Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attacks have again brought out our inability to deal with an enemy that is obviously working hard on his strengths. We all know for sure that terrorists have nothing to lose. When someone is ready to die, no law can be a deterrent. Laws come into picture only when you catch these terrorists alive, which happens only once in a blue moon. What is most required is our defense establishments to increase surveillance and plugging the gaps in our porous borders.
What happened on 26/11 was nothing less than a grim reminder of what we lack with respect to our defense shield. How can 10 men cross over into our country from Mumbai, and that too through the Gateway of India. How can three levels of security be breached by terrorists, especially when our forces had intelligence reports of a possible attack.
Corruption is rampant in every part of our life, and our security forces have also been a victim of the same. It is an open secret now that the bullet-proof vests that were worn by the top cops of Mumbai on that fateful day was of substandard quality. The fact that the bullets fired by the terrorists could penetrate the so-called bullet-proof vests shows how much we compromise on things. Of course, there is nothing new about how much we compromise on our national security. During the Chinese aggression in 1962, our brave soldiers at the Chinese border realized the substandard quality of the guns that were handed to them to guard the national borders. Most of the guns did not work in extreme weather conditions. This is how much we care about our soldier who is guarding our borders. Of course, we are definitely much better of today with respect to the guns at the border.
On the one hand the terrorists and gangsters have upgraded themselves to AK series and M series of automatic machine guns, and on the other hand, our government expects our policemen to counter them with 303 rifles, a technology which the west discarded after World War II. Remember this was the same rifle the British used during World War I. Our politicians want "Z Level Security" for themselves. Of course, for 75% of them it is more of a status symbol than a security need. However, the security they provide to the general public is policemen with .303 rifles. During 26/11, at the CST, the CCTV video clearly showed the constable trying to fire at the terrorist, but the gun did not work. He had no other choice but to throw the gun away and run for cover.
Even after all this has happened, some of our politicians still shamelessly demand high security for no rhyme or reason.
For almost a decade our defense forces have been screaming at the top of their lungs that they need to upgrade their weapons system. Our fighter jets are dying (and killing our precious pilots along the way), our submarines and ships are dying, yet our politicians do not feel it is high priority. One might say that some of our ships still have a decade of life more in them; however, what we need to remember is that defense deal is not like buying a TV and getting a home delivery the next day. It takes almost a decade for delivery of the consignment after the order is placed. If we order today, we will get the delivery after 10 years.
I am proud to be an Indian and I love my country a lot. It pains me a lot that our politicians are so selfish in their motives. For them their party and power is paramount and everything else comes later.
In hopes of a safe future, I pray to God that in the New Year, they all wake up to the fact that there would be no power without a safe country and happy citizens.
WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009.