January 15, 2006

When Terror Visited

28th Dec, 2005.
It was a cold evening in the month of December. I would have added, in the sleepy town of Bangalore. But that would have been referring to a bygone era. One of the safest havens in India, and i must admit, Rajiv Gandhi's assasins thought the same. It has always been a safe city.

A myth shattered by recent events. In the run up to it, we must consider the role IT has played in the transformation. The Silicon Valley of the East, the base of numerous software companies. One of the primary reasons Bangalore is now a cosmopolitan city with people from all over the country, and all over the world.

There have been events that indicated a terror strike was imminent. Terrorists apprehended in Delhi and elsewhere were found to be in possession of lists with Bangalore's premier institutions on the so called 'hit list'. Obviously, Bangalore's success as an IT hub has not gone unnoticed in other parts of the world. That includes the terrorist networks, whose primary focus in India had so far been concentrated on Jammu and Kashmir. Well, Not Anymore.

We are not prepared for any attack, I'm afraid. There was this case where a Bomb threat had been received at ITPL, and all the employees were evacuated out of the buildings. But after we were sent out of the buildings, there was no coordination. There were some who lingered on the adjoining lawns, looking up at the buildings. True, a terrorist attack does not come with any warnings, their intent is to kill innocents, not let them escape in time.

Coming to the shootout at IISc, the official reaction to the incident took many by surprise. The CM, safely esconsced in his bungalow leisured scheduled a meeting with the Chief of Police - at 11 AM the NEXT morning. By which time, the terrorists had plenty of time to make a clean getaway. Contrast this with the US/UK, where the the President/Prime Minister would have immediately scheduled status meetings; often running into the night with hourly reports being prepared on the progress in pursuing the guilty.

India has a long way to go where safety and security is concerned. A nation where human life is cheap, where reports of people dying is but an ordinary occurence. There are so many things we are imbibing from the west, but clearly, the value of human life is not one of them. The US would hunt down the killers of any US citizen. We can't and don't expect such a thing from our government. Its time for change. I wonder if anyone is listening.

1 comment:

Juggernaut said...

Hey bonehead... add some blogger add-ons to your blog.. you are an IT Grad :-((

Add some statcounter/Shoutbox and Blogroll me!

Go find it urself how it is done!
I've blogrolled you (if u undertsand what it means! :-(( )