Reflections on the terror in Mumbai

It was exactly an year ago that my wife, Ena and I were trapped in Oberoi's Trident hotel while the terrorists rampaged outside killing almost 200 people. I had written of our experience here and here and also reproduced an outsiders chilling account here. Over the past year as the import of these events has sunk in and as I reflect on our few days under the terrorists gun for those days in Mumbai, some thoughts rise to the surface.

Leadership or lack of it. During our entire ordeal, one thing was amply clear- there was no leadership at all not at the political, not at the civil service and not at the law enforcement agencies. None. Yes, there were a few individual acts of local leadership but on the whole the entire episode smacked of a polity that was cowering and cowed without anyone rising to the challenge of confronting the terrorists. It is true that the home minister, the chief minister of the state and the inspector general of police were finally sacked after these events but it was really a case of too little too late.

Lack of media restraint. The competitive instincts of the press very early on overcame any good sense in their coverage. Some of the press even marveled that they were allowed to come so close to the events or to film the most delicate of rescue operations. But that did not prevent them from airing operations that they had to know were not going to be helpful to the hostages held inside. Love of a scoop overwhelmed all scruples. One can only say that expecting the media to exercise restraint is akin to expecting a drug addict to kick his habit and go into rehab.

The unfairness of the coverage. We always knew that life was unfair. But it was glaringly obvious in the press and TV coverage of the events. It seems that the two deaths in Nariman House rated more importance than the 80 deaths in the ritzy hotels and, of course, the 100 odd poor that died in the CST were a media after thought. The rescue of a baby did get coverage but the very many acts of valour at the CST were glossed over or at best rated minor coverage even in the local press. The international press were expected to focus their attention on the foreigners in our midst, that was to be expected, but why did the Indian press follow so blindly ?

Transience of public outrage. The terrorists had struck at the elite in Mumbai and so the outrage was deep and expected. There were candle light vigils the next day and much hand wringing about the laxity of the politicians. Yet a few months later, when the time came to vote, it seems many of the candle light vigilantes were missing in action. It is the transience of public outrage that keeps the corrupt and ineffective in power. Gestures are important but reality requires real commitment.

The terrorists striking in Mumbai finally stirred public opinion to confront the dangers of fundamentalism.. .. in Pakistan. In the early days, the press and the public in Pakistan dismissed these terrorist attacks as being orchestrated by the Indian RAW ( the Indian CIA) but as the Taliban started their attacks at home, the mood changed. Somewhere in the month of March this year, I started noticing editorials in Pakistani newspapers recognizing that the Taliban were their problem and that it was no longer possible to blame India for all their troubles. This trend has continued and with the Taliban attacks in Punjab, the home of much of the Pakistan's army, the tide may well have turned in the fight against indigenous fundamentalism in Pakistan.

There are however two major issues that fuel this terrorism that remain untackled - money and the new recruits to the cause of the Taliban. The attempts to follow the money in the funding of the Taliban have been few and fitful. Most observers cite the difficulty of intercepting hawala transactions or funds routed through Islamic charities. Others point to the fundamental difficulty in curtailing opium production and transport from Afghanistan which provide the wherewithal for the Taliban to continue its fight. It is also clear that without tackling this problem, it would be almost impossible to stem the flow of funds that essentially is the staple of the terrorism. In all of these discussions it is fascinating to find that the entire effort is directed at controlling the supply of opium and none to controlling its demand. Capitalism states that supply will always rise to meet the demand for goods and services. I have yet to see a cogent detailed analysis of the market demand for opium/heroin. Is it because the major demand is in Europe and the US? The sad fact is that without controlling demand, it will almost be impossible to curb production and supply. Ideas to tackle this opium trade have ranged from the US buying the entire opium crop from the farmers directly every year for a few years and burning it, as they did in Turkey, to deliberately spiking the opium crop, or at least a part of it, with cyanide and letting it be widely known to the consuming market. One would imagine that the demand for Afghanistan poppy would rapidly evaporate ( or course it might increase the price of Columbian heroin- but that is another issue).

While there are at least some ideas floating around for curtailing this opium trade, the other major issue of curbing the fresh recruits to the Taliban cause has had fewer initiatives. The fact is that there are over 10,000 madrassas in Pakistan that still continue to turn out half educated semi literate fanatics and no significant attempt is being made to stem this flow of cannon fodder for the terrorists. These madrassas are not being closed or monitored, the teachers are not being replaced and the funds continue to flow into their coffers from Saudi Arabia and other muslim countries encouraging the mullahs and maulvis to concentrate on teaching their own version of Koran and seeding them with terrorist principles. In the final analysis, it is only when Pakistan shows that it is able to shut down these cannon producing madrassas that we will know that it is serious about fighting terrorism and that it realizes that the cancer lies within their polity and not without.