Mumbai Attacked! Goverment Inaction . Review on ______

THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT REACTS STRONGLY ONLYWHEN PARLIAMENT (READ POLITICIANS) IS ATTACKED (RESULTING IN 27 CASUALTIES) AND REMAINS INACTIVE WHEN MUMBAI IS ATTACKED IN JULY 2006, RESULTING IN 950 CASUALTIES.

When terrorists attacked the Parliament House, New Delhi, such was the forceful and immediate action by the Indian authorities, that it created a war-like situation with Pakistan. No country wants war.  The G8 countries too got into the act,fearing the outbreak of war, and imposed punitive sanctions against Pakistan. Such was the reaction of India (and consequently the world at large) that perhaps no terrorists will ever attempt to attack or bomb any place where politicians frequent. Pakistan got the message – Don’t mess with us, we can bite - when the right buttons are pushed.

But when the victims are ordinary citizens, they are all too dispensable. Despite over 950 innocent casualties in the train blasts, what measures do our authorities take? They pass the buck – each agency or political party blames the other. Intelligence agencies and their political masters have pointed their fingers at Pakistan- & Bangladesh-bred & trained terrorists. If the Government of India has proof of terrorist-training camps, funding from Pakistan & Bangladesh (with or without explicit participation of the Governments there) why and what then, are we waiting for?

Is it not the prerogative of every country to defend its people? We have learnt this  from none other than the United States of America. Or are there different rules for different countries? Is the value of  Indian lives so insignificant, that world opinion is more important to our leaders? Is it alright with those who advocate human rights issues, that the terrorists within our country must be given a free and fair trial (being helped by disappearing evidence at the behest of our leaders with vested interests) while hundreds of our innocent people are murdered.

The blood of all those who died and were maimed in this carnage, is on the hands of our politicians. Why after the blasts of 1993, could a terrorist act of such magnitude, take place? Everyone knows that a crime of such dimensions cannot take place in any country, without local help. The local help is possible because of vote bank politics, and the protection given to such elements (who are used by these very politicans, to achieve their own ends)

The fact of the matter is, that there is no political will to combat terrorism – India is a soft target and everyone in the world knows it.The enemies within and outside our country are not afraid to commit such heinous acts repeatedly - because they know that they will go unpunished.

The people of India do not want to hear again of the resilience of the people of Mumbai, who dusted off the ashes and got on admirably with their lives.  By no means should we belittle the magnanimity, compassion and courage of the Indian people, it is incomparable. But is it fair to those who died, that we should forget and get on with our lives?

What is horrifying is that the perpetrators of such heinous acts, are going to get away with it, and what's even worse, is that they know it.

Is it fair then, to pat ourselves on the back, because we are able to rise up like the proverbial phoenix? Ask that of those, whose hearts were torn asunder with the grief of losing a loved one? Do they want to hear words of praise from politicians or the media?  For them, every breath they take is a laboured one, for it reminds them that they have to live the rest of their lives without their loved ones, who died that day.

Ask the wife who waits for her husband, ask the children who wait for their father, and ask the families whose very existence depended on the one, who brought the pay packet home - all of whom will never come home. The politicians, who had the power to prevent this, could not be bothered about them and quite simply, still do not care enough, to make amends.  India's worst enemies are its own politicians.

The survivors of that day, the grief-stricken families and the rest of us in India, do not want meaningless words of praise and deplorable excuses -we want a promise that a tragedy of such magnitude will never take place again, that the guilty will not go unpunished, that the enemies of India, have more to fear than empty threats from our impotent and two-faced politicians.