I don't want to talk much about why I was away from blogging for last one and half years because even I need to give it a serious thought. :-) I hope this gives this post a deserving preface..Just kiddin!! On a more serious note, let me directly jump into the topic of this post.
Last Saturday, as usual I woke up at around 8.30 AM, turned on TV and started working on some office stuff on my laptop while watching cricket news. In the process of cleaning my inbox from junk forwards, saw a mail with subject line "Be cautious seven serial blasts in bangalore". And the mail content read usual precautionary measures for employees of a firm while returning home. What routes not to take and all.
And there flashed "breaking news" - a couple of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad. After a couple of minutes the allotted cricket news program was abruptly ended and first images of the blasts came flashing on the TV screen. As the time went by, the count increased and became 16 after 1-2 hrs. 16 bomb blasts shook Ahmedabad in which around 50 innocent people lost their lives and more than 100 got injured. The blasts were planned by fundamentalist islamist group called 'Indian Mujahideen' (new version of SIMI) in retaliation of 2002 Gujarat riots. In the most gruesome act of terror, hospitals were planted with high intensity bombs that can cause ultimate damage than initial low intensity blasts.
Whenever such tragedies happen, it gives media enough material to print/show for 1-2 weeks. Several stories are told and they are forgotten as the time goes by. The common man pants anger on terrorists who were responsible, curses them and then moves on with his daily routine after 1-2 weeks. But even after a week, one story which still hovers in my mind and which kept me pondering for long time several times is what follows:
Dushyant Vyas works in the Civil Hospital of Ahmedabad as an X-ray technician. He buys his children a second hand bicycle just day before the blasts hit the city. While he teaches his sons how to ride bicycle outside the civil hospital on Saturday, a massive explosion erupts which takes Dushyantbhai's life leaving Yash(7) and Rohan(12) with severe 3rd/4th degree burns.
Rohan and Yash were not told that they have lost their father. This news might have adverse effect on both sons going through unbearable pain and trauma of 75% burns at this tender age. I have seen some footage on TV and pictures of troubled mother Geetaben who is stunned and the picture itself tells the plight of this lady. My heart goes out to her who is a poor, innocent civilian who has nothing to do with politics. Why she? What wrong she did? Rohan died after a week of sufferings while his younger brother is still in the civil ward unaware of the fact that his father and brother are no more.
Likewise there are many other stories. They will be told in media for a couple of weeks and people like me and you will sympathizes with the families but little Yash ( if he survives) might have to live rest of his life with scars of terror on his body. The life will no longer be the same for Geetaben after that day. Dushyantbhai, perhaps was the luckiest of the four in the family who suffered for only a few hours!!!
This whole story raised several questions in my mind.
1. Are Government aids of Rs. 500,000 for dead and Rs. 50,000 for injured enough for those who suffered in the blasts? Will Monetory help normalize their lives? Will Geetaben manage to live rest of her life with Rs. 500,000? Is Indian blood inferior?
2. Why "red alerts" are flared AFTER the tragedy happens? The appalling factor of Ahmadabad blasts was it happened just a day after serial blasts happened in Bangalore. Most of the states were already under "red alert".
3. I agree with our CM Mr. Modi when he says terrorism is worse than war as it does not have any rules. Most probably Geetaben and Dushyantbhai would have voted for Mr. Modi whom he promised "Kal no divas (BJP ne vote aapva) jagi lo, baki na paanch varsh hu jagish ane tame unghjo". Why government is unable to take severe actions against terrorists?
4. Blasts after blasts are killing innocent Indians in India and abroad spreading fear and terror. Mr. CM and Mr.PM makes statements to take "strict action" against terrorists but even after a week the investigations do not seem to have found any clue. Let another week go by and people will forget about everything and their will not be any media channel asking questions. Are we used to live with terror now?
Honorable Supreme Court of India gave a verdict to hang Afzal Guru who was prime accused in 2001 Parliament attack. He was supposed to be hanged in Oct 2006. But ironically some so called "social activists" (I rather call them anti-social elements) like Arundhati Roy along with all kashmiri politicians like Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded clemency for Afzal Guru, a terrorist who attacked Indian parliament. He is still not hanged. Point to note here is these Kashmiri politicians still give "martyr" status to people like Maqbool Bhat (another kashmiri terrorist who was engaged in Indian plane hijacking and Indian diplomat murder in shootout in London and was hanged by Indian Government in 80s) and Afzal Guru. Farookh Abdullah of (Anti)National Conference crossed all limits and went to the extent of saying "India would go up in flames" if Afzal is hanged. This exposes the biggest hypocrisy of Kashmiri politicians. Afzal is still not hanged. This whole episode sends wrong signals to terrorists and encourages them. It makes them start thinking they can get away even after attacking Indian parliament!!
May GOD give Geetaben, Yash and other families who have suffered in these blasts enough strength to deal with this irremediable calamity and courage to Indian government to deal with terror!!
Last Saturday, as usual I woke up at around 8.30 AM, turned on TV and started working on some office stuff on my laptop while watching cricket news. In the process of cleaning my inbox from junk forwards, saw a mail with subject line "Be cautious seven serial blasts in bangalore". And the mail content read usual precautionary measures for employees of a firm while returning home. What routes not to take and all.
And there flashed "breaking news" - a couple of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad. After a couple of minutes the allotted cricket news program was abruptly ended and first images of the blasts came flashing on the TV screen. As the time went by, the count increased and became 16 after 1-2 hrs. 16 bomb blasts shook Ahmedabad in which around 50 innocent people lost their lives and more than 100 got injured. The blasts were planned by fundamentalist islamist group called 'Indian Mujahideen' (new version of SIMI) in retaliation of 2002 Gujarat riots. In the most gruesome act of terror, hospitals were planted with high intensity bombs that can cause ultimate damage than initial low intensity blasts.
Whenever such tragedies happen, it gives media enough material to print/show for 1-2 weeks. Several stories are told and they are forgotten as the time goes by. The common man pants anger on terrorists who were responsible, curses them and then moves on with his daily routine after 1-2 weeks. But even after a week, one story which still hovers in my mind and which kept me pondering for long time several times is what follows:
Dushyant Vyas works in the Civil Hospital of Ahmedabad as an X-ray technician. He buys his children a second hand bicycle just day before the blasts hit the city. While he teaches his sons how to ride bicycle outside the civil hospital on Saturday, a massive explosion erupts which takes Dushyantbhai's life leaving Yash(7) and Rohan(12) with severe 3rd/4th degree burns.
Rohan and Yash were not told that they have lost their father. This news might have adverse effect on both sons going through unbearable pain and trauma of 75% burns at this tender age. I have seen some footage on TV and pictures of troubled mother Geetaben who is stunned and the picture itself tells the plight of this lady. My heart goes out to her who is a poor, innocent civilian who has nothing to do with politics. Why she? What wrong she did? Rohan died after a week of sufferings while his younger brother is still in the civil ward unaware of the fact that his father and brother are no more.
Likewise there are many other stories. They will be told in media for a couple of weeks and people like me and you will sympathizes with the families but little Yash ( if he survives) might have to live rest of his life with scars of terror on his body. The life will no longer be the same for Geetaben after that day. Dushyantbhai, perhaps was the luckiest of the four in the family who suffered for only a few hours!!!
This whole story raised several questions in my mind.
1. Are Government aids of Rs. 500,000 for dead and Rs. 50,000 for injured enough for those who suffered in the blasts? Will Monetory help normalize their lives? Will Geetaben manage to live rest of her life with Rs. 500,000? Is Indian blood inferior?
2. Why "red alerts" are flared AFTER the tragedy happens? The appalling factor of Ahmadabad blasts was it happened just a day after serial blasts happened in Bangalore. Most of the states were already under "red alert".
3. I agree with our CM Mr. Modi when he says terrorism is worse than war as it does not have any rules. Most probably Geetaben and Dushyantbhai would have voted for Mr. Modi whom he promised "Kal no divas (BJP ne vote aapva) jagi lo, baki na paanch varsh hu jagish ane tame unghjo". Why government is unable to take severe actions against terrorists?
4. Blasts after blasts are killing innocent Indians in India and abroad spreading fear and terror. Mr. CM and Mr.PM makes statements to take "strict action" against terrorists but even after a week the investigations do not seem to have found any clue. Let another week go by and people will forget about everything and their will not be any media channel asking questions. Are we used to live with terror now?
Honorable Supreme Court of India gave a verdict to hang Afzal Guru who was prime accused in 2001 Parliament attack. He was supposed to be hanged in Oct 2006. But ironically some so called "social activists" (I rather call them anti-social elements) like Arundhati Roy along with all kashmiri politicians like Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded clemency for Afzal Guru, a terrorist who attacked Indian parliament. He is still not hanged. Point to note here is these Kashmiri politicians still give "martyr" status to people like Maqbool Bhat (another kashmiri terrorist who was engaged in Indian plane hijacking and Indian diplomat murder in shootout in London and was hanged by Indian Government in 80s) and Afzal Guru. Farookh Abdullah of (Anti)National Conference crossed all limits and went to the extent of saying "India would go up in flames" if Afzal is hanged. This exposes the biggest hypocrisy of Kashmiri politicians. Afzal is still not hanged. This whole episode sends wrong signals to terrorists and encourages them. It makes them start thinking they can get away even after attacking Indian parliament!!
May GOD give Geetaben, Yash and other families who have suffered in these blasts enough strength to deal with this irremediable calamity and courage to Indian government to deal with terror!!
2 comments:
I agree Indian police needs to wakeup and work hard inspecting all the areas in big cities to avoid any more fatalities. Bombs found in Surat is good example but same should had happened in Ahmedabad.Our intelligence should had found bombs before they blasted the Ahmedabad city!
Bobby, you stole my topic. I wanted to write for Geetaben too. I had read this article in TOI some days back. Came back home and narrated it to my roomie, dunno why, I just cried. Its so painful. Although, I immensly believe in the spirit of the general Gujarati and I know Geetaben and Yash would jump back to life in some years (provided the media leaves them alone). I pray to God to give them strength and support to continue on with a smile on their face and peace in their heart.
The problem with Indian Politics is that people truly do not know the meaning of democracy. Democracy gives you the right to speak and the right to do what you want, but with responsibility. Politicians forget the later and more important part.
As far as the (anti)social activists are concerned, the person (I forgot his name) who was the prime accused in the nehrunagar blasts was released just a few days back before the bangalore/ahmedabad blasts. Thanks to those stupid, idiots like Tista Setalwad.
The government is to be blamed thats true. But what do we do as aware and educated citizens? Part blame goes to us too. Why don't we think of what should be done? Think about it!
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