It's been 15 hours since the terrorists have been resisting the police. The TV screen is choking with images of firing at CST, crowds milling outside Nariman House, remains of a taxi blown up on the Western Express Highway, the burning Taj hotel and news flashes of army personnel outside the Oberoi jumping out of trucks in camouflage that sticks out in the urban backdrop.
Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai and their teams are rushing about, losing sleep, reporting, waving mikes at anyone who will open their mouth, including those who're bleeding so much they can't speak. Reporters quote sources, guessing the number of people dead, the number injured and who was responsible – the lashkar or the newbie Deccan Mujahidiin or as BBC says Hindu Extremists. It's a mass of confusion - the random attacks, the random reporting and the random political response from the government.
What is the role of media and the government in a crisis like this? Channels are competing to be seen as the ones with the latest news and often carry unconfirmed reports as being breaking news; politicians are using this as a case for their election campaign. Could News Channels step out of their cocoons and collaborate and create one channel where everyone feeds in all they get, and have a common report that's crosschecked, verified, and responsibly reported? Could politicians get together and stand by each other, and set up an emergency information desk that can speak and share the government's action on this, as soon as it happens?
What is our role? Spoke to V and he said all this makes him want to turn into a monk. I tell him that's escapism. He says this is the time to pray. It makes me wonder. What if we left the reigns of the media and the government to monks right this moment and asked them to set aside praying and participate, do what they will, what would they do? How would they interpret news, present the state of affairs or take decisions for the state? Maybe with a whole lot more perspective, kindness, empathy and love. All of which is sorely needed today.
Obama condemns this, so does the British High Commissioner. R called from Delhi, she was furious. All my friends on Facebook are furious. The terrorists also seem furious. So much anger to deal with so much anger. An Abhinav Bharat for a Lashkar-e-toiba. A circle of anger we seem to be running. Only circles never end.
I've received so many smses and calls since morning. Everyone's expressing their shock and disgust. But then again, Kashmir and Assam live a life like this or worse every day. Is this hitting us so badly because it's so close home – a metropolis mayhem - not news, but reality because we've been to the places this happened in, we've probably known people who've been affected by it.
Are we furious only when it's personal? Then maybe, it's not the terrorist's motives we need to question, but our own.
2 comments:
A request from Simiran.
Friends,
This is an ardent request from an adopted Mumbaikar. I request all of
you intelligent and well-read people to do something really difficult
for just this once .
STOP:
- speculating and blaming
- deploring our government
- angry outbursts
- feeding anger with your anger
- passing word-of-mouth information
- and updating ANGRY status lines on FB and ORKUT etc.
INSTEAD - if you can help by DOING something positive - then DO IT.
If you can calm down or help a neighbour or friend - DO IT
If you can give blood at your local hospital - DO IT!
If you have a positive statement to make - MAKE IT
If you can follow traffic rules for one day - DO IT!
If you can smile at your vegetable vendor - DO IT!
Every little positive thing that you can do - will help our collective
communities to heal and hold together .
Everytime you hear someone BLAMING a political group , a different
community , the state of the country - STOP them.
Do this for once - IT IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THING TO DO THAN GIVE IN
TO YOUR ANGER!
And If this has offended you in anyway - I apologise - you have every
right to your personal viewpoint
Love and respect and faith - Simiran
Sorry Simiran, i really wish i could do all the things you ask all to do. This is not about getting angry and venting, its about driving people to think in a certain line. Get out of the "I don't care coz it has not affected me directly yet" attitude and question the authorities, question the media and more importantly ask them questions that probably make them do things that will stop terror in the future.
I cant agree more to everything Kavita writes here...
I wish there was some order to this chaos, i wish there was more humanity in the selfishness of media and political leaders. I wish there was more conviction in our intent to end terrorism.
We have examples like US, that faced one of the worst terrorist attacks, but the plan of action was not just about creating new rules that will reprimand and punish those who committed the mass murder, but it was about stopping this from happening.
Why is it that, none of the leaders are talking about how did so much ammunition get into the city, how did it get into the hotel? Why are we spending time in defining rules about how to deal with terrorists? Why cant we do something better to stop these terrorists from entering the city, the country? Why aren't we making efforts to beef-up the security instead?
I wish media could spend time investigating, how and not just what has happened!
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