Mumbai terror attacks - the aftermath

There's been a lot of acclaim for India's 'neutral' and resilient stand on the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks. Much credit has been given to the government for blaming the elements in Pakistan and not the Pakistan government or army as such. Without knowing the actual facts, it's very hard to surmise what exactly is going on at the diplomatic level. What's the international pressure doing to India ? Or rather, how India is using all it's diplomatic arsenal to bring the perpetrators of terror to justice. Amidst all these, one thing is very clear. The belief that the terror attacks would lead to a war has been falsified. No country wants war. War would be devastating to the growing Indian economy. It might not do a great deal of damage to Pakistan but it'll hurt India real bad. So will the terrorists be brought to justice ?

For an individual like me, a common man - that's pure speculation. Will Pakistan extradite the terrorists ? Is ISI really behind all the terrorist camps ? Will the US pressure Pakistan to bring justice, and will Pakistan relent to that pressure ? Do the Chinese have any role in this ? Is China using Pakistan as a terror proxy to curb India's economic growth ? So it's total speculation. To media adds to this curiosity with biased reports.Moreover, for someone who is thousands of miles away, without access to the print media - getting the detailed information is pretty hard. What baffles me is that - how Pakistan is able to deny the role of the terrorists in the attacks - in spite of hardcore documented evidence being provided ?

As a side note - it was a great pleasure to see both the hotels, that were the targets of the terror attacks opening to the public within such a short time. Kudos to the management and staff. Kudos to also the people who went and stayed there - and especially those people who did it just to prove to the terrorists that their motives will never be fulfilled. The tourism or the hospitality industry will not bow down to the elements of terror.

While it's sad that hundreds of innocent lives were lost, it's even sadder that India is not able to do bring about justice to the perpetrators. If history reminds us, the terrorist attacks on Indian soil have only been growing in number and the degree of devastation. First it was restricted to the Kashmir valley, then there were attacks in Delhi, then Mumbai and then Bangalore and so no one knows where these terrorists will strike in the future. Sometimes it feels, it's better to go for an all out war and crush the source of terrorism in the mountains of POK.

Exploitation in India

For a long time, I've been pondering about the social aspects of life in India and trying to find out what probably is the key to most of the miseries in the sub continent. I think it all comes down to exploitation. From the roots of corruption to the mass religious conversions, it's exploitation all the way. What could be the cause of this deep rooted exploitation, needs to be found out. The very basic tenet of an Indian is to exploit I guess. May be it's the population density that has given rise to this character, but in every facet of the social life, exploitation stands tall, of course to the watchful eye. What got me into this mode of thinking was this revealing fact :

"beggars drug kids, put them to sleep and use them as begging baits".

This process of drugging the kids is a well established chain of exploitations. A homeless couple has a kid - whom they can't feed. A beggar exploits this by 'renting' the kid for a certain sum of money every day. The parents won't ask any reasons - they just take the money and hand over the kid. The beggar then goes to a fake doctor who exploits the beggar by taking a portion of that money for putting the kid to sleep by giving an intravenous injection of some sort. The beggar then uses the kid for begging - as the kid sleeps all day.

What startled me was that this process is a well established one. I mean, everyone knows about it and just shows a blind eye ? In a society, where even a kid's life is not valued for and at least taken into consideration - I fail to understand how 'macro policies' that affect other realms of life and society will be valued. Macro policies such as right to education, environment awareness, political stability etc - these have absolutely no value at the grass roots.

For all the 'emerging economy' glory, one has to look deeper into the Indian society and to see that is filled with this cruel exploitation. Truly saddening.