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Terrorists struck once again in India in the busiest market in the city of Jaipur, Rajasthan. At last count more than 80 people are feared to be killed with more than 150 injured in at least bomb blasts around the city. Three bombs were defused under fears that there might be more. All telltale signs point to an organized terror attack by the likes of Lashkar-e-Taiba and SIMI. These attacks are just the latest in a series of bomb blasts in various Indian cities like Hyderabad and Malegaon apart from the ones in major metros.
Unfortunately, I can almost predict the reactions from the current pathetic central government. So far no one has been implicated or charged in the previous blast so I find it hard to imagine that this will not suffer the same fate. The Home Minister will again complain that the terrrorists did not inform him of their next target and issue standard statements of condemnation that lack in any form of empathy. There will be calls for resilience and unity amidst adversity and people will soon get back to their regular lives forgetting the lives that were lost. On one side we have a country that will invade not only the country that perpetuated a terror attack on its soil but also another country that it feared might perpetuate a similar attack in the future. We may disagree on their actions but you cannot deny that the government highly values the lives of its citizens.
The only time our government reacted strongly was, as Gaurav had once pointed out, when the terrorists chose the Parliament as their target. Unfortunately, the terrorists learned quick. The only way to continue to spread terror and kill innocents was to stay away from killing politicians and instead focus on crowded markets, trains, and religious places. Everyone forgets a statistic that these poor people soon become following a terror attack. The news media will talk about it for a while and then move on to the next gossip news or settle down to enjoy tonight’s IPL match. When was the last time a government was voted out for failing to protect its citizens? Heck, we have had governments voted out for rising onion prices so I would supposed safety for your life must rank higher.
Or are we suffering from terror fatigue? Terrorists kill 50-100 people with each attach but who cares? We might even shrug our shoulders and say, we are a billion-strong. If terrorists fail to achieve their primary objective i.e. to spread terror then are they even achieving what they set out to? Not to raise any conspiracy theory angles but given the frequency of the attacks, lack of investigations after these attacks, and rising apathy by the citizens I wonder if we even know who is responsible for these attacks regardless of the usual suspects. Or worse, have we simply settled for the fact that such attacks are inevitable and our government cannot be held responsible for keeping us safe?
I hope I’m proved wrong.
by Patrix | on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 6:00 am | 
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May 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
We may disagree on their actions but you cannot deny that the government highly values the lives of its citizens.
True and false. In general, yes, the US government does care for its citizens, but I’m not sure that the Iraq war is the best example of that. If the Bush administration really valued the lives of its citizens, it would’ve continued to focus on Afghanistan, no? The blunder in Iraq actually shows that they don’t care for their citizens (except for those who scratch each other’s backs at the very top), but rather they put their ideological vision (and its flawed implementation) higher up than the lives of common citizens.
I agree that India does need to take stronger measures to curb such incidents, but i wouldn’t look to Bush and Iraq war as an inspiration, or an example of that. :)
May 14th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Amit, I was mostly thinking of the Afghanistan war. The U.S. did manage to knock out the Taliban which hosted OBL. Of course, all that good was lost in the Iraq war but yet I would say that the U.S. values the life of their citizens far higher than India does. This can also be seen in the tremendous resources they invest in rescue operations, fire fighting, etc. Probably that’s why neglecting Katrina victims was such a big issue.
To be fair, India managed the post-disaster relief after the tsunami quite well but we haven’t yet managed to crack down on the terror attacks. I don’t suppose anyone apart from those involved in the Mumbai blasts of ‘92 have been identified or charge-sheeted. Probably not bringing even those guilty for that incident to justice may have emboldened terrorists for subsequent attacks.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Interestingly I was having the exact same discussion with a friend. While we agree that the US govt compared to the Indian govt does seem to care more for individual lives at least domestically, as you point out they care much less abroad. But even domestically, they clearly don’t care much for example for poor people who don’t have health insurance.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Ashutosh, the health insurance issue is not exactly comparable. As you know, the U.S. government is the least socialist so not caring for people cannot be defined as not promoting welfare.
The conservative-liberal differences are pure ideological since the conservatives believe encouraging welfare is not good for the long-term since it makes people dependent on the government instead of assuming personal responsiblity. Of course, we can differ citing inequity in terms of opportunities available but I don’t think the U.S. government domestically or aboard will take death of their citizens especially due to terrorist strikes lightly.
Now we can also make the case that the current government doesn’t care for the lives of its troops since it puts them in harms way but such a move is primarily inspired by the greater good argument that by losing few lives there, they are protecting far more at home. Again, we can disagree with this view too since it can be a straw man argument.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
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May 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Unfortunately, I can almost predict the reactions from the current pathetic central government
Patrix, you and your readers will find this *amusing* (and sad):
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2008/05/15/unfolding-drama/
and this:
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2006/03/10/anger-tears-and-despair/