A month has passed since Mumbai faced one of the most devastating terrorist strikes on 26 November, 2008, the date which has gone down in the annals of history as 26/11. The memory has not yet faded. The feelings of trauma, shock and anguish are still green in our hearts and minds. The event is sinking in the collective psyche of our nation. We do not want to forget it. The gun battles played out at some of the icons of the city of Mumbai reminded us of what it means to be a nation under siege.
There are people out there, across the borders, who are hell bent on harming India, bleeding civil society of India. The birth and rise of the Indian nation has not gone down well with these people. Call them anything: state actors or non-state actors. They have a single point agenda. They are terrorists.
You are not a hawk, you are not a maverick, if you are advocating to have them stamped out. You are just a sensible and sensitive human being, who is sincere about saving the humanity from the scourge of terrorism.
Now we get down to pick up the pieces and try to make some sense of how this might have happened notwithstanding our mighty and many-splendoured state security apparatus: the IB, RAW, the Police, the Army, the Navy, the Cost Guard and last but not the least our ever articulate and preachy political leaders occupying the top rungs of governments. One certainly should not tarnish the administrative agencies and the political executive with the same brush. But it is hard to look at the accountability issue in a fragmented manner. For us, the citizens of India, the Indian state (comprising both administrative and political ruling class) has failed miserably to secure safety for us and it definitely was found wanting when a few jihadi youths ran amok on the night of 26/11 and took the southern and the most iconic part of India's commerical hub by a ghastly surprise. The most tragic revelation of this episode is how we have not learnt the lessons and were caught off guard again in spite of being a victim of terrorist acts since so many years. Terrorism is not alien to us.
That said, we must recognize that the challenges to internal security are also formidable. After all, India has banned at least 34 organizations/groups and we can say at any given time India is at war with 34 internal enemies, not to mention Pakistan and other sovereign state actors and non-state actors (if one can ever distinguish between the two) active in our neighbourhoods.
This question sends chill down our spine. But we now cannot avoid posing it.
ARE WE PREPARED? CAN WE EVER SAY THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM IS WON?
