CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE, APATHY AND TERROR

Innumerable number of times have I had discussions with friends on the manner in which our politicians approach the problem of terror. We have always come to the conclusion that we are the ones to blame as we are the people who put them in a position wherein they rule over us. The problem is that our political class as a whole is corrupt and selfish to the core – whether it is the Congress, the BJP or the hotchpotch who rule us at any given time. Everybody is only bothered about what gain they can make for their own and their future generations without thinking about the “aam junta” whom they are supposed to rule. You only have to look at the number of our MP’s who have criminal cases filed against them and you will see my point. They come to power to milk the system and stash ill gotten gains in Swiss banks. If money budgeted for security upgrades had been well spent, then November 26 would never have come to pass.

Call it intelligence failure or criminal negligence in deciphering and acting on actionable intelligence – the failure was too expensive to stomach. We have the Minister of Home for State – Mr. R.R. Patil having the gall to state that “they had come to kill 5000 people but only 200 died – such small incidents happen in big cities”. If he had any sense of responsibility he would not have made such a crass statement – but what can you expect from an insensitive jackass who can only go after soft targets like bar girls and couples seeking a private moment in gardens and beaches. You see social policing is more important than actual policing as social policing garners money for the politicians in the form of bribes from the bar owners. The real police work involves “WORK” you see, which they are not accustomed to. All you have to do is remove the ‘Z’ category security for all these political nincompoops and re-assign the NSG commandos for real work. Let these morons go around without security and the feeling of importance which they like for themselves at the expense of the tax payer – you have cavalcades of cars with sirens blowing, blocking peak hour traffic, inconveniencing the public any number of times in a month. This should stop forthwith – let these guys go like ordinary people. We have people like Raj Thackeray asking for “Z” category security – why?? Such guys do not deserve any security – they have their goons to take care of them – these people are cowards who hide behind mobs – they do not have the guts to stand alone and state their case. The money saved on removal of VIP (Very Impotent Person) security could be well spent on upgrading the national homeland security apparatus.

The starting point for upgrading the national homeland security apparatus would be raising the salary and perquisites of the police force to such an extent that they can hold their heads high without the need for accepting bribes – as in my view – a low salary will only lead to corruption given the cost of living in the modern world. The police force should be under the direct control of an independent police tribunal which will be responsible for strategy, promotions, directions, etc- The POLITICAL CRASS ..oops, CLASS should have no say in the operational part of the force. The police force should forthwith scrap the World War II vintage 303 rifles and be armed with modern weaponry and protection gear. Why do our police not have Kevlar jackets? – too expensive we are told – but our Chief Minister has enough public funds to buy a private aircraft for his personal transport. That money could be better spent on modern equipment. We have lost precious lives of officers with unimpeachable integrity to the apathy of our politicians. How I wish the politicians were in the line of fire – I can well imagine a RR Patil or a Vilasrao Deshmukh facing the bullets. But no – you have a Vilasrao making a further mockery of his position by taking a filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and his actor son to the Taj in a public display of asinine, vulgar publicity.

The exemption from prosecution given to public servants should be denied to the political class – we should make impeachment by peers an integral part of our politico-legal system. This would bring some sense of responsibility to our rulers. Corruption the bane of our existence would be hard put to survive if we could put in place an impeachment committee having persons of impeccable integrity to preside over it. The kind of negligence and apathy displayed by the people in power should be treated as a war crime and tried as such – as the situation was no less than undeclared war – an invasion by a small foreign force coming in by sea with our security forces having no clue. I shudder to think if this was war time and you had the enemy just sailing into land on your shores and open fire. Where was the maritime security force? - the Navy, Coast Guard and the maritime police force set up after the RDX landings in the 1993 bomb blasts??

We should now begin to question the political class when they come for votes as to what they plan to do regarding such attacks. We have been historically a weak and faction driven country prone to invasion – but I never thought we would be invaded like this in today’s world. Just imagine - we have Bombay High, BARC and a whole lot of economic and strategic assets close to the sea – and after this incident I doubt whether these also have the requisite protection. We have not yet hanged Afzal Guru, prosecuted and convicted by the Supreme Court – this just gives the signal that we are too soft. Just hang the damned person and be done with it. Learn something from the US and Israel – but that would be asking for too much – it would require our politicians to become HONEST and WORK which is anathema to their basic nature!! But one can definitely goad them and shame them into action, which should be our duty as citizens.

I would like to conclude by paying homage to those innocent people who unnecessarily lost their lives to this mindless act of terror. I would like to salute the brave police officers who proceeded to confront the terrorists with antiquated equipment knowing full well that they had no choice, but they had to do their duty with whatever equipment they had and of course my salute to the two commandos who lost their lives in the action at the Taj. I sincerely thank the armed forces for their professionalism in rescuing the guests and killing the terrorists. My heart goes out to the employees of the Taj and the Trident and I am confident that they will be back in business sooner rather than later. The Taj – a landmark of Mumbai, a heritage structure, will be up and running soon and my prayers and good wishes are with the House of Tatas to make this happen. God Bless all those who lost their lives and my sympathies and condolences to those who have to bear the loss of their near and dear ones. God Bless once again.

Girish Borkar
December 1, 2008