On the Mumbai train blasts, terrorism and a people in the balance

With six million daily commuters it is hard to maintain even a minimum level of security so you can’t wholly blame the Mumbai police (second best only to Scotland Yard). However, the police should have maintained a high alert after the blasts in Srinagar and the seizing of explosives in Maharashtra.

All this talk about the ‘Spirit of the Mumbaikar’ is nothing but c**p. People went to work the next day because they had to. Life doesn’t wait for anyone. People helped each other during the blasts because they had to. The same thing happened on July 26 last year. On July 11, 2006 it was plain humanity that forced people to jump off the platform and pull bodies out of the mangled and damaged trains. Humanity is not a quality present only in the hearts of Mumbaikars. Very few people, apart from those in shock, will stand rooted to their spot and watch their brothers and sisters suffering in such situations.

What we saw in Mumbai on and after the July 26 (’05) deluge and the July 11 (’06) blasts also happened in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh a few weeks ago when rain lashed the states. On their usual sensationalist spree, the media praised the ‘unique’ spirit of Londoners and New Yorkers after terrorist attacks in their respective cities (London tube bombings on July 7, 2005 and attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001). This was also true of the Mumbai blasts.

Every time such incidents occur, one feeling gains increasing ‘significance’ among the people – paranoia. Two hours of rain will now cause employees and employers alike to stay at home. I have heard of people changing their monthly train passes from first to second class because the recent blasts took place in first class train compartments. This paranoia also leads to hate crimes and baseless, stupid, irritating and idiotic remarks against ‘other’ sections of society. But what can we do? It is the same old story everywhere – unconcerned and corrupt officials, fanatics and thus, our helplessness.

It is the common citizen who plays a vital role in preserving unity between different communities. Hence it is imperative that we create a network of strong bonds and relationships with other members of society. Else, instead of living together peacefully, we will squander our time picking up the broken pieces of our lives as we did after the Mumbai blasts.

(Mikhail D’souza is a first year BMM student at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and a keen observer of current events.)

The terrorists must be cursing the people of this great land for not falling prey to their heinous designs. If we delve deep into the timing, the selection of targets and the method of execution of their plan, we can easily discern that their aim is not only to cause maximum damage and casualties but to provoke the people of India into retaliatory violence culminating in the worst kind of communal riots. These divisive forces tried to incite violence in Delhi by a Delhi blast on the eve of Diwali. They attacked the disputed structure in Ayodhya and exploded a bomb in the Sankat Mochan temple in Benaras with the same mala fide intention. But all their efforts were in vain, as the people at large did not get provoked and maintained unprecedented communal harmony.

This time too, in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts, the people of Mumbai defeated the terrorists soundly by demonstrating their unity and emotional maturity in the hours of crisis. Now the divisive forces must be busy chalking out alternate plans. And the people of India should be ready to defeat them in all their attempts.

We should also learn a lesson from Gujarat. The gruesome incident of the burning of the Sabarmati Express did not cause as much damage to our country as the retaliatory violence in its aftermath. The communal genocide that followed the burning of the Sabarmati Express proved to be a blot on the nation. Moreover, the burning of the train and the retaliatory violence were a victory for divisive and communal forces. But now it is very clear that people in India have understood our enemies’ ulterior motives and this is why Indians are emerging as victors in this proxy war by maintaining their cool and exhibiting the utmost resilience. Perhaps now India’s enemies will finally realise that they can neither stop us nor deviate us from the path of peace and prosperity.