Mumbai: The Days After 26/11-Part 2

The Mumbai terror attack of 26/11 has been described as the worst one to hit India. The unique operative style, the high profile targets, the continued siege over three days, the media overdrive are some of the factors that made the impact of this strike devastatingly felt suffered and agonized. With public anger growing to revolutionary proportions upheavals are bound to follow.

The Upheavals : The unprecedented spontaneous public show of tremendous anger was bound to effect changes in the way rulers and politicians thought and acted. Political upheavals started. Within days the Indian Home Minister resigned and the Maharashtra state government (Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra) was put under extreme pressure. So, more followed. The state Home Minister tendered his resignation and the Chief Minister offered to resign. Old habits die hard. Intense politicking unfolded and finally the Chief Minister's resignation was accepted. With two more days of hard bargaining a new ministry was installed in Maharashtra with a new leader. Nothing escaped public gaze. They raised the question as to how a state could be without a government for several days after such a national crisis. The bureaucracy was also not off the hook and many heads are slated to roll with the new initiative.

At the international level too things were moving. The US came forward offering all help with its Secretary of State visiting India and Pakistan and the FBI visiting the terror attack sites. The US President elect Obama promised to stamp out global terror. Israel was also seething to act as six Israeli hostages were killed at Nariman House siege. Pakistan against whom evidence was growing by the day came under duress and mounting international pressure compelled it to start operations against the suspect organizations and linked individuals. The United Nations named a frontline Pakistani organization as a terrorist outfit.

Revolutionary Changes? : For the first time in Indian parliamentary history all political parties came together on the floor of the Parliament on December 11, 2008 to fight terrorism. The opposition offered all support for any kind of tough decisions taken by the ruling coalition government related to fighting terror. The Indian government promised a complete overhaul of the police system, the defense system and the intelligence system. A federal investigative agency in the style of FBI is also being planned. The Prime Minister publicly apologized in a national address for the lapse in Mumbai.

Change the System : The people are definitely not in mood to relent. Their message is loud and clear -CHANGE THE SYSTEM. To change the system the politicians will eventually have to change themselves.

Let not the sufferings and agony of Mumbai Terror 26/11 go in vain. Let it be the first positive step forward to rooting out global terror.

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