A desire to change....?

Yesterday's blasts in the heart of Delhi perhaps once again served to lull us out of what is increasingly seeming like a sense of security and complacency. Whatever may be the cause célèbre behind this and all other related incidents is perhaps beyond the point now; this isn't the act of rational people, so reason isn't exactly what we need to comprehend here.

That those who plan such dastardly acts care neither for the lives of innocents nor even for the tenets of their own faith is reflected in the fact that this incident has taken place in the middle of what is regarded as the holiest month in the entire Muslim calendar, a time for fasting, penitence and penance. Surely a true believer would not have resorted to such extreme means at a time when the Lord seeks him to be most forgiving? And perhaps this again is the wrong question addressed to the wrong people, because no person who truly believes in a Divinity could be so barbaric, so heartless.

While we heap opprobrium on the assailants, we must also realize that it is high time that we safeguard ourselves from such attacks in the future. While it is impossible to completely neutralize the threat of such incidents, it is always good to be able to and to minimize them as far as possible. Newspapers and the television media have discovered that Indian intelligence agencies had knowledge of the potential threat, and have insinuated that despite having such 'knowledge', the agencies chose to sit quietly. I wonder whether these agencies knew anything about these incidents beyond the fact that they could occur, something that even a common man could know. And this shouldn't be construed as a criticism of the agencies, because I doubt terrorist organizations publish a list of coming events for the next month for the perusal of the public.

What hampers the intelligence agencies the most in India is the lack of a pan-India policing agency or a federal law and order body. Intelligence gathering, being a preserve of defence and law and order, is a centralized activity, but acting on intelligence, when gathered, is left to different state police agencies, which do not necessarily collaborate with each other. Internal rivalries, Himalayan egos, and a tendency towards blowing one's trumpet at the cost of the greater good have time and again hampered what should have been seamless investigations. In this year alone, four different cities have been afflicted by the venom of terrorism. With one federal agency, it could have been possible to investigate all these crimes more effectively, as often where the same organization is behind such crimes, crucial evidence is left behind, something that can enable creating a chain of responsibility back to the organization itself.

Perhaps it is too much to ask of our political class to give up their regional loyalties in favour of a national spirit. Perhaps we may as well go on dying, because in the end, we are the people who create the political class who is wont to let us die and do nothing about it. And if we aren't prepared to die, perhaps next year when we have the chance, we may vote for a change. Platitudes to the dead and consoling the injured may work for a month or so, but the wounds that these incidents inflict on the soul of our society are festering, and it is the need of the hour that we, the people who ultimately matter, do something about this. It is not just our duty to our society; it is our duty to our families, to ourselves.