30th Oct 3008

On the 30th of Oct 2008, a series of bomb blast hit 4 towns of Assam, killing and injuring innocent people. Assam is not new to terrorist attacks, having suffered insurgency problems for a couple of decades. But this time, the attack was different. It was a different form of attack – lethal and brutal, akin to the new urban warfares that have sadly become common post 9/11. Previously, the targets were often individuals killed by 2-3 militants or ambushes on military in the mode of guerrilla warfare, carried out in the thick jungles and away from cities. Yes, there have been a few exceptions, but nothing in the scale of what was witnessed on the 30th Oct.
The attack had the signature of foreign hand – blasts that targeted innocent ordinary people in the middle of a working day. And as much as the politicians have been harping on local militants are involved, I refuse to believe that there is no foreign hand in the carnage. It stank of LET jihadis.

But an interesting sidenote was the reaction of people to the blast. People were angry that there was no disaster recovery plan, that fire engines took ages to react and the ambulances were as broken as the injured they were meant to rescue. Of course, public memory is notoriously short and people are back to day to day business, and looking forward to ODI between India and England. Somehow, we term this under the cliché ‘resilience of the human spirit’.

But, is this resilience or apathy ? Honestly speaking, can the pain of the mother who lost her 20yr old to the blast, become any less with the passage of time ? Can any parent actually overcome the pain once they outlive their children ? Can any child forget the father who was snatched suddenly away from her on that day ? No. I think that the pain does not cease. People just exist and forget to live. So while the rest of us, fortunate enough to escape unscathed by the blast, start queuing for the ODI matches and vote for the latest state entrant on Star Voice of India, those unfortunate people suffer from the pain which haunts them ceaselessly.

Should we not do something about this ? Afterall, we are in a democracy and the strength lies in people to bring about a change. Should we not demand an explanation from the government on why there was an intelligence failure ? Why is it that we are resigned to accepting fate and just carry on, ignoring the blatant political misjudgements and misdemeanours of politicians of all hue and creed ( I honestly do not belief that they have any ideological platform).

Why can we not make the following few demands ?

1. Create an Anti terror Squad for Assam, that is adept preventing terrorist attacks and bring them to book. A vital success factor is that this squad should be an independentbody, part of a nationwide anti terror squad and over which, no politician has any influence. Well, in real world, I should perhaps qualify this as ‘have as little influence as possible’. Something like the Election commission.
2. Bring in stringent anti terror laws in the state that allows the terrorist to be tried in special courts and in tougher terms that what is permissible now.
3.Relief the local police of the duty to look after the security of the local people and instead officially concentrate on what they have been doing so far – provide security for the politicians and their wives and mistresses, cook food in the kitchens of their top brass, escort the darling children of the police bosses and do the school run, grow long moustaches and get special allowances for it and harass the common man for bribes. These among several other commendable tasks that they have.
4. Have a proper disaster recovery plan where all the relevant stakeholders are briefed on their role and well equipped to respond to such crisis at short notice.
5. Seal our very porous borders so that the militant movement is restricted. Yes, that will have a dent in the vote bank, but its high time we finished the job which began with a student agitation in the 70s. We do thing Lahe lahe (slowly,slowly), but this is beyond what is humanly possible.
6.Fill the banks of brahmaputra with cotton candy ‘kohuwa’ and other flora and fauna by flushing out the illegal migrants. They can raise the Bangladeshi flag in peace across the border.
7.Educate the masses and eliminated the hate preachers who have infiltrated the very insides of our rural geo-politcal landscape.

These and many more steps….

Yes, the tribe of politicians will be loathe to agree to any of the above. But, then we ordinary people also have a right to live and feel the security offered to the politicians by the police force. We too have a right to breathe freely and not having to worry everytime someone steps out of the house.
If everybody stands up in one voice, we can make it. But, question is, will we stand up together ?