Dec 1, 2008

Irresponsible leaders

‘How much is too much?,’ says it all! The deputy Chief minister of Maharashtra said ‘such small incidents occur’. What thoughts was the Dy CM in while he made the statement? Such an irresponsible act!

Why on earth would a chief minister take his ‘naa-layak’ (good-for-nothing) son and a filmmaker along with him during the visits to the blast affected places? Cheap publicity was adopted by the politicians this time!

As Shobaa De mentioned in the Weekend Edition in IBNLive, we shouldn’t consider the sugar-coated statements made by celebrities at the Candle Vigils etc. We should face the problem, and none of the politicians are doing it.

Should civilians take up the responsibility and fight against it? It is after all the leaders elected by us that are holding the positions. We have held them responsible for the security lapse. Why do not the leaders realize that they are representatives of the people and serve people better?

The MNS led by Raj Thackarey was no where! It was the 'North' Indian soldiers who came and helped free the city from terrorists! The so-called action heroes who bash up thousands of thugs on screen, were sleeping with a pistol beneath their pillow. Why show such an image on-screen and leave an ever-lasting impression in the people's minds?

The South Mumbai MP, Milind Deora, made both responsible and irresponsible statements about accountability. But hopefully he doesn’t seem to be a run-of-the-mill politician, and is young too! We need people like him, young and daring to lead the nation.

I want to be a part of the change, in whatever way I can!

Mumbai burns.... yet again!

The Mumbai blasts have left an everlasting impact in the Indian mind and in the world as well. The blasts seemed so well planned that one wonders if the people behind this were given responsibility of doing good things, they would be adept at it as well. But sadly not all intelligent brains are utilized for the benefit of man-kind.

Much has been said about the lack-luster performance of the former Home minister and Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, but it indeed is a sad fact that this was a clear indicator on the negligence on part of the government, not paying heed to the intelligence reports.

While Mumbai as usual came back to near-normalcy the day following the blasts, the battle between the NSG commandoes and the terrorists raged on for close to three days. A lot of lives, including several officers from the forces were lost in the process. Mumbai, as one of my friends said, will never be the same again.

The media was quite adept in capturing the entire proceedings, while not trying cheap gimmicks. As Suhail Seth said in a discussion show on Times Now, the media worked towards a better cause this time.

One of the many incidents that touched my heart in this process was this one highlighted on IBNLive. There was this kid who with his parent was dining at one of the restaurants. He was in the restroom when the terrorists got in. The kid was rescued by one of the waiters and he ran out, to be rescued by one other kind-hearted soul who took the kid to his house. The kid was re-united with his parents later. The way the kid described the event was nothing but emotional. The rescuer Ritik said ‘I don’t know if I rescued the kid or if the kid rescued me!,’ which clearly showed his humane nature. Good to see that such people still exist in the world.

While I was on a trip to Utah, a lot of people around asked our group about the happenings in Mumbai. God only knows if they had heard of Mumbai earlier, but this surely brought Mumbai and India in the news again, but for wrong reasons!

May the souls of the departed rest in peace!