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.

Indian Map on CNN

Did anyone notice the truncated Indian Map being showed on CNN News channel? I cringe every time the Indian map is shown on the TV especially by the CNN. The Indian Map as shown by CNN does not include Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Punjab & Haryana.
Not only does the CNN show the truncated map of India, the way they show the map of that region, it seems like J&K is part of Pakistan. Is CNN promoting Pakistani agenda?

Why is the Government Of India and its representatives in US silent on this issue? Is there any strategic reason or they are unwittingly showing their effeteness? I wonder what would China do, if Tibet was shown as a separate territory?

If I were the PM, I would fire the entire embassy/consulate staff in USA for ignoring this matter unless I was naive enough to believe they do not watch CNN. I wonder, what kind of work our embassy / consulate staff in foreign countries do besides living lavishly at Indian tax payers expense in phoren land.

11/26 - Mumbai

Few foreign (pakistan) trained nutcases (terrorists) land on India's western coast, kill few hundred innocent civilians, Mame few hundred more and take over few soft targets with less effort than it takes to go to a mall around festive season to buy some items. Our ruling part points finger at Pakistan and the opposition parties point finger at ruling party as the tragedy in Mumbai enters 3rd day with the international community watching every bit of ridiculously inept handling of the crises by our government and security agencies.

Is it just me or our government has really let us down again? I wonder. From the initial investigations into this tragedy it is clear that the criminals are from pakistan and are highly trained. Seeing this tragedy unfold on TV, it seemed as if the terrorists were combat trained
and the precision with which they executed this operation suggests in addition to regular training they were specifically trained for this operation.

I strongly think these nuts were trained by the ISI. Given all the previous instances of ISI sponsored terror activities in India, as claimed previously by government of India, what is stoping the Indian government from demanding the international community to declare ISI and pakistani defence establishment as "Terror Organizations" and also quit funding pakistan untill it disbands all of its terror infrastructure and turns all its terrorists, including "dawood ibrahim", to India?

Sometimes, I wonder if the Government of India has in it to stand up to the international commnity and assert itself?