Saturday, 13 December 2008
Confessions after the 26 November Mumbai Terror Attack
My homage to the innocents who were brutally murdered in Mumbai, primarily due to an indecisive and vote bank driven political administration running our country. Let us observe a moment of silence in the memory of those innocents and the men from the various forces who laid down their lives in an attempt to salvage the life of the common citizens.
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Coming back ... I hate to devote too many words on the political tango being played by the various national/regional parties - sometimes in tandem with the opposition and at other times with the allies. NOT a SINGLE leader was convincing enough to make me (safe to say 'us') believe that his/her concern is the safety of the country and the country alone - no vote bank, no political propaganda, no finger pointing and that nothing else was an agenda.
I have a very interesting question - why is the average age of the top Indian political leaders ever increasing? Taking a page out from the Vedas, why should we have a Prime Minister-in-waiting whose age is apt for taking Sanyas? However much we may value experience and long deliberations, sometimes an extra pint of adrenaline works wonders.
The answer (as you guessed) is simple - the youth (including me) of this country hold such an apathy towards the dirty game and the people who play it. Most youngsters in the country are more empathetic even to prostitutes (many of whom embrace the profession due to compulsion and not willingly) than to politicians in general (there are still some stalwarts but the number is fast decreasing - my sincerest apologies to these stalwarts for this derogatory comparison).
I have a very close friend who happens to be an Air Man. Few month back, when Tata Motors was held in ransom in West Bengal, I was venting my anger on the insane opposition leader of the state. I got a thudding reply from my friend. "When the best educated lot runs only after the big bucks, evidently the country will be ruled by below-average IQ people. You should not complain, the less privileged, the less educated may do so."
Having studied in two of the premier institutes of the country, I was in a serious dilemma at that moment - should I be proud of the education or be ashamed of wasting it? I have no qualms in admitting that my friend was absolutely right - I have chosen my profession keeping in mind the monetary rewards it brings forth. I have utmost conviction that close to 100% of the best and the brightest in the country use the same criterion than anything else (few dump their parents as well, in some extreme and bizarre cases!!). We are too bothered about our own well being, when do we have the time to ponder upon the miseries that plague our country? Even if some of us do think, there is absolutely no time to act!! We happily leave that little work for others, administering the possible remedies in thoughtful blogs like this!!
Friends, let us delve deep into our mind, heart, aspirations, bank accounts, financial investments - wherever, as you wish. Let us be honest to ourselves. Think hard. Skip a weekend’s evening booze and contemplate. I doubt whether anyone will point to the politicians after this introspection. After all money is the root of all evil is an old adage which has stood its ground against the tests of time.
What is the solution then? I have none that I can give you. In my 8th standard in school, a social worker, while explaining the plight of the slum dwellers in Kolkata, used this comparison - "When you point one finger at someone, invariably three fingers (which are your very own) point back at you." I do not remember the context, but its implications are even more vivid after the recent attacks that shook the entire nation than ever before. So, if you are extremely ardent to show your solidarity to the victims of terror (brutal terror that our country is witnessing in general and NOT 26/11 Mumbai in particular), come up with your own plan. I am thinking of my own.
What more do I say? Ideally, a country should be into the hands of the ablest and the brightest, into that of the most patriotic and most agile of minds. We have denied our country such a privilege for years now. So, what else do we expect than to live at the mercy of our neighbours?
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4 comments:
Nice one! Appreciate your thoughts on the subject!
~SG
yeah.. nice writeup.. i agree with your thoughts. The solution is propose : Conscription for Indians.
I am not too sure whether only conscription and no change in the mindset of the people will do the trick. Now, if you say that a year's mandatory conscription will change people's attitude as well, its hard to buy that logic. People will go for a year or two's military training and will pursue their own interests once they are back.
Also, my boss in the Nortel project (I was working earlier) was a South Korean national. South Korea has (probably 3 years') mandatory conscription in place. But you know what? The more affluential parents bribe the government officials to exempt their wards from attending the training. So, you know, I am afraid that such a step might possibly end up being another channel illicit earning for some people!!
But yes, undoubtedly conscription will better prepare the common citizens both physically and mentally to tackle such crisis as the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
What conscription will change is this. Our citizens will be much better equipped to deal with such a situation first hand. If people can save their own lives to save others, if they can survive to possibl overpower the terrorists, we can reduce the number of casualties to 50%. I agree, in the Indian context, there is bound to be corruption creeping in just like your example of S.Korea, but we have seen that there will always be a group of people who will find 10000 ways to twist a rule to their advantage. Lets not care about them now, law will take its course. But the crores of others who undergo military training would definitely prove to be a strong resistance in the way of the bad men. We can't leave everything to the inept, apathetic politicians. We just need them to give us the toolset to stop this mayhem. Implementing conscription in this humungus nation is a BIG challenge. We could start with madatory NCC training for all as a first step.
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