I just came back from a candle light vigil held in the memory of the victims of Mumbai terrorist attacks. I felt the pain in the hearts of those who attended, though there were just a handful. We were all from different corners of the world, but I believe each and everyone of us had suffered for such tragedy to their loved ones. The spawning web of the terrorism does not seem to spare any country in the world. There is uncertainty every where; US, UK, Europe and now the subcontinet of India. We stood in a freezing wind to pay our respects to those victims and I believe everybody had just one thing to assure that we are all toghether in this fight.
We are a country with a billion citizens, how could this happend to us?. When the terrorists opend fire VT station, they did not a give damn to who will take the bullet a hindu, a musilm or a christian. They were shooting at us Indians. They did not even spare guests. There is only one a way anybody can attempt such a thing. Either they were confident of what they were doing or they were crazy. Unfortunately, in this case they happened to be both. They were confident to a level that they can go back where ever after doing a such horrendous act and they were crazy as to offer their lives if they had to.
But one other thing they were confident was the incapability of our civilian protection services and our intelligence. I think it is time for our government to understand that caring for the life of every Indian citizen is it’s responsibility not just for the so called VIPs.
They were mistakenly confident about the spirit of our nation. They probably thought they could recreate the mess similar to post Ayodhya incidents. But we proved them wrong. I really admire the way Mumbaikers and the whole nation responded to the attacks. The protests that are being carried out, the candle vigils held are just a few ways to show the world that we are together in this fight, and to assure those who lost their lives in this battle that we won’t let their scarifies be in vain. All we need at this time is to stand together as a nation. We need to make those rouges aware of that, when we say unity in diversity, it is not just a figure of speech but we mean it from our hearts.
If US can go across the ocean to hunt down the terrorists responsible for WTC attacks, why can not we go across the border if we need to?. I know Gandhiji would be really unhappy with me for saying that, but unfortunately these are not the British that we are fighting this time. These terrorists does not understand the meaning of the word peace. As Ram Prasad Bismill would put it, we will have to fight back.
है लिए हथियार दुश्मन ताक में बैठा उधर, और हम तैयार हैं सीना लिए अपना इधर.
ख़ून से खेलेंगे होली गर वतन मुश्क़िल में है, सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है.
– Excerpt from “Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna” by Bismil Azimabadi
Shanth's Dairy 