When they come again

Three, make India unattractive for Americans and the British. This is a double whammy for these two countries are categorised as enemies of Islamist Fascism.

Four, hit the India-Israel connection. Nothing rankles Islamist revivalists more than the fact that in living memory the forces of fanatical Islam have lost to secular Hindu-majority India (1971) and democratic Jewish Israel (1967; 1973).

Five, drive a wedge between India’s majority and its Muslims. Indian Muslims have chosen to stay in a secular democratic country where they are freer than Muslims elsewhere, where they can vote in fair elections (unlike in any Muslim majority country) and where despite legitimate grievances they have role models succeeding in fields that have nothing to do with religion or medievalism: Azim Premji (information technology), Shah Rukh Khan (acting, an irreligious profession), Abdul Kalam (science, virtually abandoned now by the Islamic world despite a glorious earlier heritage), Sania Mirza (tennis, where her sports clothes are met with pious disapproval), Rahman (music, another sinful forbidden activity) and many more. The terrorists would like India to view Muslims with suspicion; in this they have allies in stupid divisive politicians who seem to be oblivious of the dangers such isolation will inevitably lead to. Indian Muslim men and women with high aspirations and achievements in multiple fields are the best allies India and indeed the larger world has in our joint fight against reactionary Islamist Fascism.

Six, drive us into silly excesses passing new laws when we cannot implement existing ones, creating new government agencies when we starve existing agencies of funding and resources.

Let me stick to practical steps which I hope (or is that hoping for too much?) no one can disagree with. One, there will be another set of attacks in Mumbai or in another Indian city. I have no insider information. I am just making a prediction that we know in our heart of hearts is true. While our intelligence needs to be strengthened, nothing is going to prevent a determined group of terrorists getting through. Indulging in blame games about intelligence failure is precisely what the terrorists would like us to be trapped in.

Two, when the next attack happens, can we have just ONE disaster management crisis group in each metropolitan area? Can we have one agency with one website with a helpline and with clear messages to be given to citizens and media?

Three, in Mumbai, we had the police chief speaking to journalists, the chief minister making inane statements (he had the least credibility), the army general speaking to the media and so on. Can we have just ONE control room where journalists can be briefed by one official spokesman giving the correct versions of events? The terrorists (wherever they are holed up) are watching TV and are being briefed by their friends on the outside who are watching TV. When the chief minister states that he thinks there were twenty-five terrorists, he is letting the terrorists know how little the authorities actually know; when the home minister discloses the logistics of NSG movements, he emerges willy-nilly as a terrorist source; when a TV journalist discloses the location of the room of a fellow-journalist or the presence of Unilever seniors the beneficiaries of this information are the terrorists. Incidentally there is no need to sugarcoat official communications. Transparency and honesty are key. During World War II, Churchill began one of his greatest speeches with the truth: “The news from France is bad.” And at one stroke gained the credibility of the world.

Four, 9/11 was an indictment of US intelligence. But the enduring image of 9/11 remains the brilliant and publicly confident way New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani took charge. It is this response that Indians are looking for, that Indians deserve and that hopefully we will have, the next time it happens.

Five, at first rumours floated around that there was gang-warfare in restaurants and on the streets. If we had an official disaster/crisis management centre, they could piece together a clear understanding of the pattern emerging. The reaction in different locations would have been radically different.

Six, it is completely incomprehensible that it took the NSG several hours after the incidents began, to leave Delhi for Mumbai. This implies that they lost vital hours in reaching the sites. This performance by our government has an Alice-in-Wonderland touch. The aggravating matter is that after the Kandahar hijacking, we knew that quick responses were key. If the right orders had come in time from the “proper authorities” (whoever they are), the tyres of the Indian Airlines plane would have been punctured and the plane would not have taken off for Afghanistan. But then AND now the “proper authorities” have taken many hours to react. Our leaders have to realise that they are not running a nineteenth century colonial administration where multiple departments and complex procedures prevail. We need to have a disaster management plan that goes into effect virtually automatically, a crisis room gets into operation and citizens are given a clear impression that someone is in charge.

The heroism of our police officers the patient competence of our NSG who prevented the Taj Hotel from being blown up deserve better leadership from the top. When citizens lose faith in their government and feel that no one is in control, the First Republic of India (as it doubtless will be known in the absence of drastic action) may give way and as our ancients warned us “Matsya Nyaya” the law of anarchy will prevail where the big fish eat the small. This is doubtless what the terrorists want.

The writer is a long-time Mumbai resident.

jerry.rao@expressindia.com