RSS FeedsTerrorist attacks on Mumbai
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01 Dec
2008 |
Update [12-01-08]:
As more and more people on the streets show the disgust and anger against the entire political class Sonia Gandhi is trying to show as if she is with the people of the country and taking her party men to task. Great pretence is on its way. Shivraj Patil, who is nothing but a political insignificance has been shown the door just five months before the elections when it actually makes no difference and he has inflicted the maximum damage to the post as well as the country. Maharashtra’s Home Minister RR Patil has resigned too and the preparations are on to oust the Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh. To show how concerned she is she may sack the entire cabinet. Basically she is only concerned about herself and her son’s political future. If she were so concerned she wouldn’t have appointed these political stooges in the first place but then this is too much to ask for in the current political scene in India.
There have also been some positive developments. A large number of people turned up to cast votes and this really sent jitters among various political parties that thrive on the right people not casting their votes. The political outlook — at least for the time being — seems to be totally altered. Wherever these politicians go people surround them, boo them and refuse to entertain them. Today in the morning I saw people mobbing Sanjay Nirupam when he went to attend apparently some public gathering. Yesterday when the Kerela Chief Minister visited the martyred NSG commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s residence the father of the commando got really angry and didn’t allow the Chief Minister to enter his residence. Various political parties didn’t allow the mourning family even to grieve privately. People are really disgusted and fed up with the current lot of politicians. I think this is good change. Even the local, highly opportunistic politicians like Amar Singh, Mulayam Yadav and Laloo Yadav have so far refrained from making public statements because in the past there have always been speaking in favor of Muslim terrorists and militants to garner Muslim votes. They know if they appear publicly and say something stupid and irresponsible people are going to burn them alive.
Another positive development is that the Muslims of Mumbai at the grassroots level have openly spoken against the recent terror attacks in which people from all the communities had to pay a heavy price, including Muslims. Muslims in Mumbai are demanding that the dead terrorists shouldn’t even get burying ground in the city. This is what an average Indian wants to see — only the Muslim community can constructively subvert such elements among them. Although it is a law and order problem it is also an ideological problem. There are many misguided Muslim youths and they become easy targets of fear mongers. The Muslim intelligentsia and the elders should take up the responsibility of spreading awareness and a feeling of mutual wellness among the youth. A message should be sent that the world in general is not against the Muslims and Islam and every community wants to live in peace. No jihads need to be fought and there is no danger to their culture and identity.
Update [11-30-08]:
India’s Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned today in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The government is finally accepting that there was a big intelligence failure. Bullshit. Although previously I too had stated that it was an intelligence failure but on second thought I would like to say that the intelligence agencies must have had the information all along and it was the government that didn’t feel like taking the necessary steps. Taking steps would have meant arresting some local Muslims and this would have angered the Muslim community.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister was foolish enough to say that the government had an inkling about the operations but didn’t have precise information where they were going to strike. How can you ever have the precise information? Even the terrorists involved in the operation never have precise information, they are informed at the last minute. Only those who plan the operations remotely know the exact location.
Shivraj Patil, is being used as a scapegoat because anyway he is of no use in whichever office he is, but this guy should have resigned months ago and in fact he shouldn’t have become the Home Minister in the first place. But then, our Prime Minister shouldn’t have become the Prime Minister in the first place and this government shouldn’t have been here in the first place. Anyway, lots of mess, but this new development is like that Hindi saying: aasman se gire khajoor me atke that means you fall from the skies and you get stuck upon the pine, whatever that means. The portfolio of the Home Ministry is going to be with P. Chidambram who can be indisputably credited with the current economic mess in the country. I wonder what he’s going to do as the Home Minister. But then, I think anybody can be better than Shivraj Patil, even our building’s dhobi (this is just a hypothetical comparison, by no means I intend to insult the dhobi by comparing him with the outgoing Home Minister).
Update [11-29-08]:
The siege is finally over and the Islamic terrorists have been smoked out of all the establishments in Mumbai. In the morning I was watching TV and every channel was telecasting the last rites being performed for the dead commandos and policemen. The politicians were conspicuously missing and I think it was a good thing — people would have stoned them. What needless deaths. These kinds of attacks happen because our policymakers can never arrive at a consensus on how to tackle various terrorist outfits. The commandos, soldiers and policemen had to pay for the follies of our politicians, and of course for our inaction and a sense of disinterest in the daily affairs of the country.
I was commenting a few days ago that our policemen and soldiers can easily be termed as one of the best in the world. Fine, they do seem lanky, malnourished, clueless and demotivated, given the conditions they have to work under I think whatever they achieve must be highly appreciated. Our policemen don’t even have the basic facilities like proper clothes, protective gears and guns. In fact most of the guns are as old as 1857, if you can believe that. They are not trained, they are not educated, nobody respects them and they are heavily underpaid. Despite that, they rushed to the spots where the terrorists had attacked with latest weapons and a high degree of motivation. I think people of this country should put immense pressure on the government to halt all unnecessary expenses and invest heavily on building the police force from ground up; lots of money should be spent on making our policemen healthy, well-informed and well-equipped. It’s no use holding grand events like the Commonwealth Games when our policemen look like kids running around with toy guns and ill-fitting clothes.
I also couldn’t help thinking about Raj Thakrey and even Bal Thackrey. I wonder where these dudes are these days. Nobody even paid a visit to the attack sites. Didn’t they want to save their city? In fact I thought they would protest that why commandos and marines were coming from all over the country to fight with the terrorists; only Marathi commandos and marines should have been allowed to tackle the situation. The commandos and the policemen who died fighting the Islamic terrorists did not just belong to Maharashtra, they came from all over India. I hope the people of Mumbai will begin to ignore these thugs and work together for the physical and moral reconstruction of the city. Apparently Raj Thakrey went to ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s house to pay condolences but Karkare’s wife refused to let him in. Good decision.
The country, surely has come out stronger this time. Of course the politicians will try to bake their own breads in the current heat but people basically understand that they too are a big part of the problem. Precisely this was the reason why barring Narendra Modi no particular politician tried to draw mileage out of this attack — they knew it would only infuriate the public. People are also thinking, now that the extremely rich have been targeted the government will be forced to take positive action and rise above partisan politics and vote bank mentality.
My heart also goes out to hundreds of pigeons who died and got injured during this ghastly operation.
Update [11-27-08]: I was just going through this blog post by Dr. Mani (he is a renowned Internet marketer and I have been reading his articles since early 2000) in which he says:
So that you can actually FEEL the way they do.
Can you empathize with a 20 year old terrorist? Feel the way he did when he stormed ashore, carrying lethal weapons, prepared to claim innocent lives – and ready to die in the process? Are you capable of placing your own perspectives and values on hold to try and imagine, for even a passing moment, what might drive such insane behavior?
Maybe not. Especially when, like the vast majority of normal people, the behavior flies in the face of everything you hold sacred and important.
Yet, unless you can place yourself in their shoes, trying hard to understand what motivates, drives and powers them to such desperate acts of destruction and horror, I submit that you should neither sit in judgment on their actions, nor presume to be able to resolve the ensuing conflict.
Because at its core lies something inherently human, universal, and extremely potent at blinding our eyes and binding our hands against the effort.
Our egoism.
I intended to leave a comment on this blog post but one needs to log in. Although I do agree with Dr. Mani’s sentiment I wonder why we only need to be in the shoes of the perpetrators and not in the shoes of the innocent victims who have no business with their cause. For instance, how does it become my problem when some people only like to talk the language of gun and destruction? If we try to understand their problem, it’s like the prey trying to reason it out with the predator. When you are attacked and you are in danger of dying you don’t try to study the motivation behind the attack, you try to kill the attacker or at least save yourself. Studying can be postponed to a later stage when things are a bit more conducive for such constructive activities.
Again, empathizing with perpetrators definitely leads to long-term solutions and this can be applied to any kind of crime may it be rape, mass murderer and large-scale destruction. There is something that motivates a rapist, there is something that motivates a murderer, and there is something that motivates a terrorist to kill innocent people (of course you can always say that due to inaction and callousness these people lose their right to be called innocent, but that would be a different topic of discussion). Every civilized society must study why criminals behave the way they do.
Yes, the moment you start killing people you become a criminal no matter what is the motivation. This is high time we stopped finding excuses for terrorist acts and dealt with them the way we deal other crimes. I’m not saying it against some religion — this should be applicable to all religions and communities.
The old post follows:
The very first thing that comes my mind is how such a large scale terrorist operation (also see a WikiPedia page on 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks) can be executed without the country’s intelligence agencies getting a whiff of it. An army of terrorists holding a metropolitan city under siege is not scary; the scary part is neither the police nor the politicians and administrators had a clue. The scarier part is that they can do it again and they can do it anywhere. Are we going to learn a lesson? The history says we won’t.
Of course this is not the time to point fingers; this is the time to tackle the situation. But the situation cannot be tackled with the same ostrich mentality.
It must have taken the terrorists at least 2-3 months to plan and mobilize so many people with lots of local support. Were the dudes in the anti-terrorist intelligence agencies napping all the time or they purposely didn’t take action? Taking action would have meant arresting some people from a particular community and this would have harmed our country’s “secular” image. It is really unbelievable that everything happened without the knowledge of the law enforcement bodies. We live in an extremely interconnected world, it is simply not possible to contain such a massive secret.
The last time I saw the news on TV, they had set many rooms of Taj Mahal Hotel on fire (someone on twitter said that the top portion of the hotel is collapsing), killed numerous foreigners, and taken hostage a Parsi community. The attacks had started last night with random bomb explosions and AK-47 firings at various places in Mumbai. Three top brass police officers have been martyred. The apologists are going to have a field day, as usual, as the rest of the country tries to make sense of this avoidable tragedy.
Here are some helpline numbers.
A couple of first person accounts by bloggers:
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muslims are monsters and must be destroyed.
Muslims are not monsters, but yes you can call terrorists monsters. Just like there are many people who have got nothing to do with what goes on in the terrorist world there are Muslims who have got nothing to do with what these terrorists do.
[...] Terrorist attacks on Mumbai | Writing Cave [...]
I totally agree with your point. Empathy with a victim would most definitely deter an attacker from carrying on with a ghastly act, don’t you think?
My point, overall, which the excerpt you’ve quoted doesn’t quite explain well, is the bit that came a little earlier in my post:
“Agreeing to disagree. Accepting our differences. Adjusting our own beliefs.”
Those stem from empathy, and being able to see another point of view, and even if you do not agree with it, accept it as an inherent difference between all humans.
Just to clarify, not to argue with your well-thought comment.
All success
Dr.Mani
I can understand, empathise, sort of, in a way, with both the terrorists and their victims.
As a survivor of Indian state terrorism (Delhi Pogrom, 1984), I know how a victim of terrorism feels.
I also know the frustration of peaceful means seemingly just not working. Twenty-four years builds up a lot of frustration. If I were not a Sikh, I can see that that frustration might erupt into meaningless violence. If I, as a 56 year old can feel that, how much more the frustration of a boy, little more than a child, not knowing how to control himself. It is possible to understand without condoning.
“In acts of violence whether on a large or small scale, the bitter paradox: the meaningfulness of death and the meaninglessness off killing.” Dag Hammarskjold, Markings
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122780278130061753.html
JB. Thanks for posting this link…one of the best writings I have come across on the subject.
Dr. Mani. Thanks for dropping by and sharing your views on this blog. I do believe in the power of empathy but I also believe that Mahatma Gandhi could pursue the path of nonviolence because the British were not as ruthless as the Germans, the Japanese (at that time the Japanese were known to be extremely cruel) or the moguls.
Mai. To be frank I don’t believe in such victim mentality. It often happens that victims of violence begin to detest violence. Sadly, some victims turn into psychopaths — overtly or covertly.
How many Jews turned into terrorists because of the Nazi Holocaust or the persecution of hundreds of years? Our own Sikh Gurus had to go through indescribable inhumanities — how many of them promoted violence and terrorism? Whenever they fought they fought for the weak: sura so pehchaniye jo lade deen ke het.
Similarly, some of the worst atrocities were committed by the Muslims upon the Hindus and still, despite India being a Hindu majority there are more than 30 million Muslims in India. Even when Hindus are chased out of Kashmir because Muslims have a majority there there is no major backlash in the rest of India.
Feeling like a victim and wielding a litany of grievances to go mad and start killing people is very easy, the difficult part is spreading peace and loving people.
It is a sad fact that Muslims, whenever they are in a minority they want equal rights and unmitigated democratic advantages, and whenever they are in majority they don’t tolerate other religions or don’t respect even their basic human rights.
Fortunately, and I am proud of this fact that terrorism among the Sikhs was rooted out. Although this violent streak exists in a few people who live in foreign lands and have no stake here, it is gradually being replaced with an understanding of the need for peace and stability for the future generations.
Yes, atrocities happen. Have you ever read the story of the Dalit Sikh whose minor daughter was raped by the Jat Sikhs of the village and when he tried to get justice for his daughter both his arms and legs were crushed? Does his son become a terrorist to kill those Jat Sikhs? Those Jat Sikhs were never punished because the majority of politicians in the ruling party are Jats. Should that Dalit Sikh fight for a land where there are no Jat Sikhs?
about the intelligence being informed … and i am completely ignorant on these matters … but 9/11 did happen, to everyone’s shock. i mean, maybe it’s not that easy, keeping tab on such activities. and comparing to the US intelligence, well, there is no comparison …
…everyone knows that india is a ticking timebomb, as far as crime is concerned. it’s already happening in so many areas of northern india — criminals openly loot, rape, harass … and what can/do poor hapless citizens do; nothing. they know they can’t go to the police, they don’t. people mostly live highly cautious lives, simply going about day-to-day business, hoping and praying that they don’t fall prey. take a look at those policemen that are there onsite in the warzone currently in mumbai. almost all of them are not wearing bullet-proof vests. most of them look thin, not too strong, fit or healthy. or maybe i am being too judgmental and redundantly critical…
I completely agree with J above. Unfortunate but absolutely true! I can go anywhere in India and rape the dignity of a women, slap a hapless person, shout obscene vulgarities or just do whatever I feel like and why….because NO ONE is afraid of police in India. If you are just an ordinary citizen, there is no law and order safety for you, If you happen to be involved in a road accident in the middle of the day, pray that you have someone with you to take you to the hospital. As much as I love my country and as much progress India is making on almost every front, I tear my hair out at this dichotomy. There is one and ONLY ONE solution to all problems of/in India. Someone like me/you has to get into politics and clean things up from top down. I have seriously thought about it and I do intend to enter politics. I am trying to earn as much money as I can as one needs money to enter Indian political scene. AND btw, if I ever were to be in a position to run a city, state or the country, I will propose life sentence or even death penalty for rapists as rape is the worst thing that can happen to a women.
Watch this horrifying video of what happened with Sara Sidner, CNN India correspondent at Taj yesterday while reporting the attacks line on TV!!!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/11/27/
sidner.bpr.live.shot.chaos.cnn?iref=videosearch
JB, yes, i’ve always believed that a country is best run as a corporation. professionalism is required, hardcore at that. currently there is no order. it’s a daunting task, and definitely needs more than one “dedicated” person. a team is required, large team, of sound minded and “educated”, sensible people. come to think of it, it doesn’t seem possible. not saying it can’t be done, but it’s not something that seems plausible (considering the current amount of chaos and mess) in one lifetime; too much effort and too many resources are required, consistently.
…and education. so the change will start taking effect in the next (2nd) generation (next from whichever generation the change starts happening). esp the “mentality” of people as seen in the video (link above in JB’s comment) which is very, very common (and so scary brrrrr….); this is very dangerously close to a criminal’s mentality. this is how it starts. and this is mostly because of how people have been brought up. more than anything it is the way a common indian thinks that needs to be changed … how is that possible …
Amrit ji,
I do not condone this violence; I am merely expressing how I understand that frustration can lead to violence.
I hope I am not a psychopath, either overt or covert. I do have a conscious and am quite invapable of harming innocent people.
Jewish terrorists? Israel won their War of Liberation, hence their ‘terrorists’ became ‘freedom fighters.’ The winners write the history books, remember.
I know you admire KP- Gill. On that, we must simply agree to disagree.
Your last paragraph hurts. To use Dalit as an adjective to Sikh is a perverse reality, totally at odds with the teachings of our Gurus. This is an evil I have spoken against loudly. http://roadtokhalistan.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-is-dalit-sikh.html
I personally have never used any surname that would indicate caste, nor will I ever.
To rape a woman – any woman – is likewise contrary to all Sikh teachings. I must conclude thgat that Jat Sikh is not, in fact, a Sikh, although he may be from a Sikh family and claim to be Sikh. This kind of evil needs to be rooted out from the Paanth.
I look for a land where there are no Jat Sikhs or Dalit Sikhs or [any other caste adjective] Sikhs, just my sister and brother Sikhs, as our Gurus envisioned.
I concur with what JB suggested. I think you should go into politics. Although we have many serious disagreements, I know you to be honest, sincere, strong and uncorrupted, possibly incorruptible. India could use you. What about it?
Mai, the point is not about the caste system among the Sikhs, I'm talking about the atrocity that happened — first the rape and then the limbs mutilation. Do you suggest that the young son of this Dalit person (so let us not call him a "Dalit" Sikh) gathers a few friends, forms a group and starts killing people randomly?
Similarly when I talked about the Jews I was talking about the German Holocaust and not about the liberation of Israel.
The point is, every community, at one point or another is the target of some kind of despicable atrocity, does this mean every community should have it's share of terrorists?
Terrorism is nothing but a sorry excuse for committing crimes of the worst kind. Remember what happened in Beslan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostag...and remember what they did to small children? Do you call those Chechen terrorists freedom fighters? Even in Mumbai this time the first shootings started in a women's and children's hospital; do you think freedom fighters fight like this? During the days of Sikh terrorism in Punjab they used to pick and kidnap young girls at will, and these are your freedom fighters — well done! If these are your freedom fighters then may God help the land that you want for your brothers and sisters
.
Of course, law and order is a big problem and the Indian government needs to seriously build up the strength of our legal system. But the rot also exists in the general public, we are too self-obsessed, constantly worried about our own welfare and leisure. When a girl is being teased people begin to look here and there instead of interfering. I'm not saying that if there are five boys harassing a girl and you are alone you should go and challenge them (because this way you may end up being killed, consequently, causing a bigger tragedy), but at least if a few people can gather together and approach those elements they can be easily scared away because basically they are cowards and that is why they are nagging a girl in the first place.
I think there are three things that come into picture here:
1) as Indians we are not proud of ourselves and that is why we don't respect each other and our surroundings
2) we don't have love for people unless there is something in it for us
3) we are meek people who easily get scared (this can be a part of not being proud of yourself and your country)
A quick note: friends, if you are worried that your recent comments have disappeared please don't; all your comments are saved. I am trying to install intense debate to manage the comments section. All the commends will be back soon. Thanks for your patience.
[...] Terrorist attacks on Mumbai … with the same ostrich mentality. It must have taken the terrorists at least 2-3 months to plan and mobilize so many people with lots of local support. Were the dudes in the anti-terrorist intelligence agencies napping all the time or they purposely didn’t take action? Taking action would have meant … [...]
Amrit, I have never supported terrorism, although I know you believe that I do simply because I support the establishment of Khalistan. I hope that is not the issue here, though.
About the rape and mutilation: You asked
Should that Dalit Sikh fight for a land where there are no Jat Sikhs?
My comment about castism among Sikhs was in answer to that. Clearly, a group of young thug vigilantes from either/both sides would, of course, settle nothing. So what is the solution? As you point out, the Indian police aren’t able to do much, and what little they do is to support the higher ‘caste.’ Again, what is the solution?
As for the Israelis/Jews. I find it impossible to separate the events of the Nazi Holocaust and the ‘liberation’ of Israel; they are different parts of the same event. Years ago I came across a book called ‘They Fought Back,’ a collection of articles about Jews under the Nazis who went against the ’sheep to the slaughter’ stereotype and did whatever they could to destroy the Nazi machine that was attempting to destroy them. Were they terrorists? Of course not! They were simply defending themselves. Had the NBazis won the war, however, they would have been labeled as ‘terrorists.’ Again the victors write the history books.
One more objective definition of the difference between ‘freedom fighters’ and ‘terrorists,’ the one I subscribe to, is that terrorists target noncombatants, while freedom fighters do not.
I do not support the rape of anyone – female or male – at any time for any reason. Rape is a cowardly act of violence and domination against a physically weaker opponent.I do believe, however, that even an accused rapist is entitled to a fear trial, not simply to be shot at will or tortured by police.
I well remember Breslan. That was an atrocity of the first degree, no excuse.
Another good article from Newsweek…
http://www.newsweek.com/id/171366/page/2
I like Sanjana Kapoor’ insight into these attacks and the current state of affairs
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/video.aspx?id=45676
J, I’ll have to disagree with you. Entering politics and reaching to the top is definitely a daunting task but certainly not an impossible one. Here is how I think it should/could be achieved.
1. Next general election is in 2009 so take a target year of 2014 – a 5 year timeline.
2. This project would require at least Rs.50 crore in the bank to start with; 100 crore would be optimal. Money would need to be collected thru family, friends, donations from corporate houses, Bollywood as well as Indians around the world.
3. A core team of 50 people would be required that have expertise in different areas such as thorough understanding of India, its people, local issues, pain points, caste dynamics and ground realities etc, how to run a campaign, people with media connections, corporate world connections and film industry connections.
4. There are 543 seats in the House and a party needs 272 to come in power. We would need to run for election on every single of these 543 seats in the country to have a fair shot of winning 272 seats. Based on the total number of seats in each state, city, town and village, weighted average time, money and efforts will need to be spent accordingly.
5. The next daunting task would be to find 542 suitable candidates to run for the parliamentary seats. The minimum credentials would be; person within the age group of 30-40 (preferably), extremely patriotic, college level education (I would be willing to forgo education if a person is extremely patriotic and very vocal and strong headed), strong leadership skills and a vision, preferably a good public speaker and with zero corruption. I would preferably want this person to be a local so that he/she understands the issues, people, culture.
6. I briefly touched upon the money part but that would be the first major challenge as it would require a lot of money to accomplish all these tasks above and the ones I have outlined below. We would need to start an internet campaign, spread the word around not only in India but throughout the world. We would need the help of media in this operation and would need all sorts of connection in the corporate and film industry. We would need to have meetings, presentations and discussions with corporate leaders to try to convince them that we are for real and intend to seriously take a shot at power. Money is simply a matter of trust and faith in that the complete Indian corporate/film world is sick and tired of Indian politicians but at the same time clearly understands that to do business, it has to work with these corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, so funds them. If only once can a group or an organization convince them that they are planning to get in power and once in, they will completely change the landscape and make it a level playing field with complete transparency and non corruption, corporate world will pour money into that organization. I keep mentioning about the film industry and there is a reason for that. Two things that Indian masses from Kashmir to kanyakumari and Shilong to Kutch understand are cricket and Bollywood (I hate this name!) and any new organization that intends to ask for people’s votes, at least initially, has to depend upon film stars and cricketers….unfortunate but true! Once the trust has been established with public and they understand that they have a shot at a much better life they will come to listen to us rather than the film stars.
7. The first 6 tasks will/should take us 1 full year to set the stage, now the real work will start. Next 2 full years will need to be spent by traveling to each and every nook and corner of India, every state, every city, every town, every village. The objective in these two years would be to understand the locals, their life styles, their day-to-day issues, their dreams and their futures, having a face time with the masses, spreading the word about the organization, what we stand for and we are are trying to accomplish, create and cultivate a grass root level team of 1 lakh strong that will help our local candidates. Make no mistake, our mission, first and foremost, will be to win at any cost. Once we are in power, we will fix this country from top down and bottom up.
8. We would need to spend extra time visiting schools, colleges and universities as they are the ones who not only will be the first to trust us and give us a chance but also make their parents believe in us.
9. Last 2 years will be spent in having nationwide rallies, awareness campaigns, town hall meetings and a bombardment of TV/radio time. We would need to be very specific with numbers, issues, causes, problems of the last 60 years and the track records of each and every political party. We would need to talk at a level that the common man understands and appreciates. We would need to lay out a step by step plan on how we will tackle the most basic issues of roti, kapda or makaan, law and order, corruption, education, healthcare, place of children, women and senior citizens in our society, issue of Kashmir and Pakistan, Arunanchal and China, Hindu and Muslim extremists in our society, caste, reservation and so many others that have never been maturely and seriously dealt with. I personally believe that when it comes to the most basic human needs, each and every person on this planet is extremely smart. If you explain to a person or a group of people that the real reason he/she/they do not have clean water or running electricity or food for his/her children is because local politician is corrupt and doesn’t want him to have those things and remain poor, I think it will make sense to him/her. I also think that even the people who accept booze and money from politicians during elections are very smart and they vote based on who they think should win rather than being influenced by booze or money. I personally think that Indians have been so much and so deliberately divided into Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian, upper and lower caste, Northerners and Southerners, rich and poor, English educated and otherwise that they are desperately looking for leaders who will simply call them Indians. No Hindu or Muslim, Maharashtrian or UPiite, Brahmin or Scheduled Caste just plain Indian.
10. Slowly and steadily, our organization will gain momentum just in time for the election in the last year. Also, in the final year, we would need lots of references from prominent, reputed and clean imaged leaders from the corporate world, Bollywood and even from leaders around the world. We would need lots of airtime on tv and radio, newspapers and billboards all over the country. But all this effort of 5 years will be in vain if we failed on the election day. That is the day we would need to activate each and every member of the organization throughout the country in getting people out of their house to vote for us.
As I said in the beginning, this is an uphill task but certainly not impossible. The only problem with all of us rational, young and educated people is that we all are middle class people (at least I am) and we all are preoccupied and go thru the daily rut to provide food for our families. Any and all national priorities take a backseat when it comes to our children. But I am beginning to see a momentum in the educated masses primarily due to the internet and the proximity it provides to the Indians world over and I think we are not very far from achieving what I said above.
hmmm … i too have only one “concern” currently. my sweet li’l 6 yrs old angel. hopefully she will be on her own in another 12-14 tears ..
do keep in touch, i love to travel (extensively) and meet people. dats wat i do in my current job, understand requirements and problems & issues faced by a set of people. (though i am looking forward to a life of doing nothing at all, but who knows)
and stop thinking of yourself as belonging to a “class”. you just … are …
it’s such a well thought out plan. and i don’t mean to discourage you. but i do hope that you are keeping all aspects in mind, the ones that try and make you want to give up too..
good luck ..
Hello JB.
Thanks for sharing a glimpse of your blueprint. I think like-minded people can be gathered and channelized. I believe when we really want to do something, we find ways to do it. When we are hungry, some way or the other we find food to eat. So the real hunger for change and improvement needs to be there.
Let’s start brainstorming, my SkypeID is reachamrit.
Since this is a working document, why don’t you folks add what you think would be required to create a new party, recruit people and win a general election.
i think in every area (geographical) you will need people who are close to grass-roots. people with a strong understanding of socio-economic issues. apart from the initial bollywood-cricket attraction, it’ll help tremendously if you give them (the local people) exactly what they want. for the first times in their lives they will have that “facility”, that “comfort” which should have been parts of regular day-to-day life .. this will bring more and more people to walk with you and stick to you. and people as in people who matter. people other people listen to, in local graamin regions.
above that will be people with technical knowledge and skills, like agricultural, industrial, small-big industries, economies, management etc. a motivated layer of dedicated IAS/IPS, the governments’ hands and feet. at that level needs to happen a lot of (un/new)learning, and a new value system need to be evolved in the current set of officers.
and most of all, not politicians, but professionals (turned politicians) to make wise, thought-out decisions.
do you think a multi-party system is a hindrance in the country’s progress? i mean, i don’t think we are mature enough to have a system like that. currently, everyone’s in it purely for personal gains.
Should the common man pay to protect Raj Thakrey and his ilk with Z class security ?
he has Z class security??? hmmm …
An insightful interview by Mr. Arun Shourie
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/govt-knew-about-the-threat-did-nothing-arun-shourie/79457-3.html
At least some of the jokers are departing. Though the tragedy is that there are only other jokers who will replace them.
Guess who Shivraj met on his way home…
Shivraj Patil debates with Sardar Vallabhai Patel on who was the better home minister. Check http://www.rameshsrivats.net/2008/12/shivraj-patil-versus-sardar-patel.html
This was very funny. Thanks for sharing
Please start sending bangles to our politicians.
Chemistry Hub…
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