Once the society starts developing a deep rooted belief that one has nothing to lose, that point is the beginning of the collapse of it's Social Structure. In fact, the thought process leads to such a belief that by resorting to inhumane acts "He" gets a platform to be heard globally. Why do you think that someone is willing to end his / her life for insane reasons of their own? Once again, many factors influence such an act and the determination to end one's own life along with taking innocent lives. In a nutshell, the Many factors are a result of the Breakdown of the Social Structure of a society. I would say that the reason of breakdown of the social structure at the molecular level is the Accepted Thought Process of the society and the reluctance to accept the diversity around us.
In a dysfunctional social structure, the development of a young brain is programmed by the society to believe that there is no hope in this world. Whatever you acquire is by fighting for it. they only understand the law of "Survival of the Fittest". A young brain is taught to hate certain cultures and civilizations, and is given a religious duty to protect their culture from external influences and attack if threatened. That is the foundation of Terrorism right there. Add fuel to the fire... just mention poverty, illiteracy, inflation, population explosion, people dying on the streets due to lack of basic amenities, etc. etc. etc. India has all these elements present in it's social structure as it's inseparable part. Although India is headed in the right direction, but it would not take much to reverse the positive direction.
One big problem for India is that it can not provide the basic amenities to it's citizens, and yet we have a Nuclear Program. You can argue all you want that it is for the betterment of our society. That is just a bunch of Bull. Providing Cheaper and Cleaner Fuel should definitely Not be a country's first priority when it's citizens are dying of starvation on the streets. Feed your people first, give them the basic amenities to survive, give your citizens a sign of hope and of a prosperous future. Provide them with opportunities to invest their energy towards the advancement of the nation, instead of giving the citizens a reason to fight the system. We need to ask ourselves a very serious question.... Are we moving steadily towards our Deconstruction to a Dis functional Society?
Anyway, looking at today's events; I fail to understand why someone would want to carry out such a senseless act against innocent civilians of a thriving and and economically progressing society? Is it to kill Tourism and Foreign Investment in India because the world economy is struggling and India would emerge as a cheap and exotic tourist destination and as an economical labor outsource (which we have already seen in the past several years)?. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Believe me, it only gets stranger.... Could it be a sick political move (with elections around the corner) that went drastically wrong and out of control? Was it indeed a message to the Western World by singling out British and American nationals? Or was it just an isolated sentiment or a message from a segment of the society desperate to be heard on a global stage? Was it Fanatic Extremism, or was it a well co-ordinated attack involving Foreign Governments? Whatever the reason may be, it does not justify the loss of innocent lives, the emotional & the physical scars left on the citizens and the ego of Mumbaikars and India as a Nation. This is also a Wake-up Call for every Soverigh Nation. Terrorism does not know or respect geographical boundaries. Soon enough it will come knocking on your door. Terrorism is rapidly becoming a Global Epidemic. We can no longer ignore such insane acts of terrorism as a country's Internal Security Issue.
India has been screaming out in the international arena about the "So Called" Domestic Terrorism for half a century now. I am amazed that it takes hundreds and thousands of lives of innocent Indian civilians at the hands of terrorist attacks over the period of Six Decades. India is still not able to bring out the issue of terrorism breeding on Indian Soils (which today we are calling "Global Terrorism").
Just a symbolic attack on the American ego last night in Mumbai, brought Indian Domestic Terrorism onto the International Stage and has just been crowned "Global Terrorism". Well, just check out the stats...... 6 out of 125 killed in Mumbai terror attacks are Americans / Foreign Nationals. Does that make it Global Terrorism?
What is different this time? It is probably a local terrorist group or maybe an international conspiracy, or maybe even a much larger terrorist outfit. India is not a stranger to any of those. The attacks were carried out almost in the same fashion as the attacks on the Parliament. The attacks were carried out in the same city where terrorists conducted a series of bomb blasts not too long ago, inflicting far more damage to property and loss of life back then. Is the only difference between countless terrorist attacks in India over the period of several decades and this one, that this one involved a handful of Americans / Foreign Nationals? Not that I value the life of an American Citizen or a Foreign National any lower than an Indian citizen's life, or vice versa. I value human life, (like we all should) irrespective of race, color, sex, religion, nationality, or any other differentiating factor.
Don't get me wrong. I am glad that the rapidly growing epidemic of terrorism in India is getting the International attention that it deserves. India has always maintained that terrorism is not just India's domestic issue. It has been the breeding grounds for a new breed of Global Terrorism. Well, it has finally surfaces and has shown it's ugly face to the world with the Mumbai attacks. This is not India's problem alone.
Mind you, the borders of the rogue state are expanding (I will discuss this phenomenon in my next blog entry). Having said that, I will explain briefly what I mean by "Expanding borders of the Rogue State". We have seen a shift in the borders of Afghanistan into Pakistan. Pakistan is almost a Failed State, on the footpaths of Afghanistan to becoming a Rogue State at a steady pace. Wee are seeing the trickling effects of the Rogue State trying to engulf India along with Pakistan on the path of self destruction.
My point is that this is larger than it looks. What has so far been labelled as India's domestic security issues, is in truth the infant phase of the new face of Global Terrorism. Enough said. it is time to take action. It is not too late yet. The world leaders and the international community must join India's ongoing efforts to crush and eliminate the breed of Global Terrorism. We must come together now, if we really want to make an honest effort to save the Human Race from its Self Destruction.
Lastly, we need to take a good look at our Homeland Security situation and the preparedness of our major cities and our security agencies to deal with an attack of the magnitude that we are observing in Mumbai.
Are the citizens prepared? Do we know how to react in such situations? Do we, as citizens have the clear direction on what our actions should be? Well, a few things complicate the situation, but I guess this happens only in India and it might strange to you; but it really is true. Have you ever observed that as soon as there is news of an incident anywhere in India, there seems to be an ocean of crowd from all directions forming a mob? They are such a curious bunch that they will even walk into the line of fire just to stay in the loop.
I was surprised to see that the terrorist infiltrated locations were not cordoned off by the security agencies immediately. there was no support system present; no ambulances, no bullet proof vans to transfer rescued hostages and rescued hotel guests. The city does not even have an emergency alert or announcement system to advise it's citizens on how to proceed in an unforeseen event like we witnessed in Mumbai.
There seemed to be a total collapse of communication and delegation. Access to the crime scene appeared to be easily accessible to the common man on the streets. The situation, as seen on international media, did not appear to be under control during the first response. We did not see any orderly formations of the police at any point. The police constables, in fact, looked to be calm and walking around aimlessly, not sure what their role should be?
There was no sense of urgency and nobody really took control of the situation. I guess because everyone was waiting for instructions and orders. Sadly, there were no instructions or orders to come from anywhere. In a chaotic situation, when adrenalin rush disburses a police unit into the crowd, how do you get everyone on the same page? how do you delegate? how do you communicate? Police constables don't even carry working radios with them, let alone advanced and secured communication lines.
There was an obvious absence of leadership, lack of a strategy and of a chain of command at the first response. I doubt that we had an evacuation plan for the hostages. Did we take each and every hostage rescued, to the hospital to be examined? Not just for physical injuries, but for Trauma Counseling, Psychiatric Analysis, etc.? I was watching an interview of a rescued guest on television. According to him, after they were rescued, they were left on their own upon reaching a safe location. He then proceeded to buy something for himself to eat... The Indian Army and the NSG seemed to be the only organizations that eventually took over and are finally in control of the situation.
Well, I hope that we don't start the blame game once again. It is time for us to come together at the grass-root level of our social structure to understand the Disconnect between the segments of the society that are resorting to such acts. Police, Military, Commandos, or any agency in the world can not stop terrorism at the grass-root level. It is us citizens, who have to make the change in our society, our generally accepted thought process, our bias, our fanaticism, and we need to be more accommodating to the sentiments and cultures of our Harmonious and Diverse societies....................................
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