Terrorists struck Mumbai last week killing almost 200 people. Sure terrorists have stuck Mumbai before. Remember 1993 Mumbai blasts or the July 2006 blasts. Both these terror attacks killed as many people as on the recent attacks. So why did the heads in high places i.e. Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh, State Home Minister RR Patil, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, roll this time.
Gaurav Kalra for CNN-IBN and Ajith Pillai for Outlook India Magazine offer one plausible explanation.
According to Gaurav Kalra," Elite India has for the first time been shaken out of its slumber as terror has attacked what were so far its impenetrable citadels.
The Taj Mahal hotel was insulated before that fateful Wednesday night from all that was wrong with India. It is here while sipping on over priced coffee or gorging on grotesquely expensive stir fry noodles that corporate honchos ridiculed the real India; an India they were squeamish to be part of. Fake sympathy for terror victims in Delhi or Ahmedababad or Bangalore mixed well with the cocktails in the secure environs of the Taj and the Oberoi. It is here that the mafia of new age cricket struck its big ticket deals, here that film producers with suitcases full of cash lured overpaid actors to act appear in their soulless films."
These POV's raise more questions then provide answers. Granted heads have rolled in high places in government circles both at the state and central levels. But is this because high profile targets like the Taj Hotel and Oberoi Hotel have been attacked? Or is it because there have been several terror attacks within the last few months, and suddenly the government realized that it had to tackle this menace? Or is it because we have a general election coming up in May 2009 and the ruling UPA government realized that if it did not act now, the voters may not elect it in the upcoming election?
The pundits may try to analyze it from every angle, but the answer may not be one or the other, but a combination of all of the above.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've heard about the article in Outlook. Their theory is quite plausable but I don't agree with it a 100%.
ReplyDeleteI think the specter of terrorists moving freely with guns and killing people in railway stations, hospitals, and restaurants is what has pushed the Indian people over the brink. The casualities at the Taj and the Trident are no more unfortunate than the deaths of people waiting to board the trains at CST or the folks at Leopold Cafe.
As I say at the end of my post, this might be one of the reasons for why the government response has been so aggressive. Ofcourse the repeated attacks and the upcoming general elections also played a part in it
ReplyDelete