Life after Death: Are we secure now?

The Times of India (TOI) Student Edition carries a special feature, ‘Words Worth, d of d day’ and the December 4 word of the day was AK56! Rightly so, now that the politicians aren’t working in the direction of ensuring security for the individuals, the media has taken up the job.

With concern in every citizen’s mind over the issue of personal security, a man carried his (licensed) revolver in and outside the station. No, that attempt wasn’t to counter the possibility of another attack, but it was just another disclosure of the lack of effective checking methods at the station which had been attacked not a week ago. After his successful attempt to carry the gun, the man questioned the security men as to why wasn’t he caught when the metal detector rang an alarm. Surprisingly, they answered they couldn’t hear the alarm!

Exactly a week after the Mumbai aftermath, an eight Kg RDX bomb was found in a bag lying with the bags and luggage of the terror attack victims at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST). CST was the first place where the terrorists opened indiscriminate firing on the fateful night of the 26 of the last month. People running for their lives, in an attempt to save themselves ran out of the station leaving there luggage/bags behind. The terrorists, who came with the sole purpose to cause maximum devastation, left the bomb amongst the bags before fleeing the station. After the attacks, the police sanitized the station and locked up the left behind bags in a room. Gradually usual crowd resumed and unexpectedly a week after the bomb, in an unclaimed bag, is discovered when the police officials were distributing the bags to the kin of the deceased.

Fortunately the bomb never exploded but this again puts a question mark over the work of the officials who sanitized the area and declared it safe. This has again uncovered the negligent way in which our police force works. Had the bomb exploded the causalities would have been much larger. What more that the bomb lay there for a complete week! Is that how the police sanitized the entire railway station, without checking the bags? Where were the sniffer dogs? Where were the metal detectors? How did the police declare the station safe without a meticulous check-up?
And now after the discovery of the bomb at CST, fresh grilling of the caught jihadi, Azam Amir Kasav, has sent a chill down the spine of the Mumbai police force. He claims that each of the ten terrorists carried a bomb which leaves one bomb un-accounted for…is he again fooling the police as he has been taught in his training by his bosses? Or is it the truth?
In a larger perspective: Are we safe now? Within a week of such unprecedented attacks, twice has been the negligence of Mumbai police uncovered. And this wouldn’t have been any different had it been any other part of India. When the police or the government officials will work towards the safety of the individuals? Every citizen’s blood is boiling, protests are raging in every part of the country, and fear of security has filled up everybody’s mind. Instead of sympathizing with the families of the deceased, the politicians too were busy, busy throwing dirt on the opposition leaders and producing a vote bank for themselves in the process. It was pity to see the politicos blaming the opponent and pleading votes in favor of their party! Can anyone please ask these political gurus to keep their mouth shut for a while? We don’t need their expert opinions on the failure of their opposition; instead what we need is an accountable, responsible government. What we need is security for every individual who runs a risk of being victimized, dying an untimely death.

Life after Death: A question unanswered…

Mumbai, Nov. 29 : An official of the Mumbai Disaster Control Office on Saturday confirmed that the death toll in the terrorist strikes has risen to 195. He also said that the number of injured is presently pegged at 295.
Revealing the statistics, Shantaram Jadhav was quoted by an agency as saying:"The death toll is likely to rise because there are still bodies in our vans that are being brought into hospitals."
His comment came as commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) were continuing with their mopping up and sanitising operations at the beseiged Taj Mahal Hotel after killing the four terrorists.

Exactly a week after the 60 hour terror strikes, Mumbai is back on track. Still on its way to recovery, “Mumbai never stops for this long”. Numerous protests are raging in every corner of the country, some against the politicians and some against the terrorism.

And amid all this, their looms a huge question mark over the body count at the Taj. A couple of hours after the aftermath ended there, the national media claimed that it has received the estimated body count but were not revealing till the official confirmation was done. This was keeping in mind the sentiments of the people who where still, hoping against all hopes, searching for their loved ones who have been victimized by unprecedented terror strikes.

The media kept speculating about the lapse of time as the official confirmation wasn’t coming. The media even speculated about the toll being as high as about the double of what the government officials had by then revealed.
Yet none did reveal the exact number of causalities there, nor came the official word on the same.

Non official sources claim the body count to be 99 alone inside Taj on the evening of 29th, when the sanitization process was still underway. NSG chief said the body count couldn’t be revealed because the hotel was yet to be searched room by room. Every other official echoed the same comment when questioned on it.
November 30th, the Taj handed over to the management by the NSG, yet no one reveals the total number of causalities. Now it has been closed down for a year. A year, they say, is the anticipated amount of time required to rebuild the Taj.

The question is if keeping the public updated on the status of the attacks and rescue operations via LIVE coverage was the so called duty of media then why isn’t the media fulfilling its duty by updating the people about the exact number of causalities? Why is media now only focusing on the dirty politics being played? Why is the public being kept unaware of the total devastation caused by the militants? When will the figures be confirmed? And by whom?

To do or NOT TO DO…

How apt was it to telecast a LIVE coverage of the Mumbai rescue Operations inside Taj, Nariman House and Oberoi Hotels?

With negligible empathy for the person, a journalist interviews a husband whose wife was trapped inside the Taj about how he feels and what was he telling his children about their missing mom. Following the military instructions (very ironically) she says the media have been requested not to divulge the details of the operations and then goes LIVE on air reveling the number and positioning of the commandos at each of the three places while the operations were still in the crucial stages. Precisely an hour after the world knew that the militants have been shot dead by the commandos, the same journalist does a ‘thumbs up interview’ with a commando and goes on top of her voice to ‘inform’ the world that there were ‘no more terrorists inside’.

The NSG chief himself condemned the media for divulging important details like the airdropping of commandos and their positioning in and around the complexes saying that “it took away the element of surprise for the militants and might have jeopardized the entire operation.”
Of course the calamity was of national importance and the citizens of the nation needed to be made well aware of the situation. But was the entire bullet by bullet, LIVE coverage of the epic necessary knowing that it might compromise with the safety of the hostages?
The media went on record mentioning the Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmiukh’s visit to the Taj Hotel along with his actor son Ritesh Deshmukh and director friend, Ram Gopal Verma, labeling it as insensitive and ruthless act. But if this was insensitive and ruthless, so was the no coverage of Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station or any of the hospitals and of the situation of ordinary people, their travails and trauma. For media, the prime focus was to cover the journalist Sabina Saikia, actor Ashish Choudhary’s sister, Yes Bank chairman Ashok Kapur’s tragic and untimely death, and the miraculous and (ironically) lucky escape of Israeli and Italian two year old kids. The media by its callous conduct and attitude showed that its sensationalism that sells and gets you TRPs!
The media need to have some respect for the people, their sentiments, before doing what they are "best at" -sensationalize the issue. Not to blame the junior journalists who have to serve media organizations which, amongst themselves have a cut throat competition in terms of TRP ratings and sensationalism, but the heartless reporting of the whole issue by some of the eminent senior and reputed journalists left the entire nation awestruck. The media, it seemed was immune to the sensitivity of the situation, especially when the operations were still happening and no less when it got over.

I have followed the news coverage very closely, for 48 if not the horrendous 60 hours, I am a media student myself but I overtly condemn the media’s LIVE Video coverage of military operations as sensitive as these. After watching the LIVE coverage of the terror attacks I am petrified to step out of home, thanks to media and not the terrorists who have been brilliantly portrayed so. Watching it LIVE was my choice, but after all that I strongly feel that had the media been blacked-out during the span of the operations, the fear and panic instilled amongst the common mass would have been of much lesser degree. Talking in terms of the Mass Society theorists, however limited effect of the media have been empirically proven, media especially the new age media still have the ‘Magic Bullet’ effects amongst the youth at least.
In my opinion, the media has played a very immature role in the recent attacks whether it is covering the rescue operations LIVE or thrusting microphones at those who were in a state of shock just after being rescued. The protection and safe rescue of the hostages should have been the prime concern for both the commandos and the media and keeping that in mind the key information about their hideout should not have been aired publically. True, immediacy has been one of the major reasons for the roaring success and popularity of the electronic and new age media and the ever escalating dependency upon them, but so driven by the hunger of TRPs and sensationalism the media totally compromised with the lives of the hostages.