Opinion - News Analysis   

Can Mumbai take any more?

Kalpana Sharma

Bombs and floods in the course of just one year are not something we can just shrug off.

THE SERIAL bomb blasts on Mumbai's trains on July 11 have almost made us forget another anniversary that will take place on July 26. Last year, on this day, Mumbai came to a standstill. It almost drowned. And for the next 48 hours practically nothing moved. No trains, no planes, no buses, no cars, no people. For a city that tentatively picked itself up the very next day after the devastation caused by the bombs that went off in seven rush-hour commuter trains on July 11 this year, that was quite a feat.

How easy it is to forget that more people died on July 26, 2005, than on July 11. Those 182 who perished in the trains were victims of a plot that is beyond anyone's control. Till today, the Mumbai police remain clueless. Some arrests have been made. Some theories have been set out. But none of these add up to a credible explanation for what happened on that day. Not yet.

Yet, even before we know who did this, some television channels are suggesting how we should deal with the perpetrators of the crime. Within days of the blasts, a few television channels had begun conducting one of their inane instant polls asking people to vote whether India should do an Israel on terrorism. In other words, should India bomb the alleged terrorist training camps in Pakistan? And the response, not surprisingly, has been an overwhelming "yes" for this absurd proposition. Absurd because no one can win a war fought between two countries with nuclear weapons.

Needless to say, none of these channels has bothered to give its viewers a little bit of history about Lebanon, the genesis of the conflict there, what happened in 1982 when Israel resorted to almost identical action, the fact that Lebanon had finally begun to look forward to a period of peace and prosperity after decades of being an arena of proxy war. In fact, most Indians would not have known that there were so many of their fellow countrymen and women working there.

Also, the ease with which Indians are accepting Israel's explanation for what it is doing in Lebanon underlines yet again the paucity of independent sources of information from countries of the Middle East; that is news that does not pass through a Western filter before it is disseminated. During the Iraq war, we faced a similar problem as most of the news came from "embedded" journalists. This time, the BBC is giving news from both sides of the border and those who watch it can form their own opinion when they see the extent of devastation in civilian areas of Lebanon caused by Israeli bombs. But in print and on Indian news channels, there is little of this balance or even information. As a result, many middle-class Indians who watch the English news channels are now convinced that the way to deal with terrorism is to declare a war against terror the way the Americans or the Israelis have done. Bomb everything in sight. Kill all suspects. And you have dealt with terror. The reality as we know today is that the whole world has become unsafe because of this style of combating terror.

But while July 11 still begs an explanation, there is no mystery about July 26, 2005, and what happened on that day. A part of it was also beyond anyone's control. No one could have predicted the 944 mm of rain that pelted down on suburban Mumbai in just 18 hours. But the rest of the problems were man-made or made by some specific men. And the consequences could have been predicted — and even averted.

To mark the day, Mumbai's middle class will come out and protest. A group of citizens has asked people to wear white tomorrow. A human chain will be formed. Many photo-ops. Much symbolism. But at the end of it we are still left asking, what does it all add up to? Will there be any accountability? Will some decisions be taken to avert future crises?

There is little indication that credible steps have been taken since last year's disaster on matters of governance, finance, and systems of accountability. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh speaks with unflappable confidence when he predicts that the mystery of the bombings will be solved and that Mumbai will get the funds to deal with its chronic infrastructure problems. Neither is on the horizon. And the system that contributed to the July 26 disaster is still firmly in place. No one has been sacked. No one has been held accountable. Mumbai moves on, as it always does.

It is time, though, that Mumbai did stop. For, bombs and floods in the course of just one year are not something we can just shrug off. Nor should those who govern the city. Or those who govern India. If India's premier city is a disaster zone today, everyone ought to be concerned.

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