The deadly serail blasts at the most crowded places in Mumbai on 13th July 2011 was a well planned attack, killing about 20 people and severely injuring more than hundreds.  This only reminds us of the presence of deadly evil in this dream city. All the news channels not only brought out a live coverage of the three places where these blasts took place, but they also went further to announce the names of the victims and the helpline numbers to help the relatives to trace them.

The very next day, we saw the coverage of politicians visiting the blast sites and announcing relief measures through press conferences, which has become a new stunt these days. It may be recalled that during one such press briefing during 26/11 attack in 2008, the Home Minister of Maharashtra had landed into trouble and had to quit his post. The Minister had stated that “In such big cities, such small happennings are bound to take place”. But, now after this blast in Mumbai, the Hon.Home Minister of India after paying his visit to the sites, has not stated something different than the past statement of State Home Minister.

Mr. Chidambaram has clearly warned that such blasts could take place in other big cities too. Was he openly declaring that the Home Ministry was inefficient in stopping such possible atacks? Is our intelligence so weak ? Further, Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi  also made a controversial statement the next day of the attack, stating that even if the Government has tried to prevent such terrorist attacks upto 99%, there was a chance of 1% for such attacks to take place. He further compared our country’s situation with that of Iraq and Afhghanistan. “Even the US soldiers who are based in Afghanistan are killed daily by the terrorists ,” he said. Such irresponsible statements by the two politicians were highlighted by all major Marathi news channels. In fact, Star Majha went a step ahead by posing few questions to Mr. Rahul Gandhi and expected him to reply to them.

After this deadly attack, most of the news channels have become more active this time, seeking the public opinion about the security available in this city. Is Mumbai safe? This is the main question to be debated in days to come. And this time, the Home Ministry of the Central and State Government will have a tough time to seriously think about the security to be provided to the people living here and also face the Media pressure on further investigations and security measures to avaoid such attacks. Life of every citizen is precious. Not every citizen is fortunate to find the kind of security our leaders are provided today.

On the next day after the blasts,life was back to normal in the city of Mumbai, as reported by all channels; but the heavy rains played havoc. Perhaps, the mother nature was weeping non stop over such inhuman acts, where a destructive human being was responsible for taking the lives of his several brothers, who also had their own rights to live in this world. The news channels went on to show the messages received from the President and Prime Minister of US and Britain respectively. However, the local people besides condemning the attack, blamed the administration for their lapse in intelligence to detect such terrorists. The opposition leaders in their own style crticised the Government for the lapse in security. School girls near a school close to the balst site in Dadar spoke the very next day to TV channels, stating that they wanted to send across a strong message to such destructive people that they were not scared of their acts. But, in general the common man’s tone witnessed on many news channels was that  “ Security was only meant for the leaders. The common man’s life was at stake, in this city,” Isn’t that a clear indication of people losing faith in their leaders ?

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW