish the enormity of the attacks in Mumbai but rather to highlight it.

The so-called ’stateless actors’ who attacked the metropolis were dubious in character. If they were jihadists they were also drinking alcohol. If they were Muslims they were also killing innocent people and prominently passengers, women and children and smirking at their crimes. If they were Pakistanis they were also endangering their country into a retaliation that would be catastrophic to them, to say the least. If they were after an imaginary Islam that is based on sharias alone, India was not the place for it let alone an ideal place. However, their evil deeds have unleashed a pent up hysteria for war.

Some people in India have mistakenly believed that war could solve the problem of terror. Israel has fought more terrific wars with its Arab neighbours. But each war has spawned more terror. The doppelganger of Hezbollah is nothing but the product of war, the Israelis rue the day it was born. Who fathered LTTE after Singhalese terror of the yore?

Our neighbour is desperately trying to survive its own misdeeds of mixing religion and politics and playing second fiddle to the West. We are surely falling into the same pitfall. The shoe thrower journalist at President George Bush’s press meeting was also a warning us, as enormous amount of writing against the unjust war had not been heeded for so long. In no way is Pakistan going to benefit from the Mumbai attacks or any war.

But those who cry from the top of the roof of their house for war must reckon with the lumpen network of gangsters and cohorts of politicians. There is a thriving thralldom where rickshaw pullers and shopkeepers have to pay through their nose to the local muscleman or gangster regular hafta or extortion which ultimately reaches the pockets of the political bosses or the cops. They must also see how Madina Pathan of Gujarat is retracting. In the aftermath of the Gujarat genocide she had identified the accused who had raped her and burnt alive her family. But now she is recanting. She is saying that no one raped her and burnt her family. Considering the incidents of shocking violence and cruelty in Mumbai we are outraged. How is it that we fail to be outraged when we see victims of another outrage retract their accounts of those who perpetrated the worst acts of terror on them in full view of the public who till that morning were their neighbours and fellow citizens? Why is this gross violation of morality and decency not an outrage to us? Maqsood Mian Patan had seen senior police officer KK Mysorewala taking a black suitcase from Naroda corporator Vallabh Patel and Ashok Saheb and leaving the Muslims to be slaughtered in their hundreds in Naroda Patia and not arresting even when there was order of the commissioner to shoot Babu Bajrangi on sight. Maqsood is now turning hostile and is saying that these things did not happen. These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. Incidentally the same Mysorewala is in charge of Modasa that along with Malegaon suffered terrorist attack of September 29, 2008. Will he again prefer money to duty?

Why is one outrage prompting us to war on a neighbour country and another outrage not even making us give a rap on the knuckles of the rapists and murderers?

The Sadhvi accused in Malegaon blast and the Kasab accused in Mumbai attacks are perverted individual persons and their collective occupational nouns neither can whittle down nor enhance their crimes; nor can their gender nouns. They are satanic forces personified. To save the Sadhvi and group Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and BJP would go to any extent, even to the extent of civil strife. Similarly to deny legal succor to the Kasab the same groups would go to vandalism and violation of the constitution of the land. These hawkish outfits of Mars would be the pioneering forces that threaten to wage war within and without even before the formal declaration of war.

There are two conflicting and contradictory current theses on possibility of war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan had once tried to lead India into a military confrontation over the terrorist attack on the Parliament in 2001 when India responded by Operation Parakaram. But now India has grown wiser and this old alibi for not tackling terror by the neighbour will not work. Hence India must take on Pakistan. This view is coloured by the weltanschauung or world view of Islam as terrorism as it views the Mumbai attack as “jihadi offensive against civilized nations and values.” (K Subramanyam). Diametrically opposite to this is the view that in a situation of war Pakistan will have to take its soldiers from the western borders, which are hotbeds of terrorism of the al Qaeda and the Taliban type and deploy them on the Indian borders. That would not solve the problem of terrorism(Ahmed Rashid). Those who subscribe to the first theory believe war as solution. 

War begins in the minds of men. As Eugene O’Neill said of tragedy that we wear masques and our tragedy or misfortune begins when we evaluate ourselves through the eyes of others. Today we see through the western perspective, hence the corrective need to claim Mumbai attack as our tragedy (Arundhati Roy). Moreover terrorism is a technique (Zbigniew Brezesnki, a former national security advisor to the US president) and needs to be fought by a technique. But this time around as of now India is keeping sanity and not rushing where angels fear to tread.

Enough is enough.  Our people and institutions have suffered too long from terrorism.  The time has come for us to take effective steps.  India is not short in brain power to stop this terrorism juggernaut. 
 
The recent terrorist massacre in Mumbai was a horror of horrors that caused a wave of grief that transcended national boundaries and impacted the hearts and minds of people in many countries.  Many people who have visited Mumbai in the past and have memories of the serene atmosphere around the Gateway of India and the breathtaking promenade fronting the Arabian Sea felt outraged.  For me it was as if someone attacked my own home, since I once lived in that area.
 
After I graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and before I moved to New York for higher education, I lived and worked in an area that is within walking distance from the Gateway of India.  I have very vivid memories of frequenting the renowned Sea Lounge restaurant at the Taj Mahal hotel, the Yacht Club, the Regal Cinema, the Leopold Café and strolling on the Colaba Causeway, Cuffe Parade and Nariman Point.
 
When I heard that a bunch of murderous terrorists armed to the teeth came ashore on the same promenade of the Gateway on the Thanksgiving weekend, and let loose a horrible rampage of murder and destruction on that gorgeous and serene strip of land in Colaba and Nariman Point, I felt as if someone has punched me in the face.
 
I feel very angry as to how and why such an outrageous mayhem could occur in a prestigious part of Mumbai, and the dynamic center of the financial & business infrastructure and entertainment industry in India, one of the premier powers on the world stage today.   It is hard for me to believe that the lack of public security in this part of Mumbai was so patchy that a dozen foreign terrorists could impose so much carnage for almost three days.
 
For about a year now I have been hearing almost every month of random bomb blasts and terrorist attacks in various cities in India.  Every time an attack occurs we hear government ministers and politicians talk tough and assure the public that they will not allow such mayhem and that progress has been made in tracking down the culprits.  But soon enough another attack occurs in another city and the same government ministers issue yet another reassuring statement.
 
How long will this charade go on?  Our country is not short of resources and brain power to build a homeland security apparatus that can stop this terrorism juggernaut.  Compare it to US where after the 9/11/01 terrorist attack the government has taken tough measures; the result is that no more such attacks have occurred in US since then.  Unfortunately in India the preparedness of the government at all levels, central, state, municipal to combat terrorists efficiently and to forestall terrorist attacks is not adequate.
 
India is a great democracy with a fairly free-wheeling atmosphere for all.  In the last twenty years  the economy, industry and enterprise in India has mushroomed to world class heights and our resurgence on the world stage has made many people in other countries envious of us.  Thus some foreign elements are bent on stopping our national growth, destabilizing us and creating discord and tension in the society by exploiting the diversity of religion, ethnicities and political affiliations.
 
These destructive elements, jealous of our nation’s remarkable progress on all fronts, are constantly plotting to cause harm to us.  They know fully well that they can not compete with us in any arena including the military.  But they have a strong desire to punch us and give us a bloody nose every so often to vent their frustration.  Unfortunately even though we know who these people are we do not take effective steps to eliminate them. 
 
But enough is enough.  Our people and our institutions have suffered for too long from terrorism.  Time has come now that we take effective steps and root out these destructive elements, wherever and whoever they may be, to prevent this ongoing menace to the common people of India. 
 
What is most regrettable is that some misled Muslims in other countries are abusing the sublime religion of Islam to brainwash a few Muslims to foster terrorist attacks on India.  The holy Islamic word Jihad which is clearly defined in Quran and Hadeeth (the sayings of the prophet) as struggle against your own bad instincts and against coercive oppression from others on the helpless, is being grossly abused and exploited to launch murderous attacks on defenseless and unsuspecting civilian.  It should be noted that in almost all terrorist attacks in India in recent years about one-fourth to one-third victims have been Muslim civilians too. 
 
In recent months most Muslim organizations and institutions in India have condemned terrorism and those Muslims who perpetrate them in categorical terms.  Muslim clerics in India have issued Fatwas (religious edicts) stating clearly that terrorism is a repulsive act of war against the basics of Islam and is strictly forbidden.  In the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai many Muslim organizations refused to allow the burial of the dead bodies of the terrorists, who were Muslims from Pakistan, in any Muslim cemetery, as they considered these terrorists as having profaned the teachings of Islam.
 
Today we Indians and our government have to go beyond condemnations and condolences and expressions of grief and take effective deterrent action to stop this cycle of the scourge of terrorism.  We must give adequate notice and opportunity to governments of countries from where terrorist attacks originate that they root out the terrorist organizations from their soil.  But if they are unwilling or unable to do so our own security forces should do that. 
 
At the same time our homeland security apparatus should also take steps to eliminate any and all domestic groups and elements who are exploiting the discontent of the people to indulge in terrorist activities with an eye on political or electoral gains in an election year.

Karkare

Keeping, apart statements given by the minority’s minister.

 BRAVE OFFICER WHO LOST LIFE’S PROTECTING OUR LIFE’S

 While I strongly condemn this act, of Terror in Mumbai. I at the same time would remember the true hero of our forces Late Mr. Hemant Karkare and the many decorated upright officers of our police force and NSG.

1.  Mrs. Karkare you are wife of a great SOUL a great leader, a great protector of law, a great Indian, a great son of our great country India, India will never be able to pay back what he has given to our nation
2. This goes to all others who lost there lives from our forces.  India and its police and armed forces will take the path of late Mr. Karkare and there will be thousands more like him who will be inspired and would like to be Hemant Karkares, and Unnikrishnans…
3. MR. HEMANT KARKARE WE SALUTE YOUR BRAVENESS. You are our hero and a martyr.
4. But humble concern which we all have in our minds is , the world would like to know in the circumstances they reached on the day of action at the location of terror, were they martyrs equipped enough and secured enough and covered enough to face the terrorist.   

THE WORLD WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT THEM, FOR SURE.

1. Was the security and the protection provided to them, on the day they lost their life’s bravely fighting and protecting our life’s, was sufficient to the stature and the threat they were to face in handling the terror attack of the intensity we witnessed.

2. These officers were heading very delicate investigation of terror acts involving very sensitive issues, where in many innocent people lost lives.

CAN WE EVER FORGIVE OURSELVES IF WE AS A NATON FAILED…?

1. To provide them proper protective cover, gadgets, shields, and arms and Ammunition to match the enemy they were asked to fight with?

2. I appeal to all, please raise your voice to force the authorities and people in power to provide enough infrastructure support and modernise the police to encourage more people to join the police and Armey and NSG as they too have families waiting for them when they risk life’s fighting and protecting us.

3. Please think…this is main issue. (To know how safe the live jacket of this officer was. Please read the interview of Mr. Karan Thapar with Mr. Kapil Sibal Union Minister it is discussed in detail on cnnibn). The live jackets used by our martyrs were the ones that are used in riots. which by no standards can protect the forces exposed to bullet shots from AK56 weapons, and other sophisticated weapons the terrorist used. Pl. pause and thinks…

 NATION IS UNITED IN THIS HOUR, PAIN.

1. Late Hemant Karkare Sir it is painful to know you are not with us any more.

2. God will punish those who killed you and all the other innocent people in Mumbai terror attack with you.

3. Nation with all thrust and unity punish the killers of Mumbai terror attacks, were ever they are.

4. The nation is united and is determined to do so. It is the question of Indian Pride.

5. We should further show wisdom in our actions and how we express our feelings.