A year has passed since the terrorists struck Mumbai and innocent civilians gave up their life for government apathy. On the one hand it’s glad to know that most of the Mumbaikars have gotten over the sad things that happened during India's 26/11; but on the other all the more frightening. Was this our first taste of a terrorist act? - No; was this our last? - may not be. The question that had been troubling me is the continued occurrence of these gruesome acts in India - Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai ... when will we learn or why don’t we learn. It was enough for just one 9/11 to wake Americans out of their slumber - be it internally planned or externally. Not one single attack of a comparative magnitude has struck that country again afterwards.
During my last years visit to the US, I found out how the Americans have succeeded in thwarting the terrorist mess for 8 long years- the security and the heightened level of alertness. When I told about the strict and thorough security checks I had to go through, to my friends over in the US, they were quite unsurprised. In fact they told it was always in a state of high alert for every single day after 9/11. On the contrary in India we see a beef up of security just during the national holidays or whenever the RAW/IB/FBI or CIA comes up with a threat advance. Before every Independence Day or Republic Day commemoration we read and hear about heightened security all over India; as if terrorists have ever struck during one of these days!!! If that was not the case and we are arguing that it was only because of this extra security that we don’t have to see these attacks, then let me ask why don’t we have this all year round? Is it the enormous cost of security? Oh crap, it’s always the material cost, not the cost of a human life!!! We have one of the largest reserve army and police force. Rather than utilizing them around the independence/republic days why don’t we use them every day. That makes sense as these reserve units are always in a state of readiness and can effectively tackle terrorist threats any time of the year.
Oh, then India will become a police state just like USA; the activists will shout. But aren’t we a police state- where the police can do anything as they are still doing in the many corners of India where the press and the visual media can't cover or will never bother to cover? "Only if a police state could have prevented their absence with us today"; the near and dear ones of the grateful dead will never bother.
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