Thoughts from the experience of Delhi Blasts!

Life@epicenter of blasts '

Sep 16^th 2008

Sep 13^th 2008 will be forever etched in my mind. On that day Delhi was rocked by a series of blasts. Mostly in crowded market places. I was in Delhi during that time sight-seeing, visiting places just like any other tourist would do. I am just trying to pen the thoughts that have crossed my mind since!

We read about such stuff in papers or see it on TV and the effect on us is that we think these terrorists need to be punished (or what the hell is the Govt doing!!) but we never understand the panic or fear or anger that residents there who are near the epicenter of such events feel. I got first hand experience of this over the weekend. At first you panic, then fear takes over for your near and dear ones and for your fellow citizens and then this turns to anger on how this is being allowed to fester!

Panic:

It was the first time that I was in a city where blasts had occurred and that too, visiting places that was earmarked for the blasts. At the time of the blasts we were enjoying the evening at India Gate and roaming on Rajpath, not knowing the havoc that was being caused elsewhere in the city. While returning from there, we were found out about the incidents and rushed to Gurgaon (where we are put up) before roads were blocked or mobile signals jammed. It turned out later that a live bomb was diffused at the exact location where we were roaming @ India gate.. I shudder to think if like the other bombs this one too had gone off at that time between 6 to 7 in the evening!!!

Fear:

In the afternoon we were in a very crowded Chandni Chowk area where business was as usual on a busy Saturday with hundreds of thousands of innocent market-goers. It must have been the same in Karol Bagh and Greater Kailash where the blasts took place. There was nothing that would have stopped them from planting one in Chandni Chowk as well! If they had done so I just cannot imagine the havoc that would have caused. This is fear that we would not experience sitting far away watching the coverage of the blasts as a TV spectacle!

Anger:

The bombs don’t discriminate based on caste, creed, gender, age etc while ripping apart lives. The bomb @India Gate was found in a children’s park. In Ahmedabad they targeted a hospital so that the people coming over there for treatment and the doctors/nurses treating them are killed. Now that shows the kind of people these terrorists are…. I think categorizing them as people itself is wrong!! And is it wrong if there are stricter laws to apprehend these people. Absolutely Not! I now believe that if due to some strict law (I couldn't care less what it is called) some innocent people end up doing jail time, so be it. Isn't it better than some innocent men, women and children dying a violent death? To hell with all the human rights advocates who are against such laws (there are tons of them in India). Will they be there to support a family whose bread-winner dies in such attacks? No! They will shed some crocodile tears for the dead and get on with their "bashan baazi" and placard waving. Maybe they will understand the emotions better if they are the target of the attacks by these demons!!

There was a Congress party meeting of some sort taking place near India gate which the President of India was supposed to attend on Saturday evening. She didn't make it to the function but the terrorists got there without being detected. India Gate is a couple of Kms away from Rastrapathi Bhavan, Parliament house and all such important offices. What did we learn from the Parliament attack some years back? I don't think much!! Our intelligence agencies, I believe, are caught up in their own red-tape to be efficient and effective!

I now also fully support that we should have a uniform federal law and agency to tackle this menace and all the perpetrators charged with waging war against the nation and maybe even treated as PoW. After all it is a war they are waging against innocent, unarmed Indians and we should hit back at them with all our might. If this entails attacking targets within our neighbouring countries, so be it and to hell with pacifists (same argument as for rights activists)!! What's the use of spending billions of dollars on defence if that money cannot guarantee safety for us at our homes, offices and markets?

Coming to the man in charge of internal security in India i.e. India’s Home Minister Shivraj Patil — I have always maintained that Shivraj Patil is not the right person to be Home Minister, but this incident has made up my mind that he is the most incompetent and useless Home minister we have ever had!! In fact it might not be very far off target, if we categorize him as the most ineffectual Cabinet minister since VK Krishna Menon (China attacked India when this defence minister was busy arguing in UN for China’s inclusion and to be made permanent member of security council)! What does this guy do that evening (apart from changing his dress thrice, as various channels pointed out) is that he gives another of his useless, pathetic statement but where is the action against the perpetrtors of the blasts, this year we have had it in Jaipur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and now Delhi. All statements made by him for every blast in the country since 2005 sound same (check out today’s Times of India, front page for verification of his various statements). The situation be it in Naxalite infested areas or the North-east or this global phenomenon called terrorism has gotten so bad during his reign that it sickens you. And what has he to show for the actions he took ..absolutely zilch!! My hope is that Dr. Manmohan Singh will now sack this guy immediately and restore some kind of parity to the office of Home Minister.

PS: Though it is too early to pass judgments, but I hope Karnataka's Home Minister, VS Acharya, would not be known as Karnataka’s Shivraj Patil and handles the current communal situation in Mangaluru in a tough, efficient and non-partisan manner.

The above are strictly my personal views and not intended against anyone specific (except for Shivraj PatilJ).

~ Sachin