The story of a Failed Country and a so-called rude city

[My head has had no role in the creation of this piece of writing. It has been my heart throughout. Though I don’t emote much, the happenings of the last 24 hours in Mumbai and Kashmir has had a huge impact on me and my heart could do nothing, but explode.]

Firstly, my heartfelt condolences to the kin of the victims of yesterday’s attack and I sincerely hope the victims’ souls rest in peace. Let us pray the Almighty to give strength to their families to come to terms with the tragedy and hope that these dastardly acts don’t ever happen again, anywhere in the world.

My first impression on seeing the news of blasts in Mumbai was not one of shock. It was one of anger. I was really enraged. What a huge Intelligence failure it has been? The people of Mumbai didn’t deserve such inhuman actions.

In spite of the suddenness of the attack, the Mumbaikars have tried their best to help fellow human beings. Everyone did his bit to help the affected victims – from the rickshaw wallah to the ordinary commuter to the rich businessman on wheels. The spontaneity with which the people came forward to help was indeed touching.

By the way, this was the same city that was branded the rudest in the world by Readers Digest. A pity, that they used very shallow criteria for finding out the civility of the cities. The survey used three tests to take stock of the politeness factor – dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help, checking how often shop assistants said "thank you", and counting how often someone held a door open.

As a matter of fact, the cities of the US came on top in the survey. These were the same cities that witnessed widespread looting and arson in the wake of the Katrina hurricane. Still these cities are better than Mumbai!! You cannot help laughing at that after having seen the way Mumbai responded to the blasts yesterday. The steely determination and grit of the Mumbaikar came to the fore, in the midst of some heavy downpour of rain. They were not going to get bogged down by what had happened. A whole lot of the commuters took it upon themselves to help the injured and carry them to hospitals. And the Queue at the Holy Family hospital to donate blood was on the rise all the time.

Mumbai showed to the world that its citizens could help each other when needed the most and that in the face of adversity; the whole of Mumbai would stand up united in its cause. Hats off to the spirit of the Mumbaikar. Even the Blogger community in Mumbai has come to the rescue, trying to help people abroad with whatever info they have. They have hosted webpages on Blogger and Wiki Jotspot, which can be edited by anyone.

In the first place, why should all this happen to Mumbai? Why should something like this happen to India at all? India is one nation that has never interfered in the matters of other countries. For long, India has maintained the Non-Alignment policy. But the terrorists know that India is a soft target and the mellowed nature of the Indian citizen has only helped build that image.

It all started with Kashmir. The war in Kashmir, a proxy war against India by Islamabad sponsored terrorist organizations never seems to have a full stop. This could have been avoided if only Pandit Nehru had given some thought for the people of Kashmir. It would have been an altogether different situation now if Kashmir was awarded autonomy by Nehru. Instead, he committed a blunder that has changed the whole India-Pakistan equations. Lots of Kashmiri Pandits were killed, many more displaced; and in the last two decades, Kashmir has seen some of the most bloodiest incidents of all time. Yesterday’s serial grenade attacks in Kashmir is testimony to that fact.

I am sure, Jawaharlal Nehru is among the very few people who are as vilified after their death as they were glorified during their lifetime. In spite of all the good that Chacha had done as Independent India’s first PM, he committed a grave mistake; the result of which is the loss of innumerable Kashmiri lives in the last twenty years. So, I would first point my finger towards Nehru’s grave. He was a failed Prime Minister.

Of late, there has been a spate of attacks all over the country. A country of India’s stature should be able to avoid these attacks and lack of Intelligence reports definitely shows the Home ministry in very poor light. The 2003 attacks in Mumbai occurred ten years after the ‘Dawood Ibrahim masterminded’ serial blasts of 1993 and reminded us that all was not well with Mumbai. The Diwali-eve attack in a heavily crowded market area last year in Delhi, the Varanasi attacks, the attack on the IISc, Bangalore and the innumerable number of attacks in Kashmir have re-iterated the fact that Shivraj Patil has not been upto the task in the North Block. The Manipur rape issue, the unsuccessful Naga talks and the directionless talks with ULFA Bodos in Assam indicate the ineffectiveness of Mr. Patil. Now even after the Mumbai blasts of 7/11, Mr. Patil doesn’t impress.

So the lesson to be learnt is this – You needn’t do a good job in your ministry; As long as you remain loyal to 10 Janpath, you wouldn’t lose your job.

In fact, the earth had shaken from under Latur for Shivraj Patil when he lost the 2004 LS Elections from there. Still he was made a minister and given the most important portfolio of Internal affairs and was also shown the back door to enter the Parliament. I held Mr. Patil in high regard when he was the speaker of Lok Sabha during the years 1991-96 and had the impression that he was a man of high integrity. Now I must accept, Shivraj Patil is a failed Home Minister.

Maharashtra has been in the limelight for the past few weeks; albeit for the wrong reasons –

1. First,the Mumbai monsoons have caused havoc for the ordinary public. The Maharashtra government wouldn’t learn from its past mistakes.
2. Vidarbha has seen more than 600 suicides in the last two months alone. The cotton farmers of the place had no other choice than to end their lives, in the wake of their ever-rising debt. The prices of cotton had hit an all time low. If only Vilasrao Deshmukh had kept his election promise of offering Rs. 2500 per quintal of cotton, then the script would have been totally different.
3. The mayhem following the defiling of the statue of Meenatai Thackeray, the late wife of Balasaheb, might have turned into a full blown riot, but for some sensible policemen.

Cotton Agriculture is a failed occupation.
Vidarbha is a story of failed farmers.
Maharashtra is a failed state.
Vilasrao Deshmukh is a failed Chief Minister.
And, with much difficulty, I would say Congress is a failed party.
UPA is a failed government.

All this from a staunch supporter of the Parent Party of India. Sometime back, I would not have even imagined in my dreams that my blog would be full of scathing attacks on Congress and its members. But the inhuman massacre of people yesterday and the continuous failure of Intelligence in India have prompted me to change my stance.

Still, I wouldn’t attack Dr. Manmohan Singh, in spite of him being a puppet in the hands of Sonia; in spite of him being culpable for the Quota Imbroglio; He is the right person in the wrong party. Now, didn’t we say the same thing about Vajpayee too, some years back??

In spite of the UPA's poor performance in the last two years, the opposition NDA seems to be sleeping. The main opposition party, BJP is struggling to cope up with internal problems and has no time to perform the role of a responsible opposition. Even the BJP would accept this fact -
NDA is a failed opposition.

When both the government and the opposition fail miserably, cant we say that ours is a failed country??