Green 2.0, Internet 2.0 and now terrorism 2.0. The last one is the evolution that Darwin had not thought of. With the recent attacks on Mumbai, terrorism has been taken a whole new dimension. This is a complete makeover.
Gone out are the beards, pathanis, affiliated color and other associated characteristics. In come the Terrorist 2.0. Young, smart, educated and Sassy. He is as comfortable loading a gun as he is in routing his email via Russia. He plays with technology with ease. He kills with pleasure. He could be the guy sitting next to you on the air plane. Or the guy who just rented the flat above yours. Or the guy you share your train ride with. He has no religion. He has no emotion. And he is not afraid of dying.
Not surprisingly, our authorities, and by that I mean the politicians, who actually control the decision making for our armed forces, police and intelligence wings, refuse to learn. Blast happen out of the blue. And in comes ‘condemnations’. Promises of investigations, the quest for the truth, promises of compensation to the kin of victims have all become standard statements. The meanings have been removed and they are just stats. Period.
All our so called leaders do is ‘condemn’ the attack on phone from their holiday homes, or in person attired in the best Armani or Cavalli has to offer. Our leaders have proved time and again to be helpless and useless. While India grows , Indians are becoming more and more insecure. As far as I am concerned, that means negative growth. Sufficient attention has not been given to our ability to tackle terror. We still want to go the judicial book rule way of handling the terrorist. Capture and file a case. And wait. And the wait turns anger into faded memories of the past. Dates are etched in history books for our next generations to know about and write a paper on. And then another attack happens.
Sometimes I miss TADA. Sometimes I feel like crying. And sometimes I do.
In all this evolution, all that remains the same is the fate of the common man. He still suffers. I think it the time for us to act has come. It is time for “A Wednesday”.
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