“Atleast I can walk and do my daily work, but a lot of people are crippled for life as the result of the bombs and not many are willing to look after them” said Sabir Khan to the BBC on Monday (11-July-2011). He had suffered from an arm fracture and ruptured ear during the 2006 Mumbai train bombing. It was a profoundly moving interview which opened up some of the raw issues of apathy and attention span within our civil society.
Wednesday’s headlines literally brought back the limelight to Mumbai with a bang. It is always heart wrenching to watch an innocent person die or get badly injured, not to speak of the extreme sorrow it would cause to the loved ones.
The oft-repeated determination of the residents of Mumbai i.e. getting on with their work in spite of these horrific events could be eerily compared (albeit on a different scale) to a group of Arabs living thousands of miles away.
Palestinians in West Bank have had their dose of unabated violence for over five decades. This
barrage of heinous acts has numbed their emotions giving raise to dangerous thoughts like ‘suicide bombs are part of our daily life’.
To look at these attacks as a particular alienated and insecure community wreaking havoc on
the financial capital of India would be a superficial judgement. Every community in the name of
religion has taken turns to terrorise the general public with unspeakable inhuman acts from time-immemorial.
The inherent class differences within this mega polis ranging from the world’s costliest house to
one of the largest shanty towns in the world might sometimes provide a breeding ground not only for mosquitoes, but for social frustration. It is a known fact that a thriving underworld mafia exists in the city heavily intertwined with leading capitalists and celebrities. Combine this atmosphere with chauvinistic vote hungry politics; we would have a Molotov cocktail which is far from the democratic, secular & free thinking society we aspire for.
A city with around 50,000 residents per square mile must be a logistical nightmare for any
Government to monitor. Installing CCTVs and having additional security personnel s would mean more expenditure from the coffers. On introspection, we do have as many tax dodgers in the public as corrupt officials.
The celebrities tweet away their (heart-felt) condolences as the Government announces customary monetary compensations. The Indian judicial system would of course bring the perpetrators of these brutal acts to justice.
But whether accusing external agencies and bringing on punishments to individuals would heal
inherent tensions in the society might be a thought to ponder.
