The Hindu Business Line : Little information, comfort from the Government

Mumbai, Nov. 28 As Mumbai uneasily woke to the third day of its nightmare, the first signs of panic were visible in the rapid spread of rumours of fresh attacks in vulnerable spots like the CST and Churchgate railway stations and other crowded areas.

When the TV channels sometimes went off the air anxiety levels seemed to rise perceptibly and understandably since the only sources of real-time information on the fate of the city appeared to have been cut off. What leavened the day as it wore on was the appearance of the Army and NSG spokespersons claiming victory at the Taj and then the Oberoi-Trident.

Late evening, some TV channels reported Nariman House also had been freed of the militants holed up inside but Mr Hasan Gafoor, Commissioner of Police clarified that the battle was still on. In effect, the city’s only source of information and comfort came from the electronic media and security/armed forces. Where, in the world, you might ask, was the Chief Minister?

Your answer would be as good as anybody else’s. By evening the Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, had given two perfunctory press conferences over two intensely traumatic days when the city of immense wealth and power, the projected financial capital of the Indian Republic, the powerhouse of the nation’s boundless leaps into the New Prosperity was reduced to a state of perplexed confusion and fear.

At his afternoon meet in front of the Oberoi on Thursday, Mr Deshmukh answered reporters tetchily; he sounded as if the two hotels were being cleaned of pesky mosquitoes when in fact the Taj was becoming the stage of the last ditch battle by surviving terrorists; by late evening when fresh fires broke out in one of the lower floors, visible on TV screens, it wasn’t still clear if there were one or two terrorists holding the entire old wing up; Mr Gafoor wasn’t even clear how many hostages were inside. So the siege was continuing at two sites. Where was Mr Deshmukh?

By late evening, all power to inform educate, illuminate, all sources of comfort that our world wasn’t collapsing emanated from the streaming images of the TV channels and the lithe commandos on rooftops, behind doors.

One would have thought the State Government would have set up a control room from which to assure the city on the basis of hard facts that the representatives on whom power to protect had been vested would have been in front of the cameras, something like Mr Rudy Giuliani and New York state officials from the governor down, calming the city in the immediate effects of 9/11.

The mettle of political leadership is tested in trying times not in the good ones. But these traumatic events have tested those that did not need testing: the electronic media’s young reporters outside the three hotels attempting to make sense of an irrational violence and its intended effects on hapless victims.

What the trained power of the militant and his intimate knowledge of the geography of his killing fields have tested is the skill of the trained commando and the poorly armed policeman. They have prevailed so far and will emerge from this nightmare the wiser. But the nightmare isn’t over. Where is Mr Deshmukh?

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