Handling Terrorism in India

This month saw the terror attacks in Jaipur, the much visited city of India, also known as the “Pink City”. It is the capital of Rajasthan State. The intent of the attack seems to be focused on scaring off the foreign tourists who throng this part of India. But now just after 10 days of the attack, things seemed to have returned to normal.

However, the normalcy is misleading. In the last decade or so, there have been close to around 50 terrorist attacks on Indian soil, and everytime, things appear to have been forgotten. Hundreds of people have died, but the impact is simply forgotten. This state of affairs is just deplorable.

How can a proud nation like India tolerate such indignities on its soil, hurting its very fabric of civil society ? And, how can it move on, without taking corrective actions which sting current and future terrorists and their plans ?

The argument that India is resilient, and moves on without much effect whatsoever, is just hogwash.

Further, it does give citizens a feeling of helplessness to counter any untoward attacks in future - they eventually give up on Government. This should not be the case. Citizens should demand action, and get the Government of the day to act decisively and vigourously.

That happened in the United States post 9/11. This is a case study of an assertive and determined Government (I would not like to comment on the party itself !), which went about in a methodical fashion to (a) formulate a decisive response plan for thwarting future terror attacks on American soil ; (b) communicate to its Citizens that there would be curbs on their personal liberties which they have cherished over the years, to defend the nation as a whole.

The Department of Homeland Security was established as a result.

The result is there for all to see - there has not been a single known attack on U.S. soil after 9/11. If that is not proof of the work done by the Government, what else is ? Governments need to protect their citizens. Period.

But the political wranglings and appeasement techniques used in India have only resulted in a series of terror attacks over the years. There is apparently no coordination between central and state intelligence agencies. There is no vigourous Governmental response to terror attacks. In a nutshell, the Indian response to such attacks can only be termed as “feeble”.

Coming from Singapore, where there is a very high degree of coordination amongst Government agencies, this is indeed shocking. One can dismiss Singapore as too small to be compared with a vast nation like India. What about the United States, which is roughly 2.5 times the size of India in terms of land area ?

I am also shocked with the apparent nonchalance of the educated people around. They do not seem to mind as long as they get to enjoy the day - I mean, TODAY ! Such an indifference, and short-sightedness, would not help the Government. Politics looms large in a democracy like India, wherein the immediate compulsions are to satisfy or forecast the desires of the electorate.

This is just unfortunate, and does not give confidence that a solid foundation is being laid on the ground to fight the terrorists. They will gain confidence instead to launch new attacks on a weak state. That would lead to more losses of innocent lives, which is despicable. Government cannot do anything about the loss of lives.

Look at United States, Israel, and Singapore. See how they manage and handle terrorism. I am sure that there are many attacks which are not consummated due to the planned responses of the intelligence agencies of such determined countries. That means lots of lives are getting saved on a continuous basis, even without the knowledge of the common man on the street ! Isn’t that the way to go forward in India as well ?

India should formulate a plan very quickly, and set up the equivalent of Homeland Security Dept with powers which are nationally applicable. No questions asked. The results only should matter. The sooner this is done, better it is for all Indian Citizens.

Let us hope the Honourable Dr Manmohan Singh’s Government sees the rationale (I am sure it does) in establishing a coordinated national response system to completely and totally thwart any kind of terrorist attacks on Indian soil. I am sure that India can do this quite well, and rather quickly, if the political compulsions are laid to rest. Forever. For the safety of Indians.

Have a wonderful and peaceful weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
24h May 2008
Mumbai

Braindead Mumbai Drivers

Here we return to one of my favourite areas of human analysis - the character of drivers on the road.

I am sorry to be in a position to reiterate that drivers, whether they are hired or owners of the cars that they drive, are generally not worthy of owning a drivers’ licence in the first place. This is especially true of Mumbai suburban drivers. The same drivers follow the rules, more or less, when they drive in South Mumbai, where the police do not tolerate (a) violation of traffic rules, especially beating the traffic signals ; (b) rash driving ; and (c) drunken driving. In the Western Suburbs of Mumbai, somehow none of this works - one rarely sees policemen anyway. The most dangerous thing that one observes while driving in the suburbs is that no driver seems to care much about traffic signals, or about beating the red lights. They are rarely caught by the police, and since the violators can easily escape through usual means, there is no disincentive not to repeat the offence.

I drove today, being a Sunday, to my Club and back home, along with my family. I observed total anarchy between Malad / Goregaon (West) and Andheri (West). There should have been traffic signals at many heavily trafficked intersections, but unfortunately the government does not bother to study these dangerous, life-threatening points and take necessary action to install traffic signals. The more serious problem is what I mentioned above, that people do not care if there are traffic lights or not. They rush past - don’t know why they have to speed. The added element is that the pedestrians cross the road at any point of their choosing - in fact, they seemed to be crossing all over the place. It is difficult to manage the car, when you suddenly see (a) the car in front of you has decided to make a right turn, when there are no such “official” right turns, and so suddenly switches on the right signal of the car - you have no choice but to bunch up behind, or like most people do, make a cautious “left escape”, making a series of vehicles to gasp for brakes ; (b) pedestrians crossing, and ladies with kids on them also choosing to cross because there is no choice left - and if you are on the rightmost lane, you see people on the right edge of the centre divider - I dread to imagine what would happen if a car grazes any one of these folks, which would cause a series of accidents on the road. What is amazing is that the pedestrians are totally nonchalant - they hardly care, and seem to be absolutely sure that no vehicle would be able to hit them. A very bad assumption, I would say, given the poor quality of the Indian drivers, especially the hired ones.

There is another dangerous element - owners pushing their hired drivers to “make it fast”. I always tell my driver to be careful and go slow, and even with this contrarian advise, my driver got into couple of minor accidents on the road. I can’t imagine why owners with families, etc., would take such a huge risk on the roads.

Another interesting observation - if you are coming to an intersection from a side road, you are the road king ! The main road’s traffic seem to be slowing a bit, to accommodate cars which insert their noses boldly into the main road’s traffic. I was wondering how I should manage this peculiar behaviour for the first more than six months of my stay in Mumbai, and finally decided there is no way to go if you have to make a right turn indeed. Even if you abide by your traffic sense, and make a left turn, hoping to get a “u-turn” somewhere down the road, it does not happen and even if it does happen, one needs to go through the same experience of “nose insertion” into the opposing traffic because the “right signal” is ignored by the oncoming traffic. Even a slight hesitation on your part to make a decision is enough encouragement for all the rest of the drivers to violate the traffic rules further.

ABSOLUTE LACK OF CHARACTER ! It does not matter whether these folks - especially the owner-drivers - work for a MNC, or an Indian Corporate, or a BPO, etc., The way they behave day in and day out is disgusting. The lack of police control and intervention by government’s urban planners is more revolting. I simply do not believe such people who do not care about other peoples’ lives, or for their own lives for that matter, and do not respect any of the rules of the game, can lead the world - they simply do not have the culture, or sense, to be examples to the world. There was this famous video of traffic at You Tube about Mumbai’s nonsensical traffice - I would love to lay my hands on that, still looking for it - which clearly depicts how the world is laughing at the madness in Indian roads.

Given that cars are getting cheaper and incomes are rising, and the fact that it is not that difficult to get a learner’s driving license, it is going to be madness magnified another potential 10X on Mumbai roads. I do not see the same madness in Delhi or Chennai, or even Pune for that matter. Drivers do respect traffic signals and peoples’ lives on the roads. Ofcourse, Delhi drivers may be ruder than Mumbai drivers, but they seem to be respecting road rules.

I am sorry to say this, but Mumbai Western Suburbian anarchy on the roads needs to be checked immediately, with (a) postings of traffic policemen at all intersections ; (b) installation of additional traffic signals based on a study of the traffic flow and pattern ; (c) ensure zebra crossings are respected for pedestrians to cross the roads safely without getting threatened by non-stop drivers ; (d) install additional zebra crossings wherever required ; (e) ensure that the drivers respect the “white line” at all traffic signals, so that they do not “bulge” at all points while waiting for the signal, and affecting the flow of traffic ; (f) imposition of on-the-spot penalty on drivers who violate established traffic rules ; (g) check on rash driving, ensure speed limits are imposed with radar devices ; (g) stop drunken driving totally. All this would require increase in budget, but Mumbai pays the maximum taxes in the country, right ? Sure the Finance Ministry can fund it. It is critical to save peoples’ lives on the roads from rash drivers.

Let’s try and get sense back into these braindead Mumbai drivers.

Cheers and Have a Great Stress-Free Driving,

Vijay Srinivasan
28 October 2007
Mumbai

Bestiality of Younger Generation

The other day I was shocked to hear about an incident involving a colleague’s daughter who was eve-teased and then hit by a car carrying young men.

Everyone remembers Alistair Pereira case - the guy who mowed down labourers sleeping on the pavement and injured many others as well : he is just 22 years old ! “Alistair Pereira Blog Postings”

It is hard to detect any remorse in these young people, especially when they are very wealthy. In most hit-and-run cases, it appears that the driver and the riders belong to rich families. When rich young guys get drunk and drive big cars (in both cases they had SUVs), then one can see a clear recipe for disaster. More than all this, I think there is some base instinct when one gets high in a big powerful car. Everyone on the road seems to be dispensable. When police resources are not adequate, and reach is a question in sprawling cities, then one can anticipate a “free” ride for youngsters and molesters.

The other kind of youngsters come from the BPO generation. I see them drinking regularly. While they may not be able to afford cars, most of them ride bikes, a dangerous equipment in the hands of a “high” youngster who is backed by a colleague girl. He is sure to hit 80 KMPH or more on the streets. I saw atleast three such bike riders yesterday (I live near a BPO suburb). One of them got on our car’s left and took a dangerous swipe in front of us and picked up a rapid speed. After some time, I saw another guy who also had a girl at his back seat, who narrowly escaped being crushed by beating the traffic with 2 feet to spare between our car and the centre divider of the road.

This “highness” spirit - whichever way it manifests itself - is a dangerous development in India’s burgeoning society of youngsters (more than 60% of India’s population is less than 30 years old - an approximate figure). The society at large keeps ignoring the impact of such rude and rash behaviour, which many a time causes death and anguish to the very poor sections of the society. When youngsters earn good money at a very young age, or when they come from a wealthy clan, it is hard to even communicate good sense to them. Sometimes, they are politically connected as well. Then it becomes very hard for the police to convict them. The rate of convictions in India is abysmally low.

There is something in the genes today which incites people to take life for granted - others’ lives I mean ! I also see that they believe “loss of life can simply be compensated by cash”. How ridiculous ? How can a very poor labourer family sleeping on the pavement sustain itself when the main bread winners are dead ? How can life be dispensed with so easily, with so little remorse, and hardly any punishment ? Absolutely unacceptable in a civil society. We are not living in the Middle Ages, and there is no “blood money” mechanism in our society. Whatever be the quantum of cash paid out, it is not the same as the offender getting convicted and imprisoned for his crimes against humanity.

Unless the government and the judiciary take a very tough view, modify laws, and send a very clear communication to the youngsters that violations will not go unpunished, nothing is going to change. A national crime registry which does not allow offenders to enjoy some social benefits for ever, such as drunk drivers to be barred from driving after the second offense, molesters to be tagged (like in the U.S.) electronically, would be of huge help to eliminate crimes like the ones above.

Society has to realise that a life cannot be replaced. Ofcourse there are regimes who kill people every day in the name of eliminating threats to society or terrorism, and go about as though nothing needs to be explained - but that topic is for another blog post.

Let us pray things will change for the better in the near future, and judges will give tough punishments which will send a very strong message to the younger generation - don’t get high, and if you do, be very, very careful ; and RESPECT HUMAN LIFE.

Have a wonderful weekend, avoid driving if possible,

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
21 July 2007
Mumbai