Mumbai related

Pakistan is out with its usual bag of trciks. These guys have started releasing the terror suspects .

That was expected as they did the same last time too after the parliament attack. Now a refusal to allow the terror suspects - interrogation by British agencies  . 

Another twist to Kasabs' story. Apparently he was captured by India over a year ago From Nepal. They Nepali Government has given out a flat denial. 

There seems to be no end to the levels of deception the Pak Government can touch.They are desperate and trying out everything to save their skin.

Meanwhile UK seems to have woken upto the fact that what India has been saying for years has truth . Now they realise that 75% of the terror in UK germinates in Pakistan.

But lest we forget India and Pakistan are Nuclear and the heads that rule Pakistan are not all that sane. The clouds of war that hang , though still at some distance,  cannot be wished away, as Nicholas Kristoff writes - & if such a thing happens we might have an August 1914

The Fragile Global Economy

Reading an article by Krugman titled the Great Illusion. This article was written during the Georgia crisis when Russian Tanks rolled into Georgia. The article talks about How Globalisation can get stalled by nationalistic forces.

He mentions - " our grandfathers lived in a world of largely self-sufficient, inward-looking national economies — but our great-great grandfathers lived, as we do, in a world of large-scale international trade and investment, a world destroyed by nationalism".

This article especially assumes significance in the current time due to tensions between India & Pakistan.The path of Globalisation and Growth followed by India will receive a setback once a war starts off. The fundamentalistic elements stand to gain in mutliple ways from such a war. For India we stand to loose much more even if we win. Unless we manage to extirpate the entire Jihadi & Let machinery on the process.

Even as the seige a happened at Mumbai there was polling happening in Kashmir despite a call for Boycott. That is a clear indicator of an undercurrent of peace. All the steps towards reactivation of trade , business and normalisation of life in this region would have to be suspended once there is war- which will lead to greater unemployment. And unemployed youth an easily fall prey to jihadi elements. Such a situation is avoidable.

Perhaps the Government needs to be appreciated for its restrained approach to tackle the cross border terrorism.

The complete article is available here: The Great Illusion

Incoherent Thoughts

After an intense week where the only topic was the siege of Mumbai – we are moving back to business as usual. Mr Zardari's volte face is typical of Pakistani Presidents . On the dec 2nd Larry King show says "the killers were not from Pakistan". This Just 3 days after agreeing to help bring the criminals to book.

He might sing a different tune post the Rice visit.

Perhaps it is time to move on. It is Christmas a time to give . Not necassarily forgive.But, perhaps we have to give the leaders time to deliver. Not many would agree with me on this.But a fitting response to what has happened, will take time. We can make the government accountable to some time frame. Just plain ranting wont help.

Many thoughts come to mind regarding the Mumbai seige. The extent of Lashkar's activities

and its reach cannot be underestimated. Wonder, if the Indian government can neutralise their leaders effectively.How long will it take. The way these ( lashkar taiba & al qaeda) guys are achieving success aftersuccess in carrying out their attacks - time isnt far when they will try out a chemical or Nuclear assault. They are like the hydra headed monster and it would require more than one Hercules to finish them off. 

Lets hope our forces are given enough leeway to carry out their operations towards this result. 

 Tejinder singh has a great post on the the general scene post Mumbai . 

Its over

Finally it seems over. 3 terrorists killed at the Taj. There might be one or two more biding the time to go with a biG Bang. 

Still, I feel grateful and said a silent prayer of Thanks. 

It seems all so simple. If you have ammunition you can do anything. The other things just fall in place. here the ammo is of two types - the ammo that was used to kill people and the other ammo is in the minds of the terrorists - drilled into their minds to go for such anti social objectives.

Well, one thing it does look like its no more just terror this was plain war.Kill Kill Kill. No hostages. No, hiding bombs and escaping. This was a team that came to wage war. And first round is theirs.

We were unprepared - this scale of attacks has never happened in any other city in India. The battle fields have just shifted.

Mumbai

A particularly damp and dull day in Bangalore - weatherwise. The effects of Nisha have amplified the winter.Even with a sweater on I can feel a cold coming on.

Everywhere one turns to one gets to read about Mumbai.It just keeps pouring in.How much longer will it go. The sequence of events have laid a siege on our senses. I cant seem to focus on the work without having to chk out on twitter about any new developments.It is close to 2 days now since the events started. This is very much like a war. The only difference being that this time it is right in our backyards.

We are in the midst of a movie going in slow motion. Its as if ever since this thing unfolded - I can recollect in crystal clarity what all the things I have done over the past 48 hours. Every moment has been captured. There are some moments in our life which get embedded in our collective consciousness and stay with us even after 20-30 years.The death of Indira Gandhi, Anti Sikh riots of '84, the WTC bombing & now perhaps the Taj Shootout. 

Today the markets reopened and there doesnt seem to be any drop in the prices infact they seem to have risen.

November 27th

Another day that will get etched in the history for all the wrong reasons.

Triumph of Terrorism.

In the past 10-15 years this must be the nth time when security has been breached in such large scale. This is almost a war situation. Bombing was different atleast the whole thing got over and people were left clearing the debris.

This here is something else this is unfolding like a motion picture with its share of thrill, voyeurism and tragedy.

Bob Dylan might have asked - How many more intelligence failures of such magnitude ? before we develop a security infrastructure capable of preventing repeats.

Mumbai will be back on track - the people who lost their dear ones will be left picking up the threads - that got - cut off - midstream.

There is so much at stake that it wont be long before we resume Business as usual.
Atleast 20 of these terrorists would have been involved to execute such an operations.One can only guess at the extent of planning that would have gone into it.Even if these who carried the guns were the foot soldiers - they would have been trained over a period of time.Where? How many more are waiting in the ranks to go for the next attack.

Are these guys so smart that every 1-2 years they are able to come up with a new plan and execute it and then walk away without leaving whiff. Or is it just that each time its a new outfit, a new leader a new gang. One needs to consider this as a wake up call. The audacity is amazing.