Subsequent to the Bomb attack in Pune, the Home Minister of India virtually accepted his Governments inability to protect it’s citizens from carefully planned and targeted bomb attacks. His stunning words of acceptance of defeat :
“Their has been no Intelligence failure, or any failure on part of the Police or the State Government. We cannot protect soft targets against ‘insidious’ bomb attacks. The establishments must install their own security”.
I am not sure what the Home Minister is suggesting. It is this kind of statement that will give credence to self appointed ‘protection’ groups that become thugs and goons in the name of nationalism. I understand that protecting against unexpected attacks is difficult for the greatest intelligence agencies in the world. But this was an area that a major terrorists suspect called Headley (who is in prison in the US) had openly surveyed. And every politician has admitted that was common knowledge in both the Central and the State Intelligence, as well as the Police.
The other surprising thing that emerged in the press statements was a representative of the Home Ministry consistently telling the Press that “we had informed the State Government and the Police of the possibility of this attack in October 2010”. I am sure he meant 2009. But he was trying ( under instructions I presume) to absolve the Central Government of the responsibility and putting the blame squarely on the State Government. These Politics, merely two hours after Indian Citizens have been killed in yet another Terrorist attack actually are very very sickening. Especially as they are becoming a pattern and India is fast turning into the softest terror target outside a conflict zone.
Our Home Minister is right. This was not a failure of our Intelligence. It was a failure of the Indian Political system that consistently plays chess games with lives of it’s people. It is the games that are played for power jockeying between the Centre and the State Government that do not allow for Intelligence to be of any value.
The citizens of India that have died are Martyred by Terrorists, but just as much by the personal interests of a few Individuals that will stop at nothing to retain their Political Power.
yir are absolutely right Sir . Every time such blasts occur this is the lame excuse . My frnd has been injured in these blasts and he can’t walk for 3 months. He will be missing his 12th boards this time. WHo is responsible for all this .
While i sincerely agree to your observation, I would also like to point out here that given the times we live in, Security is as much our responsibility as is that of the government we choose to safeguard us!!.. while its easy to point fingers, its double the more difficult (sometimes an insane idea to few) to look deeper into situations and understand that we can do our bit in bettering our lives. I would like to see the home ministers response as plea towards citizens to gear up and keep a watch around our homes.. Not for others, but our own safety.
May i Quote Gandhi here saying “Be the change you want to see in the world”
I definitely dont beleive in looking upto someone for help. We do our bit and the rest will automatically take its shape.
Regards,
Sumeash Menon
Wondefully said, I completely and honestly agree with you sir, Shame on P Chidhambaram for giving such a senseless statement, Now our govt is ready for talks, “ALL IS WELL”. Ashamed to be an Indian.
I used to belive with past experience, they would resolve it alltogether, that too efficiently. Alas, this give-up attitude would harm people’s spirit.
Dear Shekhar,
>>Our Home Minister is right. This was not a failure of our Intelligence.
I would disagree with your comment that HM is right. Being a chief he should own the responsibility of failure of any kind. If I’m running this country, I need to make sure that every module is working to its core. If not, we need to fix it right away. We should fire all the top brass in police and intelligence who own’s this failure. They are chain, they should not work alone in silos… If one link is broken, it will fail the mission. This/next time all the top brass who are sitting comfortable, they would definitely be worried about their b***s.
Honorable PC Sir, Wake up and take the tough stand now… we are still not late…
Brijesh Singh
Comman man
Brijesh
Dear Shekhar,
It so painful…, My following words are just not only the reaction…Its just reflecting impotency of Indian Govt.
lets have more friendship with Pakistan & let them export more terrorism to kill our innocent unarmed men women & children…shame on we Indians… USA is not attacked after 9/11..as they did not make Taliban/al-Qaida friends by being busy in promoting shahrukh khan & his film, rather eradicated them. Govt. is gaining minority vote banks, Television Channels r gaining TRP at the cost of innocents lives.
As still CNN IBN & Govt. is finding corners for the game of hide & seek…again with the objective of votes by saying our divided society is responsible. Let me answer them by your blog’s medium that American society wasn’t divided during 9/11, Israel society is not divided..terror strikes everywhere, why to get feared in speaking openly that the problem is with their basic thought/belief…not with others…! Problem is not only the terrorists camps, fanatic madarsas too, also to see from where this originates… which brains like you can understand…but can be practice the freedom of speech to speak same…..
Regards
Here’s a little satire i found on the net..about Aman Ki Asha..
Pakistan’s common man is innocent.
Pakistan’s common man is not in Pakistani militarty. Pakistani military is consisting of Dutch, Africans and Japanese people.
Pakistan’s common man do not give votes to India hating politicians. All the voters in Pakistani voter list are from Moskow and Timbaktu and France.
Believe me, I am telling honestly that common pakistani is innocent and wants peace with India.
But you Indians are making so much of noises while dieing just to disturb the peace talks.
Indians are really very cruel people.
sir, start a news channel and inform the people the way u write the blog. why cant our news channels see these obvious details. The politicians can play these chess games because they know the people are ill informed
This moron won by a margin of 500 votes and the recount petition is still in courts of tamilnadu. This is the same guy who said that the govt cannot control inflation when he was holding the finance portfolio. Now I feel that he deserves not 1 chappal but a garland of chappals; even better would have been a flurry of chappals for a few minutes.
SHOCKED SHOCKED SHOCKED
: (( : (( : ((
Second attack in Maharashtra
This is a challenge to humanity
I wonder where are those who call for MS !
Mr Thackeray where are you ?
What have you done for Maharashtra and people ?
Mr. Shekar Kapur, are you sleeping? Where were you then and where are you now – http://pnvarma.spaces.live.com
Shekhar
We have an innate tendency to start blame game whenever there is a Terrorist activity, and most of time we blame either our Politicians or other Country’s Politicians. But may be the Problem is out of their hands too, Terrorism has taken a life of it’s own, and it is operating independently. Pakistan is as much victim of Terrorism, as we are. Though it has dug it’s own grave, by creating it’s own killers.
India has always been soft state, It has never retaliated to any Terrorist activity outside it’s boundary, so it will continue to be victim of Terrorism, where as other Counties including US and Israel have been less tolerant of any Terrorist activity on their soil.
India being a Secular state , cannot act in a decisive manner, as there is always a chance of backlash from one community or other.And in the process of appeasing everyone, it has lost the clear direction in dealing with important and complex problems facing the country.
Under these circumstances the best approach is to stengthen our own Intelligence and Anti- terror task force, and even than unfortunately it may not be enough to prevent future attacks.
My Day and My feelings are hurt
My Soul is wounded
While my friends i never met in my city have left this world
because they were not protected
As if the earlier shock from my City Mumbai and all those people from this world were killed duinrg those days, the wounds are still open
How can i have stop my tears and eyes
While the precious life is not protected
What are we doing ?
Who are we waiting to protect us ?
How many more such until we all stand up ?
My County is attacked
My Cities are attacked
My Friends are attacked
My people are attacked
My Life is attacked
Flood of thoughts and feelings …
had to stop now with a hope for everyone to not just talk about it
But do something to STOP IT.
SHOCKED SHOCKED SHOCKED
: (( : (( : ((
Second attack in Maharashtra
This is a challenge to humanity
I wonder where are those who call for MS !
Mr Thackeray where are you ?
What have you done for Maharashtra and people ?
Where are those who call for Living
Where are those who call for Humanity
Where are those who call for Life
Where are those who call for people
Where are those who call for everyone
Where are those who call for ….
Shocking News,India will not do anything until all the workers will be fulfilled with money <<
“Another attack on Indian soil by Pakis and we’ll retaliate” does anyone remember the “brave words” of the lungi clad, paid Harvard degree, fake intellectual Chidu (many feel the vowel’s misplaced)?
Now he’s the first one to come out and confuse every one in his verbiage by blabbering something on “soft targets and hard targets, limp targets and erect targets, small blast and not a big enough enough blast to retaliate”.
We will wait for the biggest blast possible, which will definitely be a nuclear one, to take any action against them.
In the meanwhile, all the brave headless chickens of India (under the guise of freedom of speech) go and watch MNIK and support the minority cause as they form our most important vote bank! Is there really a govt out there? The MNIK candy floss supporting dumb youth of India question themselves!
Jaichands are reborn in every era; they’ll have the blood of innocent Hindus in years to come, predictably a community that may be wiped out in few decades to come (remember ghauri came to India with only 1400 men!!!)
@Shikhar: The Indian ‘common man/woman’ votes to power those widely accused of getting 4000 innocent Sikhs slaughtered to death or burnt alive in 1984 and those widely accused of brutally murdering 2000 innocent Muslims in a similar manner in 2002.
Was the Indian ‘common man’ not part of the mobs that murdered, raped and looted during the communal riots?
Was the Indian ‘common man’ not part of the government agencies that trained the LTTE or the Baloch rebels or the Mukti Bahini and, therefore, ‘exported terror’ to India’s neighbours?
Was the Indian ‘common man/woman’ not part of the police forces that carried out fake ‘encounters’, at times only to kill innocent men/women?
So, is the Indian ‘common man/woman’ innocent?
BTW, even if you were not a participant in any of the above, should you be held guilty for all of the above simply by virtue of your being an Indian?
@Gagan: Has the Indian state not hanged to death or imprisoned the killers of 4000 innocent Sikhs and 2000 innocent Muslims because “India being a Secular state , cannot act in a decisive manner”?
Some of those accused of getting those innocent people killed hold positions of power in the government even today. Is that so because “India being a Secular state , cannot act in a decisive manner”?
Which is the community that is being “appeased” by the above and what kind of a ‘secular state’ is that supposed to be?
@Shekhar: Since corrupt policemen and corrupt politicians hardly have the time or inclination to protect the common public, the task, obviously, is left to those that are not. How many of that kind are left in this country in this day and age?
Someone needs to slip truth serum into Chidambarams saambar!
Fear has become an integral part of our life…humanity is helpless…we are trapped in a vicious circle.
deepak naresh
hi shekhar, i always liked you as a film maker and as a human being. i am a very small man, i make short films. making films is my passion. every small is intended to be giant someday. i m one of them. i am a journalist by profession, but always wanted to become a film maker. can i dare to dream of working with you..? i am posting a link through which you can watch my 2 minutes short film…plz watch and give me your view.
http://www.filmaka.com/film.php?film_id=25a9eda2-f9f2-102c-b9ab-00301b46cca5
Our country is held at ransom not my these terrorists but by us. These people are highly motivated and are doing what they are motivated to do. But we seem to fail each time!
We are going terribly wrong. Instead of blaming one another we have to find out where we are going wrong. We need a huge movement where we have to ask our government and find solutions. For this we need to gather and definitely not with candle light vigils but demanding some firm answers and implementation of the same.
Behind the veil of religion and terror, terrorism is a profitable and sustainable ‘business’ today. Like any modern business it happens to carry a vision and mission albeit a religious one for its functioning. How do you dislodge a profitable business and economic model they have created for themselves?
hey Sidhu@
i get it by ur name that u’re a sikh..so u have that sikh riots on ur mind..but u forget that sikh riots were conducted by the Congress..which ironicly gave us a sikh PM..btw hindus were slaughtered in punjab (during khalistan movement) I wonder why u did’nt bring that up..
I don’t know what r u trying to prove..by telling about riots on minorties..I beleive u don’t know the history of India.,.India has the most screwed up history in the world…where just 5%-10% muslims ruled Indians for 700 yrs..and u feel nothing wrong happened ?? ..even then we did not destory the abrahmic faith ppl like they did to us..no country and people in the world had to face such a cruel history..and still we forget and move ahead but then these mad dogs bomb our cities, temples, markets etc. and still move on..
What are u talking about LTTE, Bangladesh, Baloch..?? u think we told the pakistanis to screw the bengali’s and baloch’s or the sinhalese about tamils..they officially did that..
I don’t want to scrutinize u’re ethics..still live in peace not in pieces..
It was not as suprising to read a few weeks ago that some IM terrorists who had managed to escape from the Batla House encounter were actually helped and given shelter by an ex-MLA and a Mumbai politician.
The first step would be to eradicate the underworld channels operated by people like Dawood Ibrahim who are sheltered in Pakistan. These guys need to be wiped out completely, since a lot of the logistics are outsourced to them. Why the Indian govt has allowed this gang to still exist is dumbfounding.
But you cannot expect such actions from loongi-poser Chidambaram and the bunch of corrupt UPA buffoons who have been put to power by a deluded group of Indians. All these things will happen only when someone like Modi is in charge.
Sidhusaaheb,
Your basic premise is quite sound in stating that Indians cannot play victims all the time. And, the 1984 riots were indeed unfortunate, and to an extent, even the Godhra stuff, but let’s not forget that the riots were pent-up reactions. For many years, Indians were witnessing the killing of “innocent” people by the Sikh separatists in Punjab, Haryana, etc. for the Khalistan cause which also received support from the ISI. There were daily occurrences of bomb blasts and shootouts against civilians and cops alike. And then, the audacity to have the Indian PM assassinated gave way to the violent reaction which found the entire Sikh community as a target. The same was the case in Godhra..for years, there have been unethical conversion practices such as bride abductions in Gujarat villages and other anti-national activities carried on by certain muslim extremists , and finally some of these guys burnt alive Hindu women and children who were returning from a holy ceremony in the train, which again gave way to the violent chain-reactions against the muslim community as a whole.
And the LTTE never had the kind of state-sponsored support from India. There were a select few Tamil extremists who financed the outfit. If you remember it was India who formed the IPKF and lost many soldiers to help the Lankans against the LTTE which eventually led to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
Though there is nothing called as an “innocent” person, it does seem that, in comparison, Indians are a passive, non-expansionist and compassionate lot.
mr kapur, whenever our govt says “intelligence sources” they mean what they have overheard during some criminal trial in the US. you do not have to check “every backpack” to stop terrorism, you just have to send one message to the world,”we will make every terrorist regret the day he was born, the moment he even thought of killing our people. the fact that they may be one of our own will not protect them from us. this time the rivers of blood that soak into our earth will not be of innocents’. the world opinion be damned, we will treat enemies of our country as we deem fit”. but what do we do? our govt sends dossiers across, pleading and begging for the extradition of murderers. we bleat on and on about indians in Oz, let me tell you, indians are safer there than here. come on, sm krishna and chidambram, issue advisories to indians living in india, threaten our state govts as you threaten Oz with economic boycott and shutting down of relations.
Think you are being bit too harsh on the Union Home Minister, Im not a big fan of his either but one has to take several factors into account while combating terrorism – especially terrorists affiliated to Al- Qaida or LeT etc, in this era of Fourth Generation Warfare.
These groups exploit the strengths of the civil society and use it to its detriment. Take the free press/media as an example.These terror attacks wouldn’t have been 1/10th successful without the media (As the Hassassin in Dan Brown’s Angel and Demon says “Media is the right arm of anarchy” ). The objective of these attacks is to spread terror, panic which would give rise to fear,disunity and distrust. These couldn’t have been possible without an independent media but does that mean we (through the govt) impose restrictions on the media ?
In the same manner,civil rights are one of our biggest strengths vis.a.vis our neighbors,if some people exploit it to harm us do we suspend the rights ? Would you really like to be frisked every time you walk into a coffee shop or a restaurant or a theater ? And as importantly, do we have the resource ?
Regarding the HM’s statement I guess this is what he meant,securing hard targets would be easier since they are few but it is impossible deploy forces at every cafe,park,eatery. However, this threat has to be tackled on a different level: stealth,cloak and dagger stuff. One of the 4GW tactics I read somewhere proposed infiltration, assassination of leaders/ideologues and then wean away the foot soldiers to one’s side.
Shameless govt.
For one day, ie 24 hours these heroes should try and move around without security and see how yellow they turn.
I have been living in delhi for abt 2 months now and before that in north america for abt 7 years and I have to agree with MS that I felt completely safe during my 7 years abroad compared to my 2 months in delhi & I say that with a very heavy heart