Make The Change By Making Up Our Minds

 “It’s over. The terror has been averted”

“The stranglehold of the terrorists on our great city has been released”

“NSG – Our new found heroes”

Over the next few days, these are the kind of stories we’ll be seeing beaming out of the newspapers. We’ll follow a similar pattern – we’ll forget 26/11 and be reminded of it only on 26/11 next year; we’ll find a new hero to worship (NSG, some cricketer cracking a century, a fiery politician making a vehement speech, a corporate honcho who’ll ring a bell at Wall Street); we’ll forgive our politicians and turn up in hordes to vote in June 2009.

Because in India, there are no ghosts!! There are no ghosts that remind us of our past, no ghosts that keep staring us in our face reminding us of our scariest nightmare, no ghosts that make us want to face our fears.

We’re happy pointing fingers at Pakistan, cribbing about our politicians and corrupt system, being indifferent to terrorist attacks and moving on with life like nothing ever happened.

Tell you what – we can keep living like this. We can fool ourselves by saying that it’s all done and dusted, no one is going to get to us again. But the harsh reality is that we’ve now just been introduced to the effective of extremist terrorism. We’ve been told that whether its our trains, our hotels, our stations, our homes or our airports; we can be hurt and gagged anytime we want. Our most basic right of existence is under threat and yet, we choose to ignore it and move on with our lives.

We can make the change to stop this if we want to. As  much as I hate to say this; our 9/11 has now happened and we must exercise the same message that Obama is preaching to America – change.

But change in our case needs to begin with a change in our perspective. A few changes we must internalize to deal with our situation are:

1.       Pakistan cannot be a diversion everytime for our own inadequacies: Yes, we’ll discover the ISI’s involvement in 26/11. Yes, the government will promise and probably take some firm action. Yes, we’ll all concentrate our emotional energies on Pakistan’s downfall. And yes, we will thus be looking in wrong direction. Terrorism has no religion or nationality; so it’s not about who attacked us but about whether we were adequately ready. And the answer to that is big NO. We must demand the government to provide for and prepare for a war against terrorism and NOT for a war against Pakistan alone

 

2.       Political Leadership must stand up during tough times not just during political jousting: So who was the leader of our 3 day operation against the terrorists? Not the CM, he showed up only after Oberoi was in control. Not the PM, his speech proved that a. he had no plan b. he had no mettle to deal with terrorist threats (he’s a great economist but probably not a good leader). Not Raj Thackeray, for all his rabble rousing about Mumbai, there wasn’t a whimper from him in the last two days. Not Narendra Modi, he was too bust making the issue a targeted attack against the government? Who was making the tough calls? As is apparent from the interviews of the NSG and army officials, there wasn’t a single political leader adding value to the entire operation. We haven’t voted in a single leader in the current system who has the mettle and the attitude of being one. And that is a decision we need to take blame for. In June 2009, we must make our vote count by selecting a leader with the intent of making the change and taking the charge; not just one capable of swaying public opinion by caste politics and oratory skills.

 

3.       Media is not about entertainment alone; its responsibility towards society must be demanded: India TV covered the terrorists attacks like it covers a “baba walking on water”; looking for sensationalism at the cost of responsible reporting. That’s true of all the Hindi and some English news channels as well (Times Now & CNN IBN were exceptions).  Sensationalizing speculation during such times amounts to being an alibi in a possible death/murder because the panic that such news causes is quite unimaginable. And the consequences even more so. Yet, India TV has the highest TVRs amongst news channels. As long as we don’t make the distinction between news and entertainment, such irresponsible channels will keep thriving. We must encourage responsible media reporting by subscribing to it, not by dismissing it as too “newsy”. The media of the country is its eyes and ears to the world and its surroundings. Hence it’s our job to ensure that the media is responsible.

 

4.       Our Hard Earned Money Requires Greater Accountability: Do we want the taxes we pay to fund the convoys of our politicians or the weapons that our policemen ought to use? I rest my case

 

I agree each of these need to be acted upon. I also agree what needs to be done to accomplish some of these does not come easily or quickly. It may take a few years but it will happen if we push for them. And it won’t if we do what we normally do, forget about it and move on!!