26/11 - An year on...

An year later - a lot of things must presumbly have happened since the dastardly incident took place. Widows must have learnt to live with the harsh realities - the kids must have grown up perhaps a tad more insecure, perhaps way more frustrated at the inablity and ineptitude of the people responsible for ensuring that the perpetrators of the crime are brought to book. What we have done so far is spend 31 crores on keeping a man alive who should have been dispatched from this world by now.

What have I to say or write other than express my grave sadness and perhaps my own helpnessness in being able to do nothing to contribute to redressing the situation. Criminal Justice procedures are bound to take time, but in a water-tight case such as this one, I fail to understand what is taking them so much time to book Mr. Kasab.

I was reading an article in TOI that talks about Mrs Kamte's account of the incidents leading up to the death of Mr. Kamte along with the other brave soldiers. Rakesh Maria's role has been directly questioned by her. Apart from adding a sinister twist to an already intriguingly bizarre incident, this has revved up a huge sensation worthy of being investigated to the minutest details so that those culpable are immediately brought to justice. Of course, the Government always has its agendas which are far more inscrutable than one may think; Government afterall is run by people who are not entirely beyond their personal whims and fancies. What had possessed Maria during those dire moments could be anybody's guess but an apparent lapse in duty that has the added implication of complicity with the enemies of the nation is a far more serious allegation than the whole tragedy itself. Could it be true that a certain section of the Police may have been just wee-bit more discomforted with Mr. Karakare's deep resolve to get to the heart of the matter in the case relating to Samjhauta Express? Was he made a scapegoat - an easy target in the face of one of the biggest tragedies that India has seen in the recent times?

While the Babri Masjid inquiry took seventeen years to conclude what was painfully obvious from day one - I hope this does not take as long. Babri incident was the demolition of a physical structure - but 26/11 was the demolition of Humanity. If the case is not dealt with swiftly and justly, it will amount to a justice no smaller than the Crime it seeks to address.

As we move on - our dear country faces insurmountable challenges on virutually every possible front - Kashmir, Assam, Naxals, Arunachal Pradesh and China, the roller coaster relationship with the US and India's emergence as an economic superpower with the macabre realities of infrastructure problems and of course Corruption and Division of society on flimsy ideologies and hollow principles of Caste and Region.

The list goes on...but it's also true that the very same people who are responsible for the problems have the solutions too. The need is to wake up to them and build a robust plan to start tackling them one by one.