The perils of self-delusion
KAPIL KITCHLU
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More security and draconian laws, better equipment, take out the terrorist camps, goes the litany.
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How does a nation with a vast ocean-border, and several land borders secure itself? What does it secure? Five star hotels in megalopolises? Every State capital, every city, every citizen? Does a culture steeped in obsequiousness, arrogance, status, rank and cowering, empower a security guard to stop those above his station, or those who push him aside? Do the pay and perks motivate him? Do his superiors treat him as an equal human being?
What qualifications do the trainers have? The five star hotels have pretty sloppy security, which one may suppose is among the best available. Comparisons with the US are infantile — the culture and social environment there are different, and by centuries, and what is possible there won’t work here for the above reasons.
Ineffective measures
We are told there were 10 sites attacked and 10 terrorists have been killed (9), or captured (1). How can a mere 10 young men cause such devastation in so many places and keep the nation’s most elite fighting forces at bay for 60 hours? It’s being taken as given that it is all over, for now. TV channels reported a variance of between 10 and 40 terrorists being involved, some present in the city since weeks. Should anyone have escaped they will be available for new attempts from safe houses. The union Home Minister has resigned and P Chidambaram, who, having been slow to react to the economic crisis, will now save us.
We would have difficulty identifying even a handful of people across the entire political spectrum, who might hold down even a middle level position in a competitive business environment, with the necessary, education, technical, managerial, and communication skills, let alone this wonderful thing called leadership. And, as we know, the issue is not just incompetence. It is also corruption. It is also appeasement.
Several intelligence inputs received prior to the attack produced no preventive measures. And muscled new laws miss the point completely and would not have stopped such an attack. Various new agencies and forces to be scattered appears to be another answer. Get new equipment, replace WW1 vintage rifles. Equip coast guards with shiny boats, ships and radars, with seamless arrangements put in place concerning jurisdiction among the plethora of agencies we are blessed with.
When the process fails
Not a word on effectiveness, so expect the staff to sleep on the job, equipment to rust, bribes to oil guns and RDX coming in, all of which has been documented numerous times by investigative journalism, to no avail. Why would it be different this time? What about the trainloads of money required for all this? Business India is outraged at what happened. But it is business India that has the largest percentage of black cash salted away. They will not pay their due share, any more than will the millions of traders, jewellers, builders, doctors, lawyers, accountants, Bollywood, in other words the vast cash economy which goes nowhere near the annual tax form.
If the exchequer will not be well stocked, once the looting, an endearing facet of our political and administrative processes, is over, there is not much left even to buy proper boots for the soldiers.
Middle class India is foaming at the politician and the babu. But is it not this same middle class that pays the bribe to the politico and the babu, seeking favours and illegalities? Having remained indifferent over half a century, instant renewal with a wave of the wand will not happen. The political establishment has no plans to reinvent itself, with or without public pressure. The coming elections will offer the same variations of communal, venal, corrupt and incompetent on elderly legs, only maybe with wheelchair, oxygen cylinder and dialysis kit in accompaniment.
The business community will not turn honest and ethically conduct its affairs. The disadvantaged will still get the crumbs. The exploitation will be with us. No one has expressed outrage at these long-standing evils. In other words, no transformation is about to envelop us in a secure cocoon. We are in for the long haul, with much pain on the way.
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