Say Thank You

We are a country in crisis at the moment. We might be far from Mumbai, we might be around the corner from Nariman house. We're tense, we're scared, we don't know what is going on. How did this happen? How could they not have known it was going to happen? How long will this go on?

We don't know. We don't know why the intelligence failed. And we are not likely to find out either because it's going to become politics and elections. We are not prepared for a crisis this size, we don't have the social systems in place to make it smooth and easy.

On TV people are hurling abuse, pointing fingers: the blame game has begun. Narendra Modi has indicated quite clearly that the priority is winning the elections; the politicians haven't even waited for the crisis to end. One group that has been blamed for this is the police.

I want to take a second to just say thank you to those same abused policemen. The army, the navy, the NSG, the RAF, the reserve police: Thank you all for your efforts. Nobody trained you for urban guerilla warfare with so many civilians in the crosshairs. Nobody gave you bulletproof vests or AK47s. The enemy looks like the civilians. The media is busy broadcasting your strategy internationally and the terrorists only need to switch to CNN IBN to be up to date. The terrorists can kill civilians, and you'll be blamed. You have to fix this. And you're doing it, no questions asked.

So thank you.

And send it on. Add to it. Let's try and get as many people who are grateful to the security forces to articulate it and acknowledge it, and maybe we can let the forces know as well.




Below this is a post by a blogger I love to read. It's a good point he's making.

Dear Mumbai Police and NSG

I know you guys are busy right now with the terrorists but I HAVE to draw this to your attention. I have just been watching a program on the Times Now channel where four people namely Alyque Padamsee, Farooq Sheikh, Shefali Shah and one guy named Sohail, I think were discussing the situation with the anchor, a bespectacled gawd-help-us whose name I could not catch.

These four people are ANGRY. Not with the terrorists, who they feel are only misguided souls doing what they've been told, and doing it rather well, thank you very much, but with YOU.

Yes, they feel that you don't know what you are doing.

How can you take SO MUCH TIME? snarls Shefali.

What EXACTLY have you been upto during the last 20 hours? snarls Sohail, who also wants to know why the Mumbai Police had to wait 8 hours before deciding to call for Army assistance. He feels, and who is to fault his crystal clear logic, that the Army should be called for any situation including a bad traffic day.

Farooq Shaikh wishes you people were atleast half as well prepared as the terrorists, calling your performance amateurish.

And Alyque Padamsee just ranted something in an impeccable accent. Probably doesn't like the way you people dress.

All four also blamed you for allowing this kind of thing to happen. Don't you people KNOW, they ask, that you are not supposed to let terrorists fire at people?

Shefali also expressed disgust at the cursory way her car is checked when she frequently goes to five star hotels. Just a mirror under the car and open the boot. What if she's carrying AK47's on the back seat? It's YOUR fault, she insinuates. You don't teach the five star hotel security ANYTHING!

So people, brave and fearless though you might be, and though all of you have fearlessly jumped into battle with opponents you know next to nothing about, other than that they are armed to the teeth with high explosives, we feel you need some expert coaching.

Why don't you take these four wonderful people and shove them into the corridor in the Taj or the Oberoi? I'm sure you would learn a lot!