We are so 'high on spirit' people that we forget that we need to respond not in the same way but in a decent but powerful way - I AM AFRAID BECAUSE WE DO NOT RESPOND - we only talk of responding - of taking suitable action but the promised action is never taken.
The NSG took a good 10 hours to reach the spot of terror - Why ????? who is answerable - why did the police handling the situation carrying only single shot rifles in hand - why werent they wearing bullet proof jackets. there are many such questions and i know for sure that these f...... su........ politicians will have a unique way of dodging these questions because they DO NOT CARE. I hope they come to realise what fear is - many say this - that had some politicians died in any of the terror attacks or taken hostage - then we would have got some concrete actions. But no one from thier class ever dies in these attacks - they live so that we can die. Back to the NSG - the attacks started at 9.15 pm and the NSG started its action at about 8 next morning - i am told that they were informed at 12.00 in the night to move - they were kept waiting at the airport for 2 to 3 hours for a plane to fly them down - then at the mumbai airport they were kept waiting for another 1 hour because some fool had not called in for a bus for them. If this is the standard of planning in India - God save us.
Next question is that more terror strikes have taken place in Mumbai then anywhere else - then why is the NSG not having a permanent base in mumbai. Will any politician of the highest rank - may be the PM or the Home Minister or defence minister asnwer these questions. I will ask question even in this hour of tragedy because some thing grave has happenned and it is repeating itself time and again and our governers keep filling TV studious creating a farce of discussions.
My suggestions for combating terror because i do not want to stop at taking jibes at the political class but also give some ideas :
- Have united, robust and sustainable policy to cambat terror
- Give the ropes of this policy (implementation) to an upright and Young officer having a good head on his shoulder (mind u not a beaurocrat) to run it
- Give all the resources he wants - make that organisation the single window for combating terror - (if we can have a single window for foreign direct investment then why not one agency to combat terror)
- Let this organisation have permanent bases in all major cities in India.
- Give them full political backing and keep them immuned from the communal politics.
- Have meritocracy as its sole guiding force. There should be no interference in their work.
- Keep it out from the hands of politician and buearocrat - have an autonomous agency like the Election commission or TRAI to look after its affair - the board should have emminent experts from the relevant fields.
- The agency should have its own inteligence gathering capabilities - the latest gadgets should be available to them. May be it should have its own fully equipped research and development wing with a 5000 crores budget.
- They should be backed by a democratic but powerful law against terror.
- Special fast track terror courts should be run for terror cases alone in all major cities. Judges delaying orders must be punished immidiately. The organisation must be free to take good legal advice from the most emminent lawyers for fighting there side of the case.
- Once a death sentence is cleared by the Supreme court than the guilty must be hanged immidiately and the political class should not be allowed to play petty politicis over this.
- The Parliament must announce a zero tolerance policy against terror and no government must be allowed to negotiate with hijackers or such hostage takers even if it means endangering the lives of innocent citizens.
- They must be allowed to take action which is deemed fit by the agency in foreign land - offcource it may be covert or may be overt. Stop this nonsence that we will not cross the border - this crap will not be taken now.
- All diplomatic help must be provided to this organisation.
- They will report directly to either the PM or the Cabinet Committee on Internal Security.
- This organisation must have Public relations wing which gives credible information to the media.
- At the time of terror all the agencies of the state must come its wings - in other words they will take orders from one organisation only.
- Joint mock exercises must be conducted with identical forces of major world powers like USA, UK, France, Israel and others to upgrade the training of our men.
- Personnel working in this organisation must be given good pay structure with good Insurance policies.
- The government must announce a consistent and uniform policy for awarding the ex-gratia amounts to the deceased or injured in terror attacks. The system must be responsive enough to complete the process in a month of a tragedy.
- All major facilities of national importance must be charted out - and detailed plans of action in case of terror attacks must be formulated.
I have many such suggestions and i believe there better equipped people out there who suggest much better plans but the issue is that who will bell the cat.
I hope some one in the corridors of power - in the silence of his bedroom - has a tear in his eye - thinks hard about this menance not with eye on the coming press conference and how he will manipulate the vocabulary so that he come unhurt. A thought which guides him to do something drastic about the decease called terrorist. I hope such doctor comes forward and takes the call of his duty.
No one from my family has even come close to such a tragedy and i hope no ones family ever comes close to such events but just hopes wont do any good - this 'spirit of mumbai' cliche will not help us anymore nor has it helped in the past. So get up guys and do something about this or else just keep watching Television and political debates because thats what we are good at - Mera bharat mahan - 100 me se 80 be.............. -
Nitesh Jain
Chartered Accountant
