Enough is enough!

Frustration. Anger. Helplessness. It had been a very emotional 3 days for me as I watched Mumbai attacked, yet again. And as the attack unfolded & counter attack started, I wondered what would be India’s view after all this gets over? Will the usual ‘famed Mumbai spirit’ & the usual clichés of the city’s resilience to get on with life start ringing again? But this time even Mumbaikars shouted back. Enough is enough. Damn the clichés. Life moves on but are our lives taken for granted by the guys whom we have elected? The home minister of Mumbai has the audacity to state that ‘such incidents happen in big cities’ and that too in a press conference. Felt like puking over the *****. Does the guy even know the magnitude of this attack? The guy then ranted about a committee being formed to investigate. Fucking Bullshit. I am sure a committee must’ve been formed even during 2006 train blasts. If that’s not all, I wonder what really drove Narendra Modi to even think of having a press conference on day 2 of the attack. How can someone even think of politicizing the whole issue!! Till the other day, BJP, MNS and the clan were pointing fingers on ATS chief Karkare and today they have put up boards across the city saluting him as martyrs and letting the commoner know that these boards have been put up by them – with the larger than life sized party logos of theirs. It came as a no surprise that Karkare’s family refused compensation from Narendra Modi. As the NSG mopped up the operation, in process losing out on 3 brave men – all from different parts of the country, I wonder what would Raj Thakrey say now? His ‘sons of the soil’ vaanar sena didn’t turn up to save Mumbai from the ‘outsiders’. The real men who lost their lives to save Mumbai were from North & South India. But when they entered in the hotel they were not fighting for Mumbai. They were fighting for India. The citizens who voiced their views yesterday on many channels echoed similar sentiments but sadly, vote politics is not driven by ‘elitist or English speaking rational people’ of the society.

I am a Maharashtrian born & brought up in Delhi. A core North Indian but still I am a Mumbaikar. It’s the city where I have spent the most wonderful 4 years of my professional life. It’s the city which is still close to my heart and will always remain so. And why only me; the city belongs to each and every Indian citizen. And as the city laid under siege, sitting in Pune I just cried in pain. Clearly the administration has not learnt the lessons and I am sure – they never will. But now the time has come for them to sit up listen to the growing voices of angry citizens who have lost hope with the system. Some day the scars on the Taj, Nariman house & the Oberoi would heal, the blood would be washed; all telltale signs of the burnt place would be erased but what about the voices of the innocent dead victims? Won’t they haunt us each time we pass from those iconic places? They say public memory is short. The people who man the system might live in that belief but this time it won’t be forgotten so soon. The country wants some hard answers. Mumbai wants some answers.