DesiPundit

The 7/13 Mumbai Bomb Blasts - Reactions

Once again, Mumbai was rocked by multiple bomb blasts across the city. Although the death toll thankfully was relatively low, the sense of panic and terror was familiar. As usual, there has been a range of emotional responses from Indians across the world. I’ll try to focus on the ones that I think deliver an appropriate and sane response. I’ll try to add more as I find them but sadly, right now, I’m not finding many that strike the right balance.

Folks at Pragati have been balanced in their opinions as usual. Nitin, the founder and editor at Takshashila has an insightful initial assessment on the attack and clarifies several aspects that in an ideal world would be obvious:

Regardless of who set off the three coordinated bomb blasts, it was an act of terrorism. Even if the explosives were set off by members of organised crime syndicates, as some initially suggested, they constitute terrorism. Terrorism is political theatre that primarily aims to create a psychological impact that then influences politics. Physical damage and casualties are secondary, as is the choice of ‘foot-soldiers’

Sidin also writing at Pragati has a slightly depressing column that hits too close to home for comfort. Lest you be mistaken, this is how most of us feel; at least the few sane ones that remain:

But what does upset me is the relentless, deep hatred that I see in the educated, cosmopolitan young. Take any contemporary issue that has excited young people recently.

The recent Lok Pal bill comes to mind. At one point it was impossible to criticise the bill in a column or even a social network update without receiving a barrage of—there is no other way to put it—hate. If you disagree with Mr Hazare then this clearly means that you are a stooge of the Congress who is being paid by the Italian empress of the nation…

…But look at their profile pictures. Look at their professions. Read their blogs. See what else they talk about. These are young people. Some of them are still in college. Presumably they are literate enough to read and intelligent enough to think.

It is a sad day when people of the city have come to accept the present state of affairs as something routine in their city life:

What seemed to be the problem? “They’ve cancelled the 10 P.M. show of ‘Delhi Belly,’ ” a man in shorts with an angry demeanor explained. Surely no one had the stomach to watch the scatological sleeper hit on an evening on which three blasts in southern Mumbai had left eighteen people dead and about a hundred and thirty wounded? “These kinds of things happen all the time,” the man replied. “Why should we put our lives on hold just because there have been a few bomb blasts?”

Arnab is expasperated that in spite of repeated and similar attacks on Mumbai, little has changed:

And finally, yet once again, when the nation bled, we found out we had no Prime Minister. No one expects the PM to come and give a Sunny Deolian “Kasam Ganga Maiyya ki ,ghar mein ghuskar maroonga” shout-out but is it too much to expect a bit of inspiration in a dark hour, something even George W could provide after 9/11? Some may say silence is MMS’s style (like it was for Charlie Chaplin even after the technology of sound came into being) and should not be taken for inaction (ahem ahem) but surely there must have been reasons why when their nations were attacked, two of the greatest leaders of the last century, Roosevelt and Churchill did not take such a “awaaz neeche” stance.