Our Leaders Failed Us !

The tragedy that unfolded on 11/26/2008 in Mumbai has been an eye opener to me as a citizen. I was under the false impression that Indian Government and its various agencies have a plan of action , relevant procedures & processes in place and are fully equipped to deal appropriately with any situations like the one on 11/26 in Mumbai. It was only natural to assume that our leadership has taken appropriate steps and are capable of dealing effectively with this sort of situations given the fact that we have been witnessing terrorism in our country for over 20 years in some form or the other.

Watching the events of the day unfold and enter into 3rd day it was painfully obvious that our political and bureaucratic leadership failed us. Given the fact that this sort of attacks have happened in J&K in the past, we would have thought our leaders have already anticipated and are prepared accordingly to deal with this kind of situation anywhere in the country ahead of time. Can our leaders answer the following:

Why our brave soldiers do not have or did not use any night vision equipment, body armor when fighting the terrorists?

Why our security personnel do not have latest and greatest quality gear, equipment and training to defend our country?

Note: The death of ATS chief and other security personnel was preventable if they had quality body armor.

Do we have a national security policy?

Do we have a national security plan?

Why aren't we putting pressure on pakistan to demand extradition of important leaders of LeT
and Dawood Ibrahim and his thugs?

Why aren't we enlisting the help of Israel's expertise in dealing with terrorists and getting our
special forces trained properly?

Are our borders really secure?

Is our military taking appropriate steps against enlisting moles into our armed forces and other security services?

Why are our coastal areas not guarded and why people living on coasts are being trained and informed about the threat we face from these regions?

When the fishermen are released from pakistani prisons, do our security agencies debrief them
and then monitor their activities ?

Is there any guarantee that the recent opening of travel restrictions between India and pakistan has not made it much easier for terrorists and other anti-national elements into sneak into our country?

Are we monitoring the activities and movements of pakistani visitors into our country?

Why isn't our Government not raising the issue of pakistan occupied Kashmir?

Instead of finger pointing our politician specially our ruling party needs to do something more practical in ensuring at least the safety of us citizens of this country. I am not sure if we can trust the current bunch of our politicians to protect our country, as it stands right now, they do not deserve our trust nor respect. Us, the common citizens and our brave security personnel deserve better leadership. We need "change" and we need it "now". Our voters need to realize that we need "LEADERS" not "POLITICIANS". We need leaders who are committed to our country and its interests, not the politicians pursuing their self serving interests.