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Nelatur Syamasundaran

Even the relatively insensitive would have reacted with anger, like how the general population of the country did, to the massacre in Mumbai.

The governments at the Centre and the State deserve nothing but severe condemnation for their dismal failure in preventing the assault.

We are a democratic country but we are not democrats. We are a sovereign nation but we do not exercise sovereignty. We are a secular India but we do not practice secularism. We have a strong security force but our people are not secure.

Every one of us should introspect as to how much we care for our security? You and I know it is not even our last priority. Had we bothered about it, we would have raised a ruckus long ago, making the government sensitive to our security needs. We Indians always fight the fire but do not think of preventing it.

If the government makes wearing of helmets compulsory, we protest and try to get rid of that law. We seldom cross the roads when the signal is green and we cross railway tracks with impunity. Look at our driving licence system. One wonders whether it is to ensure safety on roads or to endanger it.

While airbags in cars are compulsory in the West, they are not so in India. This is because neither the manufacturers nor the government cares for security of human lives. If they cared, how is it people travel on footboards in trains and buses and some times even on the top?

If we are questioned by a security guard we think it is below our dignity to answer him, and often we get into a verbal duel with him, de-motivating him in the process. We often fail to reward our people during their period of service. The living standards of our police/military personnel are way below that of their counterparts in the West. And, unlike other professionals, they cannot migrate to foreign countries.

Is not the police/defence personnel prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard our lives? It is not the question of money, but simply the attitude of our governments, past and present.

When in service, our civil servants serve the politicians loyally, but post retirement they trumpet the government’s failures.

Our business leaders seldom speak tough with the government, even when tragedies like the one in Mumbai strike. Again, they like to safeguard their own business interests.

The people who are now in politics do not seem capable of taking corrective action and put the institutions/systems in the country back on track. The people who can, don’t want to enter politics. A paradoxical India, indeed.

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