On the night of 26/11, Mr Hemanth Karkare, the ATS chief got a text message from a journalist on his phone - ” Sir, there is a report that there is threat to your life, is that true?”, he replied with a smiley.

He was shot thrice by the terrorists, and the 3 bullets pierced through his chest later that night in spite of wearing a ” a bullet proof jacket”.

Sad day, for India, sad day for democracy in our country, where we could not protect our citizens due to negligence and corruption from our politicians.

“THE WAR FOR DEMOCRACY” , title which i took from Nehru’s autobiography, suddenly found so much relevance as to the repercussions of what happened on 26/11 at Mumbai, the so called “India’s 9/11″.

As i write this article , the lone terrorist Kasab is cooling his heels off in some prison jail in Mumbai, with Z class security, but what he has not realized is what he has done to the sub continent and its people.

This barbaric act by 10 terrorists how came from across the border, has got the nation to fight terror and the democracy within it. Though we have had candle light, silent protest, “VANDE MATRAM “, being chanted on the streets of Mumbai, it was a scene which was so reminiscent of the freedom struggle, which was well before i was born, gave me so much of faith that we can do some thing to help change the way we look at things. One question that really comes out off all this peace marches, protests, is WHAT NEXT?

We cannot go to war against Pakistan, as a lot of section of the media is suggesting, if that happens then the terrorists will have the last laugh. I hope many people know that the US and NATO forces are trying to bomb the Taliban on the Pakistan - Afghanistan border. As they had not option to hit the US so they took the easy route hit India, create tension between Pakistan and India, and gain control of the western Pakistan province of Peshawar.

Pakistan also cannot tell the world that they have terrorists in their own backyard, because the democratic process in Pakistan will get a short in the arm.

We have to be decisive in the approach to this difficult problem in the sub continent, but we can surly not preach what Pakistan is to do to nor declare war against Pakistan, which would result in 2 nuclear capable countries at war, and the aftermath is some thing no one can apprehend, and no we don want another Hiroshima or Nagasaki, for heavens sake.

What we have to fight, is a war, against the way we are being ruled by the democratic parties here in India, we have to fight a war to get better policies to have more budget allocations for defense, a need for a centralized intelligence agency, and no to have 5 different agencies investigating one act of terrorism.

Also it is better to clean our own backyard, make it ready for any kind of terror attack, but most importantly, what we need is a preventive mechanism to prevent more attacks in the future.

These things can be archived if and only if our politicians, bureaucrat’s in our country stand as one against terror, and not politicize terror.

We as the public have a major role to play in this regard, let us all fight, till we get a solution to the problems that this great diverse, secular country is facing.

We must salute our NSG, the army and immortalize the brave hearts who gave their life in the line of duty, to save us and the generations to come.

I salute them, and must carry on from where they left. We cannot sit idle. Let us change ourselves, our country, for the good.

JAI HIND !!

Regards ,
Anirudh P