Mountain of light

The Mumbai bomb blasts were a nasty jolt. I was checking the web for the Srinagar blasts trying to find information about a relative who is in Srinagar for her honeymoon and then the websites picked up one blast after another in Mumbai. My first thought that these blasts were all connected to each other. My heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families. This is indeed an Intelligence failure as has been made out by most experts.

But I also think this has been an Intelligence failure of the nation at large and that includes you and me. While our country has been waging a low intensity battle in Kashmir, you and me have gone about our lives as if nothing has happened. We have gone about our lives as if such things only happen in Kashmir and they are sort of restricted to that part of the country and it will never affect us. In that spirit, we have also never bothered to question the government on what exactly it is doing to solve the Kashmir problem.

This problem has been making headlines for about 50 years now and I can’t remember this being a talking point in a single general election. It does not affect us until we see bomb blasts affect our near and dear ones and then we get all angry and want to wage a war against our western neighbour. It is very easy to blame an issue on Pakistan, but I like to ask my government on what it is doing to prevent this tragedy from happening again? We are a hugely successful economy and taking the right steps forward to claim our rightful place in the league of nations, we have an ancient civilization, rich culture, oh and also we have nuclear weapons etc. But how can we let this problem fester for more than 50 years and then allow it to take innocent lives of people who are far away from the root of the problem.

What have those poor commuters, who travel like cattle in peak hour local train, got to do with the Kashmir issue? How can the Prime Minister just turn up in Mumbai and blame Pakistan for supporting terrorism? Is it so easy, just blaming a neighbour and your job is done? What would we do tomorrow if Maoists blow up a train and kill 200 people? Who will we blame? Chairman Mao? China? Keeping in the spirit of symbolism, secretary level talks between India and Pakistan have been called off and the Indian government will try and put pressure on the Pakistan government to stop aiding terrorists. Like the government controls these terrorists, like terrorism ever stops like this?

We the people of this country, the “wheels of the economy” need to come up with a solution. The politicians have failed us and will continue to fail us.