May the force be with you

I am disgusted!!

No matter how much things change, they remain the same. First of all we had an eyewash in the form of the replacement of Vilasrao Deshmukh by Ashok Chavan who so obviously is a puppet of the previous CM that I can almost see the hand up his orifice manipulating his mouth.

This was of course backed with a chorus of our new Dept CM, who is perhaps one of the wiliest foxes of the Indian political scene second only to his mentor Mr. Pawar.

He kept quiet, biding his time in absolute anonymity till the scandals surrounding him died a natural death. I had an inkling that something like this was coming when a few months ago I saw hoardings of his face wishing him a happy birthday.

[Found this lovely image of him on the net and couldn't resist reproducing it]

Post 26/11 I heard choruses of never again will we tolerate these kind of politicians, never again will be stand by and see this bumbling. What happened ?

We are tolerating and we are standing by.

I am amazed at our gullibility and how easily we get taken in by sham movements. All the politicians have to do is an eyewash and show some outward signs that hes doing something and we start believing hes the next hope for India.

There is no thought given to how it will happen. Lets take the courts system. Some time ago, there was the introduction of FAST TRACK courts with a great amount of fanfare. Justice was supposed to get speedy. Some kinds of cases like cheque bouncing etc had 6 months time limits.

What happened ? What went wrong ?

The same thing which will happen when the new bulletproof vests are purchased, or when added security is given to 5 star hotels. THERE WILL BE NO APPLICATION OF MIND BY THE ILLETRATES WHO ARE IN CHARGE.

The fast track court's Achilles heel lies in the fact that it is based upon the same system on which the old system is based.  The judge still hears 40 odd items in a day which means that he has to study 40 cases or so every morning to refresh his memory, then when he gets to court, he forwards the case for a month or so, and the next day he again needs to refresh himself on ANOTHER 40 cases. This is a colossal waste of the tax payers time and money. The only way the fast track courts had a chance of succeeding was if they ripped out the system and rebuilt it again with new rules.

Imagine doing this in everyday life and you will see the absurdity of it. A building collapses due to a faulty foundation design, what do you do, you dont bother to learn from the mistake and redesign the foundations of the next building.

You just use the plans of the the older building but this time you use bamboo supports from inside to ensure the building doesn't fall. Do you really think this new building will fare any better ?

But this is happening everyday around us. Our politicians in their wiseness have now decided to have a new force called "Force One". This will be an crack anti terrorist squad meant to handle emergencies. SAY WHAT ???? What are the black cat commandos / the NSG then ? Chopped liver ? The black cats when formed were supposed to be the ultimate fighting force, the creme de la creme of our forces. Their very name was supposed to strike terror into the hearts of villians.

I remember, just after Indira Gandhi's death, I met a cat commando soldier through a friend. For the next few months, whenever I met him, he was all mysterious and full of about how important they were to the scheme of things to come. I have lost touch with him but I'm sure that the commando is no longer thinking those noble thoughts. Last I heard the black cats have been reduced to a glorified security guards for all and sundry.

We need to seriously ask ourselves, is this Force One being formed because the politician is worried about us or is it being formed since after he has expended the Black Cats / the NSG he is still shit scared that he may be held capitve for 60 hours the next time he dines at a five star hotel so is looking for ways to improve HIS SECURITY GUARDS.

We need to ask ourselves who will look after the equipment needed by this elite force, who will ensure that Kevlar and not iron plate vests are provided to them, who will ensure that the vehicles they need are available to them instead of being sent for Neta Bandobast.

(By the way I heard one of these crap artists talking on telly as to how Hemant Kharkare could not have been saved since no bullet proof vest  protects against AK47 fire. I think he was a top politician if I'm not wrong, so I'm amazed at the lack of his knowledge. NIJ Standard 0101.04 & .05 is the standard for testing and Level III & Level IV jackets provide protection against muzzle velocities upto 800+ mps as against 700 odd mps which is the muzzle velocity of an AK47. My only advise to politicians is next time before you open your mouth to sprout your nonsense, GOOGLE)

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Every little bit helps

Folks, just like everyone else, post 26/11 at every gathering I go to, I become a part of the discussions as to how and what should be done. My only issue with this whole thing is its reactionary not proactive.

Let me explain. Last week I was speaking to someone who was a part of a campaign to bring in bullet proof vests for the Mumbai police and distributing it free.

Now this is a very noble thought but my reaction is next time theres a mass muder / stoneman why don't we go out and buy forensic equipment. Or next time theres a brake fail on a Mumbai local, should we go out and buy local trains ?

The whole premise on which the logic is formed is wonky.

My logic says, kill the disease at the roots. Find out where things are going wrong and what we can do to stop it happening again. Don't buy vests because you find that the vests worn by the police were inadequate.

Find out what the police station needs on a daily basis. There are a million things which are cheaper and would perhaps help more on a day to day basis, like photocopiers, etc. Lets understand what is missing, what is causing this endemic failure of the police system. If their daily needs are taken care of, the larger needs will start taking care of themselves.

If we address just the reactionary issues, according to me this will never stop all it will do is alleviate the pain. I am not faulting this initiative , but this is my personal view that the vision will be short and therefore will not carry any long term effect. I could be wrong and I wish them all the best in their efforts.

Other initiatives that I can see are things like people are getting together to talk about community issues which they had forgotten post Mumbai riots. I was a part of a meeting on Sunday at 10:30 which lasted post 1:30 and the hall was still full. 500+ people gave up their Sunday. THIS IS A GOOD SIGN.

There is something this morning in the papers about a group going to police stations and fire brigades to give them bouquets and say, thank you for being there. Brilliant !! Till now they were an ignored lot, at least this gives them a sense of having a purpose in life. I would say start a handshake campaign. Shake the hand of every Pandu on the street. Make him proud to be a policeman. All of them are short term but excellent efforts.

As I said every little bit counts. As far as I am concerned, I am a part of a group which is looking at things with a longer viewpoint. Looking at making a change which is systematic and not reactionary. We have a vision that the first real measurable jerk against the British rule was in 1857 and the repercussions were felt almost a 100 years later in 1947. As I said in my last article, something new was born on 3rd Dec 2008 at the gateway and with the advent of technology,we feel that this period should now be no more than 5 years or so but whatever needs to be done needs to be done with a cool mind and systematically.

I will communicate more details on this effort to you as soon as it crystallizes into something. Till then lets keep the fight going in whichever way we can.

The birth of something new

Folks, I was at the rally on 3rd Dec 2008 at the Gateway of India. At first when I was invited , I refused saying that it would in the end boil down to to the same old bunch of Mahesh Bhatt, Gerson Dcunha, Madhur Bhandarkar on stage kind of sideshow that we Indians seem to prefer.

One of my readers managed to persuade me otherwise saying that it was a rally to try and feel the sentiment of the public wherein the new generation of politicians would be chosen from an educated class instead of the current bunch who do not know what a budget for bullet proof vests means except the commission that is promised to them on it. ( Theleka in case we forgot about it was about just one such sting)

The reason they do not know or understand this and other mission critical issues is that a large majority of them simply cannot read so its "kala Aakshar bhaise barabar" [ Illiterates might as well look at a buffalo as a book since both mean the same to them]

I therefore decided to give it a look see. I was pleasantly surprised. What I saw there was a pure expression of the citizens frustration. The citizens gathered there had no particular agenda but what stood out was the sheer numbers of them. In a city like Mumbai, where people don't have time to smile at each other the time taken by sheer collection of people at a single location was overwhelming.

Amid the repeated chants of Vande Matram, two threads which ran common to  the whole gathering were, the disgust at politicians and the rants against Pakistan. I looked around and found that most of the chants against politicians were from young fresh faces wearing casual clothes and funnily enough it was  the average joe shopkeeper types who were the most vociferous when it came to the anti Pakistan shouts. 

What made my trip worthwhile was the odd image like a group of well dressed people standing in a  semi circle quietly singing "Jana Ganna Manna" or a handicapped man on crutches fighting the crowd to try and reach the center of the melee with a beatific smile on his face.

When so many people collect like this, normally I would have expected some kind of mela or tamashaa, some cheap stunts by someone or the other.  But this was different. The mood was different. The politicians remained conspicuous with their absence, the whole crowd had only a few policemen around ( the only real presence I saw of them was around the state police headquarters which was slap bang in the middle of the march route) and there was a very bad need for crowd control but no one seemed to mind.

It reminded me of some pictures I had seen earlier. The struggle for Indian Independence.

The similarities are obvious for people who wish to see it.

A freedom struggle starts from a collection of groups, (Nehru's, Jinnah's, Subash Chandra Bose's, Bhagat Singh's ) etc till the time as a leader like Gandhi emerges from the chaos and unites them under a single banner.

India today too is looking for a charismatic leader. India today is running headless with a ragtag group of individuals all trying to do something but no one knowing what to do. Each group is trying its own thing be it similar to Nehru's mediation with the British or Subash Chandra Bose's militancy or Bhatgat Singhs anarchy. We are no one to say which methord is right and which is wrong, its the end result which counts.

To all those people , who tell me that this whole anger will die within a few days & people will forget and go back to their own lives, I remind them that even in the struggle for independence, a lot of people reverted to their daily lives, a lot of groups fell by the wayside out of sheer frustration but the ones that lasted made a difference. India is India today thanks to those few who had the vision and the perseverance to last the mile.

With the advent of the 3rd December meeting we have seen the birth of something new. It sould go down in the annals of history. My mailbox is flooded with emails even from people who I would least except to respond to this tragedy. The medium has changed but from what I can see the sentiment has not. The communication is faster than the old days of flyers but the ideas flying around is still the same. The whole meeting of the 3rd of Dec was started from a facebook entry and pushed by emails and SMSs.

From the emails and SMSs I gather There are a few movements around which talk of making a difference by symbolic things such as a human chain from Gateway to Virar, by collecting funds for the families of the martyrs, or by not bribing anyone anymore.

There are others which talk of things like getting together and fielding a new set of literate candidates from within the educated classes or even by bringing transparency into the current political scenario. ( the two ideas which I think have maximum chance of succeeding in the long haul).

Whatever the modus, the one thing we should in a very twisted way be thankful about is that this attack woke us from our apathy. The coast guard stopped looking the other way for a few rupees, the havaldar started looking at each persons rucksack more carefully, the home ministry finally passed the budget for the new bullet proof vests. (that tender was lying in a pile of others for 4 years gathering dust, In any developed country the relatives of the dead would have found out which babus ignored the files and then slapped a personal law suit of manslaughter on them so large their next 2 generations would end up paying the damages)

(I wonder why no one is talking about the OTHER FILES IN THAT INFAMOUS PILE of pending tenders )

As someone said with the way our official machinery handled it, it could easily have been 10 dingys and 100 men. If only 10 men did so much damage, 100 would have really had Mumbai burning and the tragedy would have been much much worse.

What worries me is that all the people who wish to change the system really do not have their own systems in place. The anger is there, the fire is there but from what I see there's no clear thought pattern. Without the clear thought pattern the checks and balances will never come into play and without the checks and balances the 10 dingys may one day still be a reality.

Lets just hope the leader the people are looking for appears long before the dingys do.

Aise ek-add Haadse

As I write this, Mumbai, India and the rest of the world is reeling in shock with the incidents of the last couple of days.

As almost everyone must know by now, Mumbai was attacked by a group of terrorists and two of its landmarks were badly damaged. Almost 300 people were killed and 600 odd injured. As I write this we have just recd. news that Mr. Shivraj "Dandy Jim" Patil has resigned.

Of course we have Mr. "Pay bill in Goa" Rudy from the BJP showing his face on television saying that Mr. Patil's resignation shows that he was responsible for this mess and ergo this is the failure of the Congress Govt. and the whole Govt should resign.

(Thats funny coming from a party which till yesterday had their guns trained squarely on just S Patil saying that he was guilty and must resign. The moment he has resigned , they are using it for leverage. Do we now understand why no Government ever cracks down on its erring people. Chances are if they do the jokers standing on the sidelines will call it a sign of guilt of them even though they are the ones who initiated the crackdown in the first place.)

Now I hear that BJP is saying that Congress is soft on terrorists and scratch my head. As far as I remember the BJP does not have too good a record with terrorists as the IC 814 incident will testify when the NSG did not ge their act together till the flight had taken off since they were waiting for instructions from the government for HARD action. They then gave a VIP escort to the terrorists under the pretext of freeing hostages. I also remember that it was not the Congress which allowed 5 terrorists free in order to release the daughter of a home minister.

This whole incident has brought to the front a series of shameful incidents which synopsis the whole issue.

One is Mr. R.R. "bar girls are nono" Patil. This joker had the guts to come on television and say" Bade Shaarion mein aise ek addh Hadse hotain rehte hain". {In big cities 1-2 small incidents happen all the time}. I saw him say this on television and almost hurled my mug of tea at him. I would like him or his family member to have been in one of the hotels so that they could actually face the horror of such a "aam Haadsa".

Folks, this is the time to stand up and say , we do and will not accept terrorist attacks on our cities as an "aam hadsaa" from politicians like him who are better off chasing bar girl skirts.

Second is the sudden absence of politicians who are talking about Mumbai and their "baap ka maal", till the third day when the all clear is announced.

Third is the anger of the citizen when he sees A Narendra Modi who till 24 hours previously called Hemant Kharkare al kinds of names for implicating "Sadvhi" now suddenly announce 1 Cr as compensation to him and calling him a "honest man".

(I would ask for a standing ovation for Mrs. Kharkare who threw the offer of 1 Cr in Modis face thereby showing the world how honest her husband really was and what she thought of politicians who think anyone can be bought with money)

Fourth is Lal Krishna Advani staying away from all party meet called by the Congress to brainstorm saying he is "busy" campaigning. Campaigning for WHAT ??? What is more important than trying to find synergy in this time of grief. This is the person the BJP wants to make our next PM.

(Advani sent Mr. Jaswant Singh, who was sent according to him was the foreign minister at the time of the hijacking of IC 814 to Kandhahar. I am amazed that Advani would think this qualifies him as some kind of authority since we all know how that ended with the Govt at that time kow towing to terrorists by releasing prisoners.

IMPORTANT - This Jaswant Singh is the same person who acted as personal escort to the terrorists on their flight to Kandhahar. Hmmm.......Kandhar the city , Kandhar resturant at Oberoi, hmmm perhaps thats why he thinks Jaswant Sinha has the experience )

Fifth is the posturing by Pranab Mukerjee who blasts the Pakistani Minister at a press conference in Delhi and then today does a volte face saying it never accused Pakistan of being  involved. If that is the case this is the worst case of politics I have seen. There was even talk of SUMMONING the ISI chief to India and we were given the impression that he would be coming soon in the interest of co-operation.

Of course Pakistan did a volte face on that. Guess he didn't get anticipatory bail like most accused people do before they land in India.

Lastly, with all these antics first blaming Pakistan and then backtracking, I dont know if I'm the only one but I see the war clouds looming and the words of Nostradamus ring in my ear  when he talks of the person behind the third world war:

"He will enter Europe wearing a blue turban."

Folks, my flippancy is a cover for my anger and let me not belittle the horror the hostages went through since there are no words that I can write which will in any way describe the horror and terror they went through.

Let me not belittle the enormous hurdles the cops, then the MARCOS and finally the NSG had to go through keeping in mind the three main agendas they had:

1) There are foreign nationals involved and this could have major repercussions. Make sure the foreign nationals are harmed as little as possible.

2) There are hostages involved, as many of them are to be saved as possible

3) There are landmarks of the city involved, as much as possible these structures should not be damaged.

Keeping this in mind, I think they did a marvelous job. I think the closest we have come to this internationally in my recollection is Operation Entebee. That took almost 7 days and the terrain was less complicated although the location was in an unfriendly state. So 50 odd hours to complete the operation is not so bad in my book.

My biggest agony in this whole issue is the equipment of the anti terrorist squads. Anyone who has seen American serials is familiar with equipment such as gamma ray scanners, thermal imagers, optic fibre cameras, robot cams / radio CC cams , the list is endless.

Had our NSG, our police force or our MARCOS had any of this equipment the fight would have been much much shorter. Now there's talk of an equipment upgrade for the army / anti terrorist groups and guess who will do the purchasing ? The same people who bought the shitty stuff they have now.

As to planning and co-ordination. We saw the sheer anarchy that happened with each joker wanting his 10 seconds of sound bytes no matter if even whatever he was saying was pure rubbish.

In all this what I found admirable was that the emergence of the real Marathi Manoos. It was not the hooligans but the common man who put his life in danger to man barricades outside the Taj to ensure that the public stayed a safe distance. It was the common man who wiped the blood off the brow of an injured man at Metro cinema. The so called protectors of Marathaism of course stayed a safe distance away.

( I know this is in bad taste but I can't help but repeat these joke I heard yesterday - Vilasrao Deshmukh is a fool, he didn't have to even wait for the MARCOS and the NSG, all he had to do was call Raj T and he and his goons would have gone into the Taj and thrown the terrorists out in 5 mins since they are not from Maharashtra.

Second joke I was told when the TV reporters said one of the terrorists spoke to someone at the Cama hospital in Marathi was, See how sucessful Raj T's movement is, now even Mumbais terrorists cant operate here without being able to speak Marathi)

Under this layer of laughter lies the sheer anger and frustration at the confusion which reigned when first of all the cops came in, followed by the MARCOS who were then replaced by the NSG who were awaiting their C11 Hercules aircraft.

Each of these groups were badly briefed since to date there is no central agency in charge of the briefing in cases such as this. There is a very strong rumor that the NSG were kept waiting for almost 45 mins for their briefing since the people who were supposed to brief the NSG were busy briefing the Chief Minister.

What makes someone in India who achieves any kind of public post think that they are so special ? I hear now from these people is that security must be tightened, and can we guess what happens when a Minister arrives at a 5 star with bags of money. Do you seriously think that those bags will be Xrayed or checked ?

Folks, I think there are far better people than me who have written far more eloquent stuff about what they and I would like to do to the freeloading politicians goolies with a blunt knife. All I can do just reproduce the pictures of the horror hoping that it ignites the spark in someone somewhere to do something about it.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html

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I have just recd this email which says what i'm feeling much better than I ever could:

Why India ?

* Because we are Gujratis, Marathis, Punjabis, Bengalis, Malyalee....not INDIANS.
* Because our leaders protect themselves with 350 police personnel & 50 cars. Who cares about the common man.
* Because politicians will run to console families of slain terrorists merely to earn some brownie points.
* Because we are scared...........scared to execute one measly convicted terrorist.
* Because we elect a PM who is more of an academician than an administrator.
* Because we believe that social equality can be achieved not by teaching a man how to fish but by providing him fish for days to come.
* Because democracy in India enables us to condemn anything & everything whereas the propounders of the Magna Carta restrict speech against God & the Queen.
* Because for most of us, nation building is restricted to compiling the Indian Cricket team.
* Because we let Mandir & Masjid run our daily lives not roti,kapda or makan.
* Because we let tolerance lead to impotence.
* Because in a nation of a billion people it is difficult now to find a single "man".

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