Mumbai terror attack...

The events of the last few days have left me dazed. So much has happened, so much has been said and so much has been implied. There are so many things going through my mind that I couldn't get myself to sit down and pen my thoughts on this topic till now.

India is at the crossroads again. It faces the same dilemma once again - to act or not to act, to show some spine or be spineless once again, to show some true political leadership or keep looking at vote bank politics, to unite the nation or keep dividing her for personal gains, to get serious or to keep making a mockery of ourselves. India has faced so many terror attacks, with increasing frequency, yet with each attack, the politicians make the same old beat-up promises, the cops blame the neighboring country and round up some suspects, coerce a confession out of them, and the public moves on with its daily life - watching cricket and movies, hating each other and blaming everyone else for our own problems.

I am outraged at this latest attack due to a number of reasons.

1) Apparently there was intelligence input about these attacks from multiple sources just a few weeks back and no one acted. The intelligence input was as specific as it can get - attacks being planned from the sea at the taj and some other hotels etc etc.

2) The coast guard intercepted the terrorists, checked their fishermen id cards (fake), failed to realize that the cards were fake and let these terrorists through.

3) Maharashtra in general and mumbai in particular has patrol boats for patrolling the coastline but the boats are not used - why? because the politicians do not consider it important enough and that they would rather spend the money on their luxurious foreign junket trips and so forth.

4) The terrorists land on the shore and start shooting at the VT station. The toothless and woefully inadequatedly trained and equipped railway police is helpless and cannot do anything. the result - a massacre of innocent people. The terrorists have all the time in the world to kill thes people.

5) The terrorists move to the hotels and start killing people there around 9:30 pm. Someone is "required" to authorize the NSG commandoes to come in and deal with the terrorists. The authorization itself takes several hours. The commandoes are in delhi without a plane (the organization does not have a plane). A military plan is requested from somewhere else to transport the commandoes who reach the site a good 7 hours after the shooting has started. Terrorists have a free run all this time.

6) No preparation has been done for the commandoes... no layout plans, no one to brief them... they simply attack the hotel as if Rambo has just arrived on the scene. The result - more loss of life.

7) The supposedly elite commandoes don't even have the basic equipment like night vision glasses, gps devices and so on. Why? of course no one thinks there life is of any value.... certainly not the politicians.

8) The media - newsparers, tv crews and so on ar ehappily providing minute by minute updates on what the commandoes are doing - for whose benefit??? the terrorist masterminds are cooly watching these updates and improvising their strategy. The result - more hostages are killed.

9) The NSG commandoes take their time since they haven't really trained to secure safe release of hostages. Case in point Nariman house. The helicopter makes 3 sorties above the house to airdrop the commandoes and then they move floor by floor looking for the terrorists. How long does it take for the terrorists to torture and kill the hostages? No wonder no hostages were saved in Nariman house.

10) Deputy CM of the state says "such small incidents keep occuring in big cities..." maybe he should have been used as a human shield in the combat operation. The CM is still trying to hold on to his gaddi....

The list goes on and on....It is disgusting the way politicians betray the country again and again, the brave men of the uniform needlesslessly have to sacrifice their lives and the public keeps electing these idiots time and gain. The worst part is that the public itself is divided on caste/community/relious grounds and willing to bite off each others head. What does pakistan do - it sits back and has a good laugh.

So, I am outraged. But I know better...so for my bit, here are my suggestions:

1) More NSG units stationed all over the country(major hubs). The response time from them needs to be 30 minutes to an hour at the most.

2) In case of terrorist attack, the orders need to come right away. The NSG chief should have a hotline to all state capitals and the PM office.

3) Co-ordination between intelligence agencies (RAW, CBI, IB, MI). No finger pointing allowed. Ensure redundancy i.e. failure of one agency must not mean the terrorits get through.

4) Educate the people to be tolerant of each other and other communities religious beliefs.

5) Latest equipment and training for the commandoes and the police force. Minimum fitness levels for all security personnel. Rewards for thwarting terror attacks but severe punishment for implicating the innocents.

6) Pro-active thinking and strategising to prevent terror attacks. You need to be several steps ahead of the terrorists rahter than miles behind them. Be pro-active rather than reactive.

7) Infiltrate their organizations.

8) Get pak to destroy the terror camps or take them out unilaterally or bilaterally with US help.

9) If possible capture the terrorists alive. Death is too easy way out for them. They should live to regret the day they were born. Fast track courts to execute the terrorists within 1 year of capture.

10) Take the security decisions out of the politicians hands... i.e. Top security officials answerable to the courts and not the the CMs, deputy CMs or political parties.

As I said earlier, India is at crossroads. Depending on what we decide and how we proceed from here on, a bright future may lie ahead for the country OR people will take matters into their own hands. Either way the consequencies will not be good for the terrorists.

And now a silent prayer for the souls of all the innocents that died in this and prior terrorist incidents.