Pune Blasts – Our Response Is Scarier

Unholy stuffs keep visiting us in India. Hence yesterday’s Pune serial blast shouldn’t come as a surprise for us. The real surprise is the manner we yet again reacted to a possible terror strike in one of our cities.

It is pity that in a country which touted to house more intellectuals than rest of the planet put together; we yet not mastered the art of responding to various situations. More so when the situation deals with terror strikes or terrorists. After thousands of terror attacks on our soil we are still not able to devise a mechanism of appropriate and proper communication. We as a nation seldom show maturity in dealing with sensitive and uncomfortable situations. Be it our authorities or we individuals; there is always a lot to be desired when it comes to effective handling of a particular situation.

But has it got to do with anything other than our collective attitude of unaccountability and responsibility ducking? Could there be a possible third or may be fourth and fifth angle to the way we respond when we are attacked?

Let’s look at how we reacted yesterday. The headlines on all our media channels speak volume. “Low intensity serial blasts rock Pune”. Low intensity? I want someone possessing a superior knowledgebase than me clarify this ‘Low intensity’ nonsense to me right now. A bomb blast is a bomb blast. Isn’t it? Where the discussion of its bloody intensity arises here? Low, medium or high; isn’t it fairly and squarely an attack on our soil at the end of the day? Rather being ashamed that we yet again allowed few scoundrels to create ruckus on our street, we are getting joyous that even though they managed to fool us again but not to a larger extent? This is like cheering ourselves by saying – ‘Hang on guys. It is not rape. It is just molestation’.

After investing so much on our internal security; coming up with more number of investigative agencies and counteract units than the number of terror outfits; after numerous assurances from our Prime-Minister and down; if jokers can still sneak through and carry out their nefarious intent in our cities, it is a matter of great concern. Can we really be happy that we yet again failed miserably in protecting ourselves but still thanks to almighty, things could have been way lot worse? What if the so called low intensity bombs triggered a stamped like situation? Being from Pune I know Jangli Maharaj road is no place to play cricket. It always invariably is chock-a-block there. I can imagine the rush that would be prevalent during the evening time. What if the bombs would have panicked one and all? Couldn’t it have resulted in deaths by other means, if not by the blast itself? So how in earth we can brush this off by just terming it as a low intensity blast is beyond me. For me, as long as it has happened and people have no idea on this, there is a problem. Let’s not be too happy for it being low intensity. It can be of high intensity next time if we readily agree to play Ostrich on the current one.

Our reaction always reflects our approach. The first statement that Pune top cop has to deliver on the incident was – ‘This looks like an act of mischief than terror strike since no one is dead’. Shameless? Or is it an understatement? In India, are we not going to term it as a blast if it doesn’t kill a dozen at least? Are we always expecting few to die miserably, every time there is a bloody bomb that goes off? How many of you are convinced that he needs to be sacked immediately alone for this foolish statement of his? That said, his statement tells a lot about what we perceived from this blast. His statement confirms how serious we are for our internal security. His statement confirms we are idiots and clowns of some magnitude and each of us deserve bombs blasting on our own backyards daily. And what the mischief is there in this serial blast? How the hell can one term five digitally triggered bombs going off within a span of 40 minutes as an act of mischief? Mischief? Seriously? If this is mischief then honestly I am feeling like a pathetic human being for I am once been leveled as mischievous for triggering off a Sutli bomb in my college corridor. Do people go out and explode Ammonium Nitrate loaded digitally triggered bombs for an act of mischief? May be in Somalia or Pakistan but not in India. Someone please go to this top cop’s office and educate him of sensible talking. Please!!

Now the question irises, why we perpetually remain a soft target for terror? No I am not comparing us with USA and how they didn’t had anything untoward post 9/11. They are a separate country with completely different geography and as far as I know they certainly didn’t term the 9/11 as an act of mischief or brushed it aside saying ‘Badi Sehron Main Yesi Choti Baat Hoti Rehti Hain’. What about China? They don’t have to suffer even a third of what we are suffering. How they have kept themselves secure from all these terror factories for so long? Do they have a magic wand which we guys don’t have in our possession? Or they don’t have separatists as we do? Or there is something in basics that we have horribly messed up which the Chinese haven’t thankfully?

Our pseudo seculars might issue fatwa on me for telling this, but our approach towards dealing with terror has got lot to do for the precarious position that we are in at present. Look at Afzal Guru and the way we are dealing with him with kid’s gloves. Look at even Kasav. It is close to four years now and we are yet to set an example of that scoundrel. In a world record act of barbarism he butchered hundreds in front of cameras and yet we are dragging our feet to punish that bastard. Rather hanging him on the nearest lamp post, we are feeding him with Biriyani of his choice. These are the precise response of ours that have made us a laughing stock worldwide. The fear psychosis that should have been there with the terrorists and their masters for us has gone thin because of such responses. We don’t punish the culprits but treat them and treat them well.

I know, racking up Afzal Guru or Kasav after every terror strike looks little childish but the truth is too bitter to suppress. Truth is that for votebank we have even left our security and national pride in the firing line. For greed of power we have long forgotten the basic responsibility of us as individuals. To show off a superior nonexistent moral we have drifted away from truth and realty a long time ago. Time is ripe. Time is ripe for some amendments in our attitude in a hurry. Else time is not far when there would be dozens dead in a terror attack and we still would term it as an act of mischief.

But first, someone please rush to that senior cop’s cabin and show him what real mischief is all about. Idiots!!