I am not an astrologer. But this one time I can bet on my predictions. This one time I know it will come true.
It is the beginning of November. Very soon we will have the first anniversary of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Let me provide everyone an insight to what will happen on the run up to November 26, this year. There are different perspectives we can look at. I think we would be better off examining the key parties, rather than target what individuals would be doing.
Government – our self proclaimed leaders would address some gathering, in some part of the country. They will reiterate that after 26/11, they have beefed up security on all quarters. They will blame our neighbours and say that we will not tolerate any such attacks on our motherland. They will make sure to include the names of the deceased like Hemant Karkare in their blown up speeches. And of course, there will be a one minute silence at the beginning of the session, in both houses of parliament. They will announce gallantry awards for the ones who fought last year.
TV Channels – These days our TV channels go berserk for anything and everything. Every channel will show footage of what happened last year. All channels will rewind to a minute by minute happening of the massacre. They will show the map of Mumbai and point with red dots, the places where the events unfolded, along with the timing of the event. The commentaries will of course be done by people who can really make a mountain out of a mole hill, just by using their high pitch voices. They might also take a gun and walk into Dadar station or even hire a boat and sail through fisherman’s colony and then say our security is useless.
NGO’s and few socially conscious organizations – they will not have anytime during the day, as they have their work to do, which earns them their bread and butter. In the evening, they will hold a candle light vigil at the incident spots. They might all gather together and walk up to Mantralaya or the commissioner’s office or some other spot. They might then present a memo to some government babu, signed by 25000-30000 people asking the government to take steps to ensure this does not happen again. Then go home, watch the TV channels and sleep off.
Defence chiefs / Defence minister / Home minister – They need special mention, although they do form a part of the government. All of them together will condemn last year’s attacks. They will tell about what they have been doing to ensure such incidents do not happen again. But one of them will also say that as the ‘anniversary’ of 26/11 is approaching, they have intelligence inputs that such strikes might happen again and all forces should be alert. There will be extra security at airports, parliaments and other places frequented by government babu’s.
Police / Commandoes / Soldiers – these are the guys who fought bravely against extremist forces, last year. Just another day at office for them.
Common man – will be afraid to step out thinking about what happened last year. The warning signals from the defence chief’s only add to the fear. He will go to work, come home, keep changing TV channels to see the coverage of how events unfolded last year, eat, pray that he escaped and sleep off.
Kasab – He will be congratulating himself on being successful on living off the tax payer’s money for a full year. He will be thinking of new ideas and thoughts. May be he should change caterers. Everyone needs a change. Or may be ask for his case to shifted to the international war crimes tribunal. But most important, continue to live and enjoy all comforts from the tax payers money.
One can understand all of the above people reacting in different circumstances, except one. I do not need to point out which one. Such is our judicial system, where someone from our neighbouring country rides a boat and comes to our land. He opens fire, kills a few people but gets caught in the process, red-handed, but our government is still examining witnesses and filing schedules after schedules and documents after documents.
Probably by 2030, this incident will be part of the CBSE history syllabus. Once upon a time a man named Kasab, rode a boat and entered Mumbai. He opened fire at a railway station and killed many people. Alas!!!everyone ran helter skelter. Our police caught him and arrested him. He was lodged in Arthur road jail. And then he lived happily ever after.
Now can anyone bet this will not happen??????
