Mumbai attack aftermath

Hotel Taj : icon of whose India? - by Gnani Sankaran

I completely agree with the above write up. A friend of mine, Naveen, wrote the following in an email discussion that happened about this article in a google group (posted here with permission; emphasis mine).

thanks for forwarding this jaganath. in a face saving effort NDTV added a small segment on the announcers at CST after 3 days of forgetting. Barkha Dutt's coverage made me want to vomit (don't receive the other channels, so cant say abt the rest). It was obvious she was using the whole thing to make a name for herself, and her company. whip up frenzy and act like a moral guardian of the society. and whose icons are these places anyways? i make it a point a walk around south-bombay everytime am in town, but have never even noticed leopold's or the two hotels. CST, vada pav joints nearby, the old book shops, Iranian bakeries and parsi joints, the university etc hold far more charm. Am sure this applies to a lot of common citizens who don't hang out at pubs and 5 star parties. So 'icon'-izing of certain parts over the others, comes across as trying to mainstream a certain narrative of what south-bombay stands for, and thats a deep loss for those of us to whom it means a lot many more things. also, where were all these people who are now jumping up and down about the lack of the "crisis management", during the recent bihar floods (or a hundred other such calamities before) where the govt had been incompetent. There was nobody besieging the home minister then, no celebrities on TV demanding accountability, or no prime-time journalists in the 'line of fire' (or water). While terror related events are serious and needs to be dealt with (hopefully not with more 'WAR on terror'), this whole 'the sky has fallen down', 'we are have been betrayed' etc tone of the channels reeks of hypocrisy. we need to be careful of whatever they are trying to peddle into our heads.

India has always (at least since I have been alive) had inept and self serving politicians. Be it natural calamaities or terror strikes, when it affects the common man it does not matter to the govt but when it affects the high and mighty, the entire might of India is pulled in to respond. In the 2001 parliament attack, a total of 7 people died. India responded by beating the war drums and mobilized its armed forces for a full scale war with Pakistan (thankfully, good sense or good luck prevailed). Yes, the symbol of Indian democracy was attacked and thats a very serious issue. The problem is not with the response per se but with the relative lack of response in other cases when the high and mighty are not injured. Similarly, now, after the rich and famous were attacked, large scale resignations of senior politicians ensued as India is preparing for a war time dance. In the 2006 mumbai train bombings, more than 200 people were killed and over 700 injured. No politician deemed it necessary to resign on account of moral responsibility. Now, after the current crisis, the Union Home minister Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra Deputy Chief minister R.R. Patil and the Chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh resigned owning up moral responsibility. These people were in power even during the 2006 mumbai train bombings but none of them chose to own up moral responsbility then. Shouting now about an incapable political system might be useful if it brings about a change but the fact that the govt responds, the govt is asked to respond by media and people, only when high profile lives are threatened is something that all Indians need to be seriously concerned about.