The mumbai spirit - despiriting

It was the Winter of 94. We had lost the last year in the semi finals of one of the city’s most prestigious football tournaments to this team from Nasik. We were the better team. But we had failed. This year was different however. We had trained hard the entire year under Coach M. He not only concentrated on training on the ground, but on the drawing board as well. You could have the best team in the world, he said, but if you don’t respect and know your opponent you will never be able to win. And I still remember, we spent a full month, plotting every team’s strengths and weakness participating in that year's tournament. We won that year and I still have a cut out of a picture from the papers the next day of us holding the trophy high.

Many moons have passed since that warm day, but every time I look at that picture, I swell with pride. It’s still a lesson I hold with me today, of understanding your opponent, in any game.

Somehow i think our money hungry politicians, on their road to political stardom, seem to have missed that lesson or conveniently forgotten it. Something Coach M will definitely not be too happy about.

India, time and again, has failed to wield the hammer against the lowly terrorist, often letting its citizens down. And despite what our leaders would have us believe, we are a soft State: a fact fully understood and exploited by terrorists. We have already had experiences of terrorists sending fatal messages. The 93 Mumbai blasts, the Oct 2005 blasts in Delhi, the continuous in massacres in Srinagar. And yet we have not seemed to understand or counter our opponent.

I am not your over zealous pessimist, who is constantly on the agenda of criticising developing India. In fact, I swelled with the same pride when I heard and saw, the spirit of the Mumbaikers in lending hands to troubled brethren. Hundreds of citizens who lived in the nearby areas of the blast sites came out of their homes to assist in the relief operations, much before police or ambulance workers reached the scene. Mumbai is a city that never sleeps, and it showed its colours once again. It has shaken off the disastrous effect the blasts have had, almost immediately. And therein lies my worry.

Because of its ability to so quickly overcome such a massive tragedy, it could do more harm than good. What it means is no one is complaining and certainly not the politicians. Announcing a 5 lakh donation to relatives of the killed is not an answer to losing out yet again to terrorists. Praising us on what a good football team we were, in spite of losing is not going to win the next year's tournament. Making changes, understanding your opponent, strengthening your team - that will get you to a triumphant year.

Countering terrorism is no football game. It involves a much more detailed complex approach to reducing such events happening again. It involves setting up Anti Terrorist Committees, setting up solid security systems and implementing them in places most vulnerable.

I missed the London bombings last year by a whisker. I was in the station next to where one of the bombs exploded and had to sprint out of the underground station thinking it was an earthquake. It was horrible in itself as well, with over 50 deaths. But what has the Government done here on the after math of the bombings, a year later?

They have appointed a National Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, given police, public prosecutors and judicial authorities greater powers and more scope to investigate concrete potential threats and expanded the capacity of the intelligence services apart from a lot more. Has the home ministers then in 93, and now, done or changed anything with regard to countering terrorism?

On Tuesday a day after the attack, the Prime Minister held a cabinet meeting to review the situation but did not come out to assure a terrorised the nation. Our home minister, in his usual quivering voice that was neither confident nor firm, read out his statement.
Even after countless experiences with bomb blasts, police presence on the scene was patchy and scattered. The crime scenes were not cordoned off and that may have resulted in the loss of vital evidence.

Great nations are built on solid systems and statesmen who make sure they run. To be considered a great nation, one towards which we are most decisively heading towards, India needs a strong state, that has a voice of its own and systems put in place. And as of course to stay ahead of the game. Terrorists are no idiots and they are playing their game well. Why cant we?

I only hope, the Indian government comes close to my success of the winter of 94. Its not easy, opponents are definitely smart and it will be a long hard struggle. My opinion? Coach M should be elected Home Minister.