Tragedy of Errors?

We are commemorating 26/11. The media are busing crafting fancy theories about how terrorists came, how the Mumbai police and security agencies fared and how much vulnerable we still are to a terrorist attack. Some bravehearts walked straight into a line of fire on that fateful night and some faint-hearted just fumbled in responding to the call of duty. We are taking stock of what actually happened. We are still picking up the pieces. A year has passed since Indian's very own 9/11 played out in Mumbai. Here is a snapshot of the contours emerging from the event that shook all of us.

(1) The incumbent political party at both Centre and State has been voted back to power (Wasn't 26/11 serious enough to be an important poll issue?)

(2) It's not very clear what the government is doing about doing up the intelligence apparatus and fixing the fabled 'inter-agency co-ordination' problem. A new bureaucratic body called NIA has been created which would take time in finding its feet. What about reforms in the existing institutions?

(3) We did not stand our political class when 26/11 happened. If one looks back at the events that happened during last 12 months, our mistrust of our political class has only trebled. (Koda scam, Maharashtra assembly oath-taking ceremony, Shiv Sena's nativism and violence, Spectrum allocation scam, Manu Sharma's parole......). Are our ministers capable of organizing an efficient and motivated security apparatus? Can they lead by example?

(4) America still helps Pakistan no matter how hard President Obama would try to placate and pacify Indian government. We cling on to the N-deal and avoid 'straight talking' with the US while our neighbour continues to plot new designs of bleeding us, motivated by the stupendous success of 26/11.

(5) We do not know if we would be able to thwart another 26/11 in future. This is where lies the singular failure of our governments. Whatever they're doing and are seen to be doing fails woefully to reassure us, the Aam Adami (common citizen) of India.