THREE CHEERS TO MUMBAI :INDIA IS NOT FREE IN FREEDOM

I fell on the thorns of life. It is bleeding. If winter comes, can spring be far behind ? - Shelley

The trauma of undergoing the ordeal of terror and unparalelled blood shed in the hands of a bunch of terrorists in Mumbai was stated to be over in Mumbai around 8.30 Am(IST). The Indian Security forces, have completed their mission with text book precision, without lending scope for the loss of too many lives. In the process, two officers of the elitist National Security Guard commando force, fondly called Black Cats, did the supreme sacrifice of laying their life for the cause. The Indian nation as a whole salute these brave-hearts and those Police officers died doing their national duty.

No other city in the entire world than Mumbai has witnessed so much blood shed and catastrophe repeatedly and in quick succession in a span of the last one and half decades in the history of terrorist movements.

Why India, again and again, is becoming the testing ground of terrorist laboratories ? Thousands of theories and concepts from Security experts, terrorism analysts, scholars and psychologists studying the phenomenon of terrorism, have come and gone. Each had his/her own way of analysing the phenomenon. But defying all their theories and conceptualizations, the curse and bane of terrorism is becoming a walking shadow in the lives of Indians, more specifically, the Mumbai residents. The city has collectively become a neurotic patient caught in perpetual fear psychosis.

As I see, there are too many loose ends in not viewing this serious issue in its correct perspective by the successive custodians of governance in India. First of all, those in the corridors of power, have miserably failed in reaching a common and national consensus to deal with terrorism, which has become a national problem. This applies to the present and the past governments. Every time, a cop lays his hands on a person on grounds of suspicion even for the pettiest of crimes of picking-up someone's pocket, invariably one or two so called political leaders would never fail to extend his obstructive hand in the police adminsitration to doubly ensure that the suspect is let off scot free, even without a preliminary inquiry. In other words, the police administration has been made a stooge and pimp in the hands of political masters. To extend this argument to a logical end, the political masters in India have left no stone unturned to ensure that the conducting the art and science of politics is highly criminalised. It is the clear case of criminalization of politics and politicization of criminals. The police force administration in India does not have a face of its own and an independent identity. It wears the ugly masks of dirty politicians whoever is in power.

The way the whole execution, in finnesse, of neutralizing the terrorists by the Indian Security forces was done and the applaud and appreciation whole-heartedly conveyed to the soldiers by the Mumbai residents in thousands and thousands and the country, show that for the first time in the country, post-independence, political leaders have become a pack of pantaloons and jokers in the midst of displayers of impeccable leadership of the service personnel. Three days of serach and neutralizing operations literally saw no face of a politician moving around, against whom the whole nation has an enviable record of contempt for not protecting the lives of the country's citizens. In India, life of common citizens is becoming a sort of disposable commodity. It never dawned upon the powers that be that the people of a country are its assets. But the demands of the Indian politicians are different. At the dawn of freedom, when the symbolical flag of independence was hoisted on the midnight, the colonial masters were shown the door and a new bunch of interanl political suckers having made entry, started sucking into the very vital veins of the country. Barring a few exceptions, they not only leached and ate into the fabric of patriotritism and well being of the people but also plundered the nation literally for six decades. The one breed of citizens that does not command even an iota of respect in India is its politicians and none other than politicians.

And what of civil soeicty ? The so-called self-proclaimed intellectuals declaring themselves as the representatives of civil society behave in such a fashion in times of national crisis that no one is able to understand their real psychology. Whenever and wherever the long arm of the Police force reaches a person genuninely in the execution of its duty, these stray bunches of the so-called intellectuals fail to poke their nose in the name of asserting their names one with human rights. When terrorists take the saddistic pleasure of bombing to cause death, destruction, mayhem even to tender children in so many parts of the country in the last two and half decades or so, these so-called itellectuals skulked behind their impotence. The self-styled intellectual breed of the country is the hypocrisy face of the nation. They would neither allow the honest officers to execute their national duty nor or they potent enough to come forward to take the leadership. They are afflicted with the disease of engaging themselves in aphoristic and antithetical phrases and endless discourse of verbal diahorreah, whose meaning invariably is one of utter confusion and confusion confounded. Common man in India is not able to understand the language of these intellectuals. In other words, they do not touch the pulse of the country in times of crises. They are in the habit of converging in star-status hotels every time a national crisis occurs and come out with some statements in some national news papes, which invariably be boasting that they are the embodiment, soul and crusaders of human rights and thus putting spokes in every act of the officers engaging in national duty.

And what of the Indian citizen ? He is so gullible and vulnerable to the frequent and unabted terrorist acts that his rulers could be seen only in obsequies of the gullible citizen after the latter's succumbing to injuries in such terrorist acts. The ruler (read, politician) would in such occasions, would not miss one single opportunity in wagging his tongue in eloquent and hyperbolic language praising the gullible citizen. It is the big gulf in the relationship between the Ruler and the ruled that makes the Indian citizen vulnerable to all the terrorist acts in the country. The executive class thinks it is a special breed, born straight away from the heaven and is totally berefet of human touch. As a class, this constitutional governing body has carved a nice niche for itself in becoming embodiment of corruption and greediness overthe last six decades of post-independence ruling.

The leadership qualities and tolerence displayed by the Service personnel, the Police and gullible Mumbai residents in this entire episode should wake the rulers and itellectuals of the country from their deep Rip Van Winkle slumber and should prove an eye-opener that the gullible citizens would not continue to be a silent spectator any further. He will call spade a spade and will bounce back, the consequences of which would render politicians earn a name in the annals of Indian history as the despised breed of crooks, engaged in looting and plundering the country, which will no way be different from the pre-independence colonial rulers.