Thursday 8 September 2011

Another act of terror...







The visuals on the television screen since yesterday are chilling. Human flesh lies splattered on the grounds of the high court in Delhi, and dismembered body parts are scattered in the violent radius of hatred, unleashed on unsuspecting victims that have no connection to these agendas of terror and political conflict. I cannot shake off the face of the grieving father of Amanpreet Singh Jolly, who at 22 has died such a violent death. I wonder that by killing him and others like him, who and what gets achieved or avenged. The backlash of these dastardly acts only further entrenches hatred and feelings of revenge amongst common people, that hold the scary potential of perpetuating cycles of vendetta and retribution.

I am fast beginning to lose patience with the administration agencies who are relegated the responsibility of over-seeing security in India. The laxness with which they deal with this important issue, allows for these easily avoidable situations to occur. This complaint keeps falling on deaf years, and as is the tradition with us Indians, our over sensitivity to criticism presents defensive excuses to avoid accepting what we need to address; and that too urgently!

Though I remain grateful to the media coverage of such events, I equally agree with the lawyers and advocates who with folded hands yesterday, requested at the site of devastation, that inappropriate photographs should not be taken by zealous photographers wanting breaking news coverage at the expensive of human compassion. The pain and horror of such a reality cannot also be superficially dealt with by VIP visits to appease sentiments, and it does not surprise me in the least that Rahul Gandhi was heckled by the victims relatives on his good will
mission.

The time to act is NOW. A quick and efficient investigation must occur by law enforcing agencies that does not in any way victimise innocent people nor harass minority communities, just to arrive at some quick-fix solution that pretends at booking the culprits. Terror attacks are here to stay, and we have to find the political will to address a vigilance and security system that has radical reforms to cope with this new evil that appears to be here to stay.

No city in India is safe today. Let us acknowledge this as a truth and proceed
from here. Only then is there the chance for us to deal with this situation. There is no place for denials or political posturing, nor for partisan political games to be played. Speeches in parliament alone cannot find the solutions that are needed to tackle this growing security issue. Let us get high level panels with the required budget sanctions to revamp our policing forces, and introduce special forces trained in terror combat, to bring strategies of vigilance to the game board. No more lamenting please, let's have some action.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

  1. Thank You Rekhajee for this post; On my side, I'd like to share with you the media coverage over here of these terrible tragedies which are hitting our country too frequently nowadays...Although globally Indian people and culture are well appreciated, these awful bomb blasts are slowly but surely being seen as almost common events,just like in Pakistan and its neighboring countries...
    Since a couple of days the media is making us live & relive the 11th September events...Again and again we see the planes crash as though all is happening in live...
    Of course, there is no comparison between the two...What happened in U.S. has left an indelible scar on the face of humanity...What is happening in India interests the media just mildly and very sadly, many of my Indian friends seem to be resigned as well! So it is up to people like you to shout 'No more of this' and force the leaders into action! So thank you once again.

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  2. The problem with the attitude that we must try and stop all these activities is that we give the entire policing power to the authorities. Once we do that, we lose our own political freedom because someone may be snooping on our phone calls or our internet chats. Are we willing to do it? We have to decide and say yes. But can it be that yes! we want everyone to be policed and then cry out loud because I was questioned by a policeman while driving down to my home yesterday?

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