Now where do I begin? I was reminded of the movie ANNIYAN when I was going through some of the forums on Orkut and other blogs. Instead of being all vague and high fundaeish I shall try being clear. We people in India blame politicians for what they are. In the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack, there was this politician who was planning to call a nation wide bandh! Agreed that he was downright cheap. And yeah some of the big shots in Mumbai pointed out to it. Even some of us came to know about it. So what about it? The next time before pointing out some flaw or fault in these politicians, MLAs, MPs etc etc let us have a look at ourselves. How many of us are prepared to stand in a security line at an Airport or railway station even if it takes an hour to complete the security check? Last week I was reading an article somewhere in which it was mentioned that the Taj Mahal hotel had a huge blanket of security even a week before the attack. So what happened in the lead up to the D day? This huge blanket of security, the metal detectors etc etc were removed because there was no parking space. These basic security check up stuff where occupying the space in the parking lot. It seems a silly reason to me. Now whom do we blame for the terror attack in the first place? The terrorists for being the perpetrators and killing the innocent? The politicians for being lackadaisical? The commandos and police forces for initiating the operation without a plan? Or ourselves for not following some basic steps to ensure a secure environment? I am not justifying what the terrorists did. Neither am I supporting the politicians. If we the people want to be in a terror free environment, is it not our duty that all of us go through metal detectors at railway stations? Is it not our duty that we wear our identity cards always when we are at work places instead of telling the security guards at the gate: "Arre thu tho mujhe jaantha hai! Tho fir kyon ye ID card? "? I agree that it would be a logistical night mare to ensure security checks at a station like the CST! But I definitely do not think that it is impossible.
Now the above thoughts on one side, I was also reading another forum where in it was asked, how do we make India a terror free country with better politicians who are not corrupt. I understand that such a forum could have even been started to vent out some frustrations at the terror attacks and the manner in which it was approached. What got to my nerves was the fact that each time some politician gets entangled into a web of scandals or controversies (like the
R.R.Patil issue, the Ram Gopal Verma and Vilas Rao Deshmukh scandal) the people blame them for being so insensitive, for being corrupt, for not doing anything for the benefit of the country etc etc. This is utterly laughable. Because it is the same people who would have voted for such politicians. And in some cases some of the complaining people would not even vote or go near a polling booth during elections. We complain that some of the officials in India can be bribed. I disagree. The root cause of bribes is the common man. He does bribe and also accept bribes. For example during the last elections in Tamil nadu, the then opposition party in its campaign stated that it would give a free T.V to everyone if they where voted to power. In fact it was voted to power. During the election campaigns lots of free T.V's where given to the working class. This is one basic example when the common man himself is bribed. Let us consider a different example. As most of you readers of my blog would know, it is rarely a case of following the speed limits in India. And in case the traffic constable does catch someone for over speeding, the people being caught, instead of following the normal procedure bribe the official. The norm would have been to pay a fine of around 1000 bucks at the R.T.O office. Now to avoid that we end up bribing the traffic constable and give him around 300-400 bucks. On the talk show in NDTV "We the people" last Sunday, some of the celebrities where of the opinion that the people should not pay taxes to the government as the government was not doing anything. Is this the way a celebrity should speak? Especially in a country where the celebrities are worshipped like gods? Shame on the person. Yes the politicians might be corrupt. Yes the infrastructure might be inept. But what is the point in just blaming them if we ourselves are corrupt? Every nation does have its share of corrupt officials. But that does not stop many such nations from being ultra-developed. Every basket will have its share of rotten eggs. Does that stop us from eating those eggs? Food for thought may be. Without sounding all preachy, I am just taking a pragmatic view at the way we react to things. Some basic mistakes are contributing to the huge mountains of calamities. Instead of cribbing and getting emotional I believe we should set about correcting those basic mistakes so that in future mole hills do not become mountains.
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