Bloodbath in Delhi

On 28th July, precisely a month and a half ago, I wrote about the blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore ("Deals, Deaths and Democracy). And yesterday Delhi got bombed. Not one, two...there were five severe explosions in the crowded market places - the pulse of Delhites especially on a weekend. We (I am Vasudha) went out too but for a movie (The Last Lear) but that was in Gurgaon and not in fateful Delhi. It was 7:00 PM. I was in the kitchen preparing food when my father called up and told about the TV reports on serial blasts in Delhi. I was shell shocked and so was Vasudha. We'd got a movie DVD to watch but the terror strike was so intriguing that I got hooked to it and the movie was a passé. But once the gory details and the scary pictures started coming in, it was soon a sad scenario. 15 Dead and still counting...There were over 100 injured. By the time I switched on the TV in the morning at 5AM, the death toll was already double (30) and there were several severely injured waiting to die in the hospitals all over the city. Welcome to New Delhi, the capital of the future Nuclear Power and the world's fastest growing economic super power. Our entire political machinery is busy licking American ass and feet to make the nuclear deal happen forgetting that there is a huge nation to manage.

The whole of police machinery, intelligence agencies and the so-called political faces of various political parties were all in action all of a sudden. There were condemnation notes issued by various political parties. Burkha Dutt, the high profile Editor in Chief of NDTV sparked the political blame game by calling the opposition party leaders and forcing them to comment against the ruling UPA. On the other hand, there were other news channels literally arm twisting the government's ineffectiveness and failure of the entire intelligence machinery. Again, welcome to the country, which is fighting more battles with in the nation than with its external enemies. No sooner did the blasts occur, the TV channels started beaming the copies of emails sent to them about the "Game of Death". The so-called Indian Mujahiddins (a new terror outfit supported by Huji and LeT) took the responsibility of these blasts across the city challenging the cops and intelligence 'Do whatever you can, try if you can catch us'. The defiant terrorists are out on the move - freely roaming across the length and breadth of India creating havoc time and again and the alertness of Indian intelligence is just not bothered to pay any attention to the clear and present danger looming large over us.

Who cares? No one! Is it the people of this country who are responsible for their own security and well-being? This situation calls for a national scrutiny from province to province. Not even one province is doing well!

J&K is burning as ever. The terrorism is still not ready to spare this troubled state and to top it all, there are bloody controversies like the recent 'Amarnath Row'.

Rajasthan, the Gujjars barely withdrew there agitation that the terror struck in Jaipur. The Cycle bombs killed over 70-80 people in the walled city.

Uttar Pradesh is forever reeling under mismanagement whether it is administrative failure or civic amenities.

Orissa just saw a very bad incident of ethnic violence, which erupted, with the murder of a Hindu saint. After that Kandhmal and the whole of Orissa was burning and the points of attack were the churches all over the state. The memories of the heinous murder of the social worker Graham Stewart Stains are revived.

West Bengal is otherwise a peaceful province but the unwanted protagonists and not-so-mass leaders like Mamta Banerjee have created a windfall for the state's industrial growth by her never-ending agitation in Singur - the place where Tata were to set up a car factory for the Rupees One Lakh dream car of India - Nano. The whole agitation took a really bloody shape when it became political and started serving the interests of low-grade politicians like Mamta Banerjee, who has little or no base in the state.


Andhra Pradesh is always under a naxalite threat.

In Maharashtra, there is a new type of terror evolving - the terror outfit is Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the so called political outfit of Raj Thakre, nephew of Shiv Sena patriarch Balasaheb Thakre. Although Mumbai is called the financial capital of India and also the hub of all cinematic activities but when it comes to dogmatic style of living, it is second to none. This MNS and Raj Thakre have just one agenda - drive non-Marathi speaking population out of the state. But this is purely a gimmick to conceal the effectiveness of this breakaway outfit. As it is Shiv Sena is losing ground in Maharashtra and to top it all Raj Thakre's MNS has no concrete agenda to follow and pursue so the Marathi plank is the makeshift agenda for the party. If nothing else, Raj wants all the signboards on shops and commercial establishments to display names in 'Marathi'...Ask him if this really solves any purpose.

Gujarat, the otherwise peaceful and prosperous state was again a target of terror attacks and Surat, which was nowhere on the terror hit list was chosen to plant uncounted bombs.

So this is our national scenario. And then there's Delhi - the most sensitive place to live in this country. Three year's back the capital was attacked by terrorists killing over 100 people just before the festival of Diwali. Yesterday again, the capital was compromised.

But as ever, Rs. 5 Lakh for the kins of dead and Rs. 50,000 for the injured and a few statements from our thick rhino-skinned politicians - "It's a moment of national grief", "We shall stand united", "The terrorists will not be spared". What does it all mean? The terror gods know its India. A place where the law of the land is taken for ransom and everyone knows that it is not only easy to escape after committing the crime but also easy to escape the judicial system.

Ask those thick-skinned politicians if they are moved at all by such instances. We have a few ministers like Shri Prakash Jaiswal (Minister of State for Home Affairs) who shamelessly accept the defeat of government machinery and say, "I agree the terrorists were able to dodge the intelligence. But we are still just bothered about 'Nuclear Deal'. I am sure you’ll all agree with me that the state of affairs of this country and the problems of the nation are more pertinent and to be looked into rather than just running behind this coveted nuclear deal, which god know will ever be able to do any good to India.