Terrorists hit Mumbai. So?
Swami Gulagulaananda said:
"We are men of words and not of deeds... Like a garden full of weeds"
Ok, terrorists strike again. Blasts happen. People die. Others panic. Others in other parts of the country rapidly start tweeting and tweeting more. Then, people go on Facebook and start posting comments about terrorists, asking them to go to hell. Then people comment on those posts, saying that Mumbai will bounce back. Media (News channels) go all hyperactive - Conduct debates after debates. They get Pakistanis and Indians, journalists and generals, ministers and other blah people and get them to talk something big. They analyse. Some time later, people will post pictures and videos.... Few days later, life returns to normalcy - Some people say that Mumbai is city of life, nothing stops blah blah. Yeah, ok, Mumbai sprang back.
Mumbai didn't "spring back" - People who died, are dead. Ask their families if they sprang back. Basically, we are so adjusted to this kind of life, we see the same things happen over and over, and yet, we go through the same cycle as that mentioned in the first paragraph. Read the first paragraph again - we did the same thing for every other attack that happened against India.
Why is it that this is happening so often in India? Why is it that such incidents don't happen in the USA? Why is it that these incidents don't happen in Israel? One attack on these countries, and they go all out against their enemies. USA has been known to be an unscrupulous country, but hell, they destroyed the whole of Afghanistan and half of Pakistan to get one man. We have one man with us for the past couple of years, and apparently lakhs of rupees are being blown to "maintain" him. It's one thing to lose money in scams, and a whole other thing to lose it on maintaining a terrorist. That too, in a country where people are dying of lack of food. They fired a rocket at an Israeli and Israel bombed an entire airport.
Do you notice a trend? These two countries are accused of being unprincipled. They don't care. Look at China. They flout rules left, right and centre. Nobody questions them. Even if you do question them, nothing happens. They have the guts to do it - Something India lacks. We also lack the will to do anything. All we can do is talk and talk, and organise more debates and talk. There is no action, and that's why I am not surprised. We all post and tweet and comment. We lack the will for action... I really pity the state of affairs. We need to learn to be like Israel, USA and China -a country which should not give a damn, a country that others should be in awe of or fear... I really wish we had Sardar Patel or Indira Gandhi at the helm right now. They would have torn apart the enemy. Reminds me of the move "A Wednesday"
***
Comments from Facebook
Pradeep Nayak:
I second that Nikhil Baliga. I have noticed on twitter especially people reacting to the chaos. Keep tweeting and tweeting condolences, a lot of them abusing the system, a few cracking jokes on the situation and the government, and what not..Next there will be debates on news channels, people argue and blame and point fingers. What we lack is RESPONSE... As your rightly said USA responded and that was a intellectual decision and while we only REACTING to the situation which is only instinctive
Aditya Padaki
True. But a direct comparison between USA and India cannot be done. USA doesn't share its borders with any of those countries. India shares with a nuclear power. Israel also does not share a border with nuclear power. To retaliate against India is so much more easy than the others. Infiltration easily takes place, no matter how secure the borders are, it is tough to control infiltration always. There are a lot of such factors. But some solution has to be found out and tough stance should be taken. But direct military options may not be the best choice considering our location.
Moreover, all the other countries you mentioned have a perfect head count of the people in their country and their identities. Its not so in India. So controlling becomes even tougher.
Krishnaraj Bhat
I agree If there was Sardar Patel at that time, things could have been different today in India:-)
Dhanabal Lingasamy
America gives $800 million to pakistan...they ofcourse use it to bomb india..il blame america equally for this blast as terrorist :)
Nikhil Baliga
Aditya Padaki This is the same attitude that will keep us down all the time. Understand that Pakistan knows that we think like this. There will always be that nuclear fear, and we will never retaliate in that case. Which will make this to go on and on.
Whether you take a direct stance, an indirect stance, a covert stance or bomb all terrorists... we should have the balls to take a stance. There is no point in just sitting and engaging them in dialogue. That's like 'Pouring water over a rock'
Aditya Padaki
We need to carefully analyze the severe repercussions (if any) of any stance/decision taken. The Japanese are suffering even today (nearly 70 years later) because of what happened then. It is by no means a small thing and we cannot take anything for granted. Understand that they don't in any least manner hesitate to use them; its by no means a difficult decision for them.
There is no point in showing that we deal everything with an iron hand, if we lose the bigger picture. Taking a firm stance is no doubt of at most importance, but choosing what stance we take has to be very carefully done, definitely not as a knee jerk response.
Nikhil Baliga
Haha and that's what's the difference between Patel, Gandhi, me and the rest of them (and you)... Things don't have to be knee jerk - things need to be firm and strong. I don't know if you remember the story of the snake that decided to pursue Ahimsa at the words of a sage, but got beaten up by people. At which, the sage told the snake - I asked you to follow ahimsa, doesn't mean you shouldn't hiss and look threatening...
A nuclear option is easier said than done. Pakistan as a nation will cease to exist. The damage on India as a nation may or may not be large depending on how far they can reach. All of their major cities are too close to the Indian border, and foreign pressure on Pakistan will undoubtedly be too huge for the remaining part (if it is there) of Pak.
Read the post and comments again - the emphasis is not necessarily on, while not entirely ruling out, war, but on a strong reaction rather than dumb ass debates and discussions. What we need is action...
Dolly Singh
First think should be Killing Kasab in public place.. He shouldn't be hanged.. he should be killed slowly.. with lot of pain.. And then attack Pak in such a way that they dont get chance to use their Nuclear power..of course war does not get any good for any one but If Pak wants a war, WTF, give them a war!! Pak map should be removed frm world map..
Aditya Padaki
Nikhil Baliga - Dude, look at that nation! It is totally in chaos. Govt. has no control over its military. Fanatics don't hesitate to do anything and they don't think of what would follow. Firm and strong are the need of the hour no doubt, but in what direction is important, is all I am saying. And oh yes! They can reach a very great distance into India. We will win the war, but at what cost? It will an irrepairable damage which will slow the country down by decades. You are only ASSUMING stuff to your convenience (that they will not retaliate in a certain way), which is a very wrong way of deciding anything. You need to take into account the worst case scenarios and analyse their implications for the future while making any important decisions.
Clever (and probably cunning) action is the need of the hour. (on the lnes of Saap bhi mar jaye aur lathi bhi na toote - Yuktihi shaktehe gareeyasi...) I right away agreed with your point that just debates and discussions won't help. What I told was the comparison you drew between India's response and the response of other countries (US, Israel) was wrong. Completely different situations. You cannot compare and take decisions based on them.
Prajwal M Sudarshan
Nikl,we all have different opinions on how the government should treat this issue,and as usual the Govt will do whatver it has done in the past.nothing changes by talking about it,as you yourself expressed.the question is,what should WE do?starting blogs and forums wont help coz vr not Anna Hazare,and ive heard enough about electing youth into the governemt to change it.unless you have a few million stashed away,Entering politics is out of the question.so instead of arguing as to what the government should do,what can we do??
Nikhil Baliga
You suddenly went into war - which I said should be an option. You cannot forever keep cowering at their nuclear arsenal and sit is what I saying... You and I can sit and have armchair discussions all day long. For a family that has lost lives, it is pathetic that we are not a strong nation. So many people keep dying, and we do nothing about it and that has to change
Prajwal M Sudarshan - Yup! You are right in all aspects and I agree with you. And your question is a million dollar one :)
Gurudatha Pai
Nikhil Baliga I agree with you but perhaps I agree with Aditya Padaki more. Yes, we need to show a response, a response that has implications far beyond what we as common man perceive the situation. Like you said, war is an option but it is beyond the last option. I say that because, there is too much at stake here. You might want to think India has military superiority over Pakistan, that is if you consider our full military but full military is not available, considering China is a "chaddi dost" of Pakistan and we don't know the alliance of other neighbors. About nuclear arsenal, it is only a "strategic deterrent". It has seized to be a front line weapon for us. It is certainly not the case for our neighbors who once in Kargil claimed that the uniformed soldiers are in-impersonation of their military and are militia. They might just claim they don't have lost control over their nuclear assets and that they have been compromised. And this is not even considering the cost and casualties of war. It is not an easy fight but heck we are not fighting anything right now!
Nikhil Baliga
Gurudatha Pai - I repeat... An action is important. If you clearly read the post, you will see that I am not talking about war - I am definitely citing examples of attack, but what I am stressing more on, is an action. Now, what action has to be taken is left to those in power.
At the very outset, you can rest assured that I am fully aware of all of the facts that have been stated above, including Pakistan's nuclear capabilities, China's belligerent attitude towards India, China being Pakistan's all weather friend and all that. I also read the paper where Indian defence chiefs keep talking about worst case scenario being war with two nuclear powers. I am also aware of India's position...
And that's where decision making comes to picture. I have, at no point told that we have to declare war on them. I did say that it is an option. What I am saying is that we seem to have become a soft target, similar to one of those soft professors in colleges, where nobody cares for when she raises meek voices of protest against noise making students. A strict teacher is one people are afraid of - And that is where the fear of repercussions come into picture
Notice that a country which can be bombed time and again, a country that raises meek protests and talks and does nothing is a country that will not be feared. Go ahead and do a Google search on India and nuclear abilities. We are nuclear and so is Pakistan, but we are not a feared nation... People go on and on about abilities of USA, China, Russia, France and Britain. Do you know what separates them from us though we are nuclear powered? Clout - And this clout is what we lack.
Clout is something that India lacks and thus, we will be like the gnat on the bull tail (Aesop's fable) or worse, the gnat on the cartwheel (Aesop's fable again) where we continue to be jingoistic and think we are great, and go on and on about our country's glory (which perhaps ended at the Vedic period). We are not even a regional power with China growing so rapidly next to us, we continue to be compared with Pakistan rather than China. What is it that we lack? Abilities, talent, resources? We are the best in the world in those, aren't we? And yet, we sit and get bombed - and that too in Mumbai, no less... Kashmir, I would have accepted
"We are men of words and not of deeds... Like a garden full of weeds"
Ok, terrorists strike again. Blasts happen. People die. Others panic. Others in other parts of the country rapidly start tweeting and tweeting more. Then, people go on Facebook and start posting comments about terrorists, asking them to go to hell. Then people comment on those posts, saying that Mumbai will bounce back. Media (News channels) go all hyperactive - Conduct debates after debates. They get Pakistanis and Indians, journalists and generals, ministers and other blah people and get them to talk something big. They analyse. Some time later, people will post pictures and videos.... Few days later, life returns to normalcy - Some people say that Mumbai is city of life, nothing stops blah blah. Yeah, ok, Mumbai sprang back.
Mumbai didn't "spring back" - People who died, are dead. Ask their families if they sprang back. Basically, we are so adjusted to this kind of life, we see the same things happen over and over, and yet, we go through the same cycle as that mentioned in the first paragraph. Read the first paragraph again - we did the same thing for every other attack that happened against India.
Why is it that this is happening so often in India? Why is it that such incidents don't happen in the USA? Why is it that these incidents don't happen in Israel? One attack on these countries, and they go all out against their enemies. USA has been known to be an unscrupulous country, but hell, they destroyed the whole of Afghanistan and half of Pakistan to get one man. We have one man with us for the past couple of years, and apparently lakhs of rupees are being blown to "maintain" him. It's one thing to lose money in scams, and a whole other thing to lose it on maintaining a terrorist. That too, in a country where people are dying of lack of food. They fired a rocket at an Israeli and Israel bombed an entire airport.
Do you notice a trend? These two countries are accused of being unprincipled. They don't care. Look at China. They flout rules left, right and centre. Nobody questions them. Even if you do question them, nothing happens. They have the guts to do it - Something India lacks. We also lack the will to do anything. All we can do is talk and talk, and organise more debates and talk. There is no action, and that's why I am not surprised. We all post and tweet and comment. We lack the will for action... I really pity the state of affairs. We need to learn to be like Israel, USA and China -a country which should not give a damn, a country that others should be in awe of or fear... I really wish we had Sardar Patel or Indira Gandhi at the helm right now. They would have torn apart the enemy. Reminds me of the move "A Wednesday"
***
Comments from Facebook
Pradeep Nayak:
I second that Nikhil Baliga. I have noticed on twitter especially people reacting to the chaos. Keep tweeting and tweeting condolences, a lot of them abusing the system, a few cracking jokes on the situation and the government, and what not..Next there will be debates on news channels, people argue and blame and point fingers. What we lack is RESPONSE... As your rightly said USA responded and that was a intellectual decision and while we only REACTING to the situation which is only instinctive
Aditya Padaki
True. But a direct comparison between USA and India cannot be done. USA doesn't share its borders with any of those countries. India shares with a nuclear power. Israel also does not share a border with nuclear power. To retaliate against India is so much more easy than the others. Infiltration easily takes place, no matter how secure the borders are, it is tough to control infiltration always. There are a lot of such factors. But some solution has to be found out and tough stance should be taken. But direct military options may not be the best choice considering our location.
Moreover, all the other countries you mentioned have a perfect head count of the people in their country and their identities. Its not so in India. So controlling becomes even tougher.
Krishnaraj Bhat
I agree If there was Sardar Patel at that time, things could have been different today in India:-)
Dhanabal Lingasamy
America gives $800 million to pakistan...they ofcourse use it to bomb india..il blame america equally for this blast as terrorist :)
Nikhil Baliga
Aditya Padaki This is the same attitude that will keep us down all the time. Understand that Pakistan knows that we think like this. There will always be that nuclear fear, and we will never retaliate in that case. Which will make this to go on and on.
Whether you take a direct stance, an indirect stance, a covert stance or bomb all terrorists... we should have the balls to take a stance. There is no point in just sitting and engaging them in dialogue. That's like 'Pouring water over a rock'
Aditya Padaki
We need to carefully analyze the severe repercussions (if any) of any stance/decision taken. The Japanese are suffering even today (nearly 70 years later) because of what happened then. It is by no means a small thing and we cannot take anything for granted. Understand that they don't in any least manner hesitate to use them; its by no means a difficult decision for them.
There is no point in showing that we deal everything with an iron hand, if we lose the bigger picture. Taking a firm stance is no doubt of at most importance, but choosing what stance we take has to be very carefully done, definitely not as a knee jerk response.
Nikhil Baliga
Haha and that's what's the difference between Patel, Gandhi, me and the rest of them (and you)... Things don't have to be knee jerk - things need to be firm and strong. I don't know if you remember the story of the snake that decided to pursue Ahimsa at the words of a sage, but got beaten up by people. At which, the sage told the snake - I asked you to follow ahimsa, doesn't mean you shouldn't hiss and look threatening...
A nuclear option is easier said than done. Pakistan as a nation will cease to exist. The damage on India as a nation may or may not be large depending on how far they can reach. All of their major cities are too close to the Indian border, and foreign pressure on Pakistan will undoubtedly be too huge for the remaining part (if it is there) of Pak.
Read the post and comments again - the emphasis is not necessarily on, while not entirely ruling out, war, but on a strong reaction rather than dumb ass debates and discussions. What we need is action...
Dolly Singh
First think should be Killing Kasab in public place.. He shouldn't be hanged.. he should be killed slowly.. with lot of pain.. And then attack Pak in such a way that they dont get chance to use their Nuclear power..of course war does not get any good for any one but If Pak wants a war, WTF, give them a war!! Pak map should be removed frm world map..
Aditya Padaki
Nikhil Baliga - Dude, look at that nation! It is totally in chaos. Govt. has no control over its military. Fanatics don't hesitate to do anything and they don't think of what would follow. Firm and strong are the need of the hour no doubt, but in what direction is important, is all I am saying. And oh yes! They can reach a very great distance into India. We will win the war, but at what cost? It will an irrepairable damage which will slow the country down by decades. You are only ASSUMING stuff to your convenience (that they will not retaliate in a certain way), which is a very wrong way of deciding anything. You need to take into account the worst case scenarios and analyse their implications for the future while making any important decisions.
Clever (and probably cunning) action is the need of the hour. (on the lnes of Saap bhi mar jaye aur lathi bhi na toote - Yuktihi shaktehe gareeyasi...) I right away agreed with your point that just debates and discussions won't help. What I told was the comparison you drew between India's response and the response of other countries (US, Israel) was wrong. Completely different situations. You cannot compare and take decisions based on them.
Prajwal M Sudarshan
Nikl,we all have different opinions on how the government should treat this issue,and as usual the Govt will do whatver it has done in the past.nothing changes by talking about it,as you yourself expressed.the question is,what should WE do?starting blogs and forums wont help coz vr not Anna Hazare,and ive heard enough about electing youth into the governemt to change it.unless you have a few million stashed away,Entering politics is out of the question.so instead of arguing as to what the government should do,what can we do??
Nikhil Baliga
You suddenly went into war - which I said should be an option. You cannot forever keep cowering at their nuclear arsenal and sit is what I saying... You and I can sit and have armchair discussions all day long. For a family that has lost lives, it is pathetic that we are not a strong nation. So many people keep dying, and we do nothing about it and that has to change
Prajwal M Sudarshan - Yup! You are right in all aspects and I agree with you. And your question is a million dollar one :)
Gurudatha Pai
Nikhil Baliga I agree with you but perhaps I agree with Aditya Padaki more. Yes, we need to show a response, a response that has implications far beyond what we as common man perceive the situation. Like you said, war is an option but it is beyond the last option. I say that because, there is too much at stake here. You might want to think India has military superiority over Pakistan, that is if you consider our full military but full military is not available, considering China is a "chaddi dost" of Pakistan and we don't know the alliance of other neighbors. About nuclear arsenal, it is only a "strategic deterrent". It has seized to be a front line weapon for us. It is certainly not the case for our neighbors who once in Kargil claimed that the uniformed soldiers are in-impersonation of their military and are militia. They might just claim they don't have lost control over their nuclear assets and that they have been compromised. And this is not even considering the cost and casualties of war. It is not an easy fight but heck we are not fighting anything right now!
Nikhil Baliga
Gurudatha Pai - I repeat... An action is important. If you clearly read the post, you will see that I am not talking about war - I am definitely citing examples of attack, but what I am stressing more on, is an action. Now, what action has to be taken is left to those in power.
At the very outset, you can rest assured that I am fully aware of all of the facts that have been stated above, including Pakistan's nuclear capabilities, China's belligerent attitude towards India, China being Pakistan's all weather friend and all that. I also read the paper where Indian defence chiefs keep talking about worst case scenario being war with two nuclear powers. I am also aware of India's position...
And that's where decision making comes to picture. I have, at no point told that we have to declare war on them. I did say that it is an option. What I am saying is that we seem to have become a soft target, similar to one of those soft professors in colleges, where nobody cares for when she raises meek voices of protest against noise making students. A strict teacher is one people are afraid of - And that is where the fear of repercussions come into picture
Notice that a country which can be bombed time and again, a country that raises meek protests and talks and does nothing is a country that will not be feared. Go ahead and do a Google search on India and nuclear abilities. We are nuclear and so is Pakistan, but we are not a feared nation... People go on and on about abilities of USA, China, Russia, France and Britain. Do you know what separates them from us though we are nuclear powered? Clout - And this clout is what we lack.
Clout is something that India lacks and thus, we will be like the gnat on the bull tail (Aesop's fable) or worse, the gnat on the cartwheel (Aesop's fable again) where we continue to be jingoistic and think we are great, and go on and on about our country's glory (which perhaps ended at the Vedic period). We are not even a regional power with China growing so rapidly next to us, we continue to be compared with Pakistan rather than China. What is it that we lack? Abilities, talent, resources? We are the best in the world in those, aren't we? And yet, we sit and get bombed - and that too in Mumbai, no less... Kashmir, I would have accepted
Comments