12th Dec, 2008...Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?
by Gnani Sankaran-
Watching at least four English news channels surfing from one
another during the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror
of another kind. The terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity
with cameras, sound bites and non-stop blabbers. All these channels
have been trying to manufacture my consent for a big lie called - Hotel
Taj the icon of India.
Whose India, Whose Icon ?
It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not bother
about the other icon that faced the first attack from terrorists - the
Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station. CST is the true
icon of Mumbai. It is through this railway station hundreds of Indians
from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu have
poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming themselves into
Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along with the Marathis and
Kolis
But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise the
thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No Barkha
dutt went there to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to show us
the damaged furniture and reception lobby braving the guards. And the
TV cameras did not go to the government run JJ hospital to find out who
those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were again invading the
battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the
page 3 celebrities.
In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of
workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by
train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even
after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to cover
in detail what transpired there.
The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the Aam Aadmis of
India surviving in Mumbai were not affected by Taj, Oberoi and Trident
closing down for a couple of weeks or months. What mattered to them was
the stoppage of BEST buses and suburban trains even for one hour. But
the channels were not covering that aspect of the terror attack. Such
information at best merited a scroll line, while the cameras have to be
dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at Taj or Nariman bhavan.
The so called justification for the hype the channels built around
heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that
Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe
congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not
India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The
Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST
and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power
over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold club and Taj were the
haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive their vehicles over sleeping
Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever financing the
glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) , Political brokers
and industrialists.
It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people, that the terrorists chose to strike.
The terrorists have understood after several efforts that the Aam Aadmi
will never break down even if you bomb her markets and trains. He/she
was resilient because that is the only way he/she can even survive.
Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news
channels and their patrons this time. What resilience, enough is
enough, said Pranoy Roy's channel on the left side of the channel
spectrum. Same sentiments were echoed by Arnab Goswami representing the
right wing of the broadcast media whose time is now. Can Rajdeep be far
behind in this game of one upmanship over TRPs ? They all attacked
resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the government in
tackling terror.
The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains
and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the
ordinary worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or
manufacture or film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the
rich shamelessly exhibited their lack of nerves and refused to be
resilient themselves. They cry for government intervention now to
protect their private spas and swimming pools and bars and restaurants,
similar to the way in which Citibank, General Motors and the ilk cry
for government money when their coffers are emptied by their own
ideologies.
The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed
by terror. For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of
government sponsored inflation and market sponsored exclusion, pain is
something he has learnt to live with. The rich of Mumbai and India Inc
are facing the pain for the first time and learning about it just as
the middle classes of India learnt about violation of human rights only
during emergency, a cool 28 years after independence.
And human rights were another favourite issue for the channels to whip at times of terrorism.
Arnab Goswami in an animated voice wondered where were those champions
of human rights now, not to be seen applauding the brave and selfless
police officers who gave up their life in fighting terorism. Well, the
counter question would be where were you when such officers were
violating the human rights of Aam Aadmis. Has there ever been any 24
hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and adivasis of this
country?
This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra
legal and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but
Arnabs don't miss a single opportunity to serve their class masters,
this time the jingoistic patriotism came in handy to whitewash the
entire uniformed services.
The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down
dying at the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending but
in vain in a situation which needed not just bran but also brain.
Israel has a point when it says the operations were misplanned
resulting in the death of its nationals here.
Khakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the
mistake of traveling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in
management that the top brass should never t ravel together in crisis.
The terrorists, if only they had watched the channels, would have
laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the Marine commandos, an
elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a see-through
cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the
structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to liberate. But the
terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he acknowledged.
Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss
operation strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering?
This is something even an event manager would first ask for, if he had
to fix 25 audio systems and 50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel.
Would not Ratan Tata have provided a plan of his ancestral hotel to the
commandos within one hour considering the mighty apparatus at his and
government's disposal? Are satelite pictures only available for
terrorists and not the government agencies ? In an operation known to
consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved
the efficiency of execution.
Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But
the Aam Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning
than terrorists. And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not
raise any question about any of these issues.
They after all have their favourite whipping boy - the politician the
eternal entertainer for the non-voting rich classes of India.
Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Manmohan Singh and Advani
visiting Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at
this hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels
pool together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of
national calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could mean
a wider and deeper coverage of events with such a huge human resource
to command? Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha keep harping every
five minutes that this piece of information was exclusive to their
channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is this the time to
promote the channel? If that is valid, the politician promoting his own
political constituency is equally valid. And the duty of the politican
is to do politics, his politics. It is for the people to evaluate that
politics.
And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means.
To come to grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice
of politics by proper means needs constant fine tuning and improvement.
Decrying all politics and politicians, only helps terrorists and
dictators who are the two sides of the same coin. And the rich and
powerful always prefer terrorists and dictators to do business with.
Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths
are not even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at
CST firing, the numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives
working in Taj for a monthly salary that would be one time bill for
their masters.
Postscript: In a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to
all the channels, 30 hours through the coverage. After all they have
been constantly asking the viewers to message them for anything and
everything. My message read: 'I send this with lots of pain. All
channels, including yours, must apologise for not covering the victims
of CST massacre, the real mumbaikars and aam aadmis of India. Your
obsession with five star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print
media please. No channel bothered.' Only srinivasan Jain replied: you
are right. We are trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing
happened till the time of writing this 66 hours after the terror attack.
Response from Sri regarding above way of looking at it....and I agree with him
Its just another view point as many have come forth on this topic. If the terrorists were holed up in the CST instead of the Taj. Do you think they would have covered Taj or CST???!!!
I think its pretty basic. The news channels would be where the ruckus us happening and not happened! They want live coverage....! Guess someone got overworked is my opinion. The wrong doing is to have not covered the dead....but u cant ask the news reporters to stand at CST when live action is at Taj!
Plus whicch channel was the dude watching? DId he see that to this day the vdo footage of CST is played on the terror attacks?
Luv
Sri
05th Dec 2008 ----------------- Hats off to India. India is great!
An Olympic shooter wins Gold (Only a game) & Government gives him 3 Crores
Another Shooter dies, fighting with terrorists (Saving our country and our live) & government pays his family 5 lakhs.
Really great!!!!!!!!!!! Hats off to India!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We salute the brave officers who laid down their lives in protecting us and our Country including
Pray for our forces who are still fighting with the terrorists without thinking about their family, just for us....... we can at least do this
LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER
Dear Mr. Prime minister
I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.
Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?
I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.
Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.
If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.
Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.
Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?
03rd Dec 2008 -----------------------------------
Message to the Morons…
Please....it is not audacious, it is not daring and it certainly is not well coordinated. Please stop the using terms that are reserved for when something is being protected, something is being rescued and something is being saved, all courageous actions. If someone wants to throw around adverbs and adjectives to describe the insanity that started it all and that is still unraveling at Mumbai, call it timid, call it cowardly and call it desperate (for attention). It does not take balls to walk into a crowded place and spray bullets all around and kill people. It does not require great degree of co-ordination to come prepared with arms and almonds, take unarmed people as hostages and remained holed up in some dark corners of a huge hotel, like some vampires afraid of the light, and count the seconds till their eventual and inevitable horrible deaths. So call them what they are. THEY ARE COWARDS. NOTHING MORE. NOT HOLY WARRIORS, NOT JIHADIS, NOT MILITANTS. PLAIN COWARDS. It is a waste of time and energy to even try to string together a rational argument/explanation for why such dastardly acts are perpetrated by ghastly ghouls. Oppression of minorities, Babri Masjid, Godhra incident, Mumbai riots and the aftermath bomb blasts - though these merchants of death try to cite the above reasons to incite a sense of shame and try to trip the country in guilt into thinking that, in some twisted way, it brought this all upon itself, make no mistake, this is not about retribution, this is not about revenge and this certainly is not about retaliation. This is about a bunch of losers, who have lost all purpose in life, trying to escape the misery in their own lives. And the only way they know - pulling down others with him, than pulling themselves up. For a little while, the losers have certainly managed to achieve their agenda. Yes, the entire country is awash with misery. Not because of the gloom or doom or even the prospect of it, but because of the natural human reaction to CARE about their fallen fellow beings, a trait that even the thoughtless animals possess, and something that these beasts have long lost. If anyone sees the country, and particularly Mumbai on its knees now, it is because it has bent down to feel sorry, express regret, and mourn alongside its fallen innocent and unwitting victims, and not because it has been BROUGHT DOWN to its knees. Losers, try to understand the difference between the two!
Idiots, you are not the first ones to launch a mindless attack and terrorize people into subjugation. Your ancestors, forefathers, and many others before came in from that same direction and have tried this irrational tactic from thousands of years, with waves and waves of invasions. This country is not new to attacks, and you are no different from them. (At least, some of those plunderers waged conventional warfares. They didn't hide in corners and shoot at the crowds from the dark). But in your puny minds, you failed to grasp a very simple fact. Babar is no more, Ghajini is no more, Ghori is no more, Khilji is no more, but INDIA IS STILL HERE, and its people are still here, and its children and their children would still be here, proudly STANDING, long after you are gone. You are not misguided youth. Misguided youth torch buses and destroy government property, at worst. You are a frustrated lot. You are frustrated, because the rest of the world has left you behind, and marched towards progress on the road of betterment. You are frustrated because you don't see any prospect to look forward to, any hope on the horizon, in effect, any valid reason to live for. And so you take that frustration out on others. By killing others. You know what some people cursed with the same misfortune do in the country you attacked? They don't kill other people. At best, they curse their luck, and go on about their lives, as rag-pickers, as beggars, as bums. They do not cloak their impotence and frustration in some extreme interpretations of religious texts and go about massacring people. Your own religious text calls a Jihadi as a holy warrior, a pious soldier. But doing what you did, you are not pious, you are pitiful, and you certainly are not a warrior, you are, at best, a rabies stricken dog, which goes about biting and attacking people (and in the dog's defense, rabies infects the brain and its judgment. In your case, your interpretation of your religion proved to be your rabies).
All that you managed with your bullets and grenades, apart from taking innocent lives, is BRING A COUNTRY TOGETHER. Here is what is going to happen to the country and its people, after some of you are captured and some of you are mercilessly killed. NOTHING. The country will pick up the pieces, just like it has been doing from a long long time, and go about its way. The people will recover from the initial shock, and get on with their lives, just like they have been doing since eons. That is because terrorism, at best, can leave a scar, a scar that will mend and disappear with the passage of time. Terrorism cannot bring about a change of hearts, a radical revolution and herald in a new world you wished for where religious extremism is practiced and progress is turned back in time. It never had, and it never will, not here, not anywhere, and certainly not in civilized societies. You remain the pest you always were and always will be, that will be crushed under the foot of collective cause of like-minded agendas. The society recognizes you will not completely die off. As long as there is frustration, as long as there is false hope, as long as there are religious zealots spewing false prophecies, and importantly, as long as there is a loser pool that these false prophets can tap into, the society recognizes that attacks like these will continue, many more people will be martyred (you are not the martyrs, the people who are killed are the true martyrs, because their deaths would amount to something eventually, unlike yours) at the altar of freedom. The same city that you attacked many times before has become one of the important players in financial, social, political and cultural sectors in the world. And it has gone from strength to strength with each attack. And that alone should have given you an indication as to how hopeless your cause (if you can even call it that) is. And if you think, it is a masterstroke to target the guests of the country, and terrorize them into leaving the place, you know nothing about economics (among everything else). The entire world recognizes that this is not a problem of one country, one religion and one society. Just as your kind bandied together to become a border-less organization, the world is coming together to become a boundary-less society when dealing with your menace. In opening up the world that way, you forgot to realize that you cannot run anywhere, you cannot hide anywhere, no country will give you the protection and backing you seek without jeopardizing its own image and prospects in the eyes of the world. In effect, every ghastly action of yours is bringing the world one step closer. If prosperity does not bring the world together, this adversity certainly will. You false leaders may use the phrase - in the end, your agenda will be achieved - during your brainwashing sessions. But, the rest of the world does not use the term "In the end", there is no end here. We will prevail, and we will continue to do so and prosper, AT YOUR COST.
03rd Dec 2008 -------------------------------------
1. Do not worry about those who have come thru boats...
Our forces can easily defeat them.
WORRY about those who have come thru votes....
Those are our REAL ENEMIES….
2. What a shame and disgrace to every citizen of India that the elite NSG Force was transported into ordinary BEST buses, whereas our cricketers are transported into state of the art luxury buses, these Jawans lay down their lives to protect every Indian and these cricketers get paid even if they lose a match, we worship these cricketers and forget the martyrdom of these brave Jawans.
The Jawans should be paid the salaries of the cricketers and the cricketers should be paid the salaries of the Jawans.
3. An ace shooter shoots and gets gold medal, govt gives 1cr, another shooter dies while shooting terrorist, govt gives 5 lakh.
WHO DESERVES MORE? Huh.. This is our India....
Please be a patriot and let everyone know and realise it
-------------------------------
As time moves, few more may get added....
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