Mumbai Blast - Questions of a Common Man!
It was shocking news to hear, seven blasts in 11 minutes, that too around 6:30pm. For anybody who has been to Mumbai, even for a day, it would have been easy to visualize the impact. But not for all, would have been easy to visualize the Mumbai reaction. Long live the Mumbai spirits! Time and again the people of Mumbai have come forward and shown to the world what a civil response to terror needs to be. They have shown what human spirit is all about. The publishers of that survey who rated “Amchi Mumbai”, the rudest city must have been searching for places to hide after seeing the images of last night.
Having had seen a family members loss to terrorist madness in the past, my heart goes out to the families of those who died or were injured in the tragedy yesterday. Life goes on and we have to learn to cope with things.
In all this mayhem, while authorities search for ways and means to bring the culprits to book (and I hope they do not pick up some innocents to show their efficiency), there is a feeling that some important questions got raised in the aftermath of the blasts yesterday. I am neither a security expert nor a political analyst, but the questions that I beg to be answered are common sense:
1) What were the politicians trying to prove by visiting hospitals and accident sites?
There was no information available on those injured and dead. Relatives and friends were distraught as they tried to search from hospital to hospital, in rain and traffic jams to get some news of their loved ones. In the midst of all this, you compound traffic jams, you delay the injured being shifted between hospitals and you prevent relatives desperate to get news from getting anywhere near the hospitals just because Politicians want a photo-op to show their concern. What prevented these great leaders of India and Italy to wait till the morning and let things settle down first. Were they coming with Sanjeevani Buti’s?
2) Why was the telecom infrastructure down?
Considering the peak hour timing and the shutting down of trains, it was obvious that people would get delayed to reach their homes. In such a situation, Mobiles were jammed and people had no way of informing about their safety to their families and friends. Was this a time for mobile networks to be shut down? Yes, there might have been a risk of mischievous SMS’s going around, but did anybody care about the tensions that the families of people incommunicado had to go through.
3) Preparedness and Disaster Management?
Everywhere the media went the story was the same. Locals were the first one to reach and start rescue operations and when in true filmi style the police reached after having their Pan’s and Cigarettes, neither did they do anything themselves nor did they let the locals do anything. It’s clear we have not learnt our lessons and our Cops continue to be the most citizen unfriendly in the world. Only the traffic police seemed to know their job.
4) Planning, forecasting and preparation of Government machinery given Bhiwandi and statue desecration?
Yes, as all the analysts have pointed out, its tough to defend soft targets, but given the fact that the situation had become tense in the previous five days with Bhiwandi riots and Shiv Sena protests in Mumbai, should we have not expected tighter security and vigilance and disaster management teams ready for any eventuality?
Great men have said that we should not raise the questions unless we have a possible solution. I do not have solutions to the questions I have raised, but if we do not ask these questions now, then WHEN?
Having had seen a family members loss to terrorist madness in the past, my heart goes out to the families of those who died or were injured in the tragedy yesterday. Life goes on and we have to learn to cope with things.
In all this mayhem, while authorities search for ways and means to bring the culprits to book (and I hope they do not pick up some innocents to show their efficiency), there is a feeling that some important questions got raised in the aftermath of the blasts yesterday. I am neither a security expert nor a political analyst, but the questions that I beg to be answered are common sense:
1) What were the politicians trying to prove by visiting hospitals and accident sites?
There was no information available on those injured and dead. Relatives and friends were distraught as they tried to search from hospital to hospital, in rain and traffic jams to get some news of their loved ones. In the midst of all this, you compound traffic jams, you delay the injured being shifted between hospitals and you prevent relatives desperate to get news from getting anywhere near the hospitals just because Politicians want a photo-op to show their concern. What prevented these great leaders of India and Italy to wait till the morning and let things settle down first. Were they coming with Sanjeevani Buti’s?
2) Why was the telecom infrastructure down?
Considering the peak hour timing and the shutting down of trains, it was obvious that people would get delayed to reach their homes. In such a situation, Mobiles were jammed and people had no way of informing about their safety to their families and friends. Was this a time for mobile networks to be shut down? Yes, there might have been a risk of mischievous SMS’s going around, but did anybody care about the tensions that the families of people incommunicado had to go through.
3) Preparedness and Disaster Management?
Everywhere the media went the story was the same. Locals were the first one to reach and start rescue operations and when in true filmi style the police reached after having their Pan’s and Cigarettes, neither did they do anything themselves nor did they let the locals do anything. It’s clear we have not learnt our lessons and our Cops continue to be the most citizen unfriendly in the world. Only the traffic police seemed to know their job.
4) Planning, forecasting and preparation of Government machinery given Bhiwandi and statue desecration?
Yes, as all the analysts have pointed out, its tough to defend soft targets, but given the fact that the situation had become tense in the previous five days with Bhiwandi riots and Shiv Sena protests in Mumbai, should we have not expected tighter security and vigilance and disaster management teams ready for any eventuality?
Great men have said that we should not raise the questions unless we have a possible solution. I do not have solutions to the questions I have raised, but if we do not ask these questions now, then WHEN?
Labels: Ramblings between June and Dec
posted by Nomad @ 9:09 PM
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