When the news channels started flashing the frightening images of the blasts in Ahemdabad, I turned off the Television. Call me callous if you will, but I just couldn’t stomach any more images of wanton death and destruction. It is increasingly getting clear that these mass murderers can strike at will and with deadly precision. We as citizens of India can only hope and pray that we don’t wind up as the targets of these terrorists and even if we do, we have a quick death and not end up in a civil hospital battling for our lives.
It’s the same thing over and over again. We know how they did it; supposedly why they did it, but we don’t know who did it. The police as always are clueless. In the oft repeated blame game, they point their hands towards Pakistan and in grave tones say ‘it’s the foreign hand’. What foreign hand? The people perpetrating these heinous acts are home grown terrorists and belong to a cross section of Muslim society. It’s not just the uneducated, unemployed men who are responsible but so are educated and highly intelligent men and women. Why am I saying this? The planning behind the blasts, the sophistication of the bombs, and the abject failure of the security agencies to catch the culprits illustrates this fact with aplomb. All quarters are involved and it’s time we understood this fact.
In India, a secular joke of a country, if I say I am Hindu, I am given a communal tag, but if I say I am a Muslim, I am just exercising my secular and religious right. Herein, lies the problem. The security agencies are just too scared to take any action against the people responsible because they are plain scared. Their political bosses won’t like it and so wont the human rights activists. They are in a fix, because in an investigation of this sort, extreme steps have to be taken, and more often than not, quite a few innocents must be rounded up for questioning.
So, now we are back to counting the death toll and waiting for the proverbial calm, before a few bombs go off again. I just wish that the terrorists realize that the lives of the common people in India are not worth the trouble they are taking to kill these lives. They are making a wasted effort and to think that, in a country like India, they will get anywhere, by killing innocent civilians, they are sadly mistaken. The people in charge do not care. They play their own games, and I am sure must be laughing about the poor intellect of the terrorists. After all India is overpopulated. The terrorists are actually doing a service to the country. I know, what I am saying might just come across as an outpouring of virulent emotions, but it’s the blatant truth. If this isn’t true, how do you explain the fact that even after so many blasts and thousands of lives lost, our leaders have still not done anything that assures us of security? My life is not worth a farthing. This is why I am scared. I am just a part of the ever burgeoning population of India, and the people who should care, do not care.
After all, their children, wives and relatives are safe. Surrounded by NSG commandos and secure amidst stringent security measures, they are not worried about terrorist bombings. I think just once, these smirking, no good politicians should get a wake up call; and I mean a big wake up call.
Yes dear terrorists, why are you targeting us? We have no role to play in the scheme of things. Target the people who matter. Not us, we will keep dying, you will keep killing and nothing would change. Target the people at the top. Not us. Am I sounding a bit traitorous? After all our great leaders are what the country is all about. We must respect them and give our lives for the country, a.k.a the political class. We have given our lives and now we would like them to give theirs. Please leave us out of it. We just need to get on with our lives.
In our country, the parliament is no longer the holier than thou democratic institution that our leaders like proclaiming from the roof tops; its now become a center of rot and refuse, which is slowly turning our country a.k.a the people of India, into a garbage dump.
Contrary to nationalistic expectations, I respect and love my family and friends more than I respect our exalted Prime Ministers, Presidents etc.
It just plain sad isn’t it, when we expect no arrests, let alone punishment for the murderers who killed innocent lives. We know the ineptitude of our security agencies and have given up. No one’s, been charged for the Jaipur blasts and the long line of blasts that preceded it. Afzal Guru, the only person in recent memory who has been punished for his role in the Parliament Attack, has not been hanged. I do believe he would have been hanged if he had managed to kill an MP or two, but all that he got for his efforts was the sacrifice of a few policemen and women and security guards. That as we all know in India, is no hanging matter.
Before I sign off, I have a conspiracy theory building up in my mind. I ask myself, is it possible to plan and execute 3, 4 ……… 16 blasts without anybody knowing about it, and without political patronage? Maybe in the answer to this question, lies the reason why terrorists target innocent civilians and not our great leaders.
