Swallow This:
Mumbai, India Nov 26, 2008: 9.15 PM
- Ten coordinated attacks started by at least 10 terrorists in the heart of the financial capital of India – Mumbai
- Major Targets: The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (a century old hotel which is declared as a heritage site in India), The Trident-Oberoi Hotel which dots the famous Mumbai skyline along the Queen's necklace, Cabad House (formerly Nariman House) which is a jewish community centre, CST Station, Cama Hospital, Leopold Cafe (Again a century old eatery in South Mumbai frequented by locals and foreigners alike), while two attacks took place in the northern suburbs (Mazagaon Docks and Vile Parle)
- 200+ officially dead and counting (Some say the figure could reach 300+)
- 370+ injured officially (Could be more than 500)
It is easily India's worst nightmare. The ordeal lasted more than 60 hours until the last terrorist was killed at Taj on Saturday Morning (Nov 29, 2008).
Let the “Blame” Games Begin
It didn’t take long for the blame game to begin. The usual suspects were all rounded up. The in-power UPA Government, the state government, home minister, state police and the list goes on. It was interesting to note someone mention that at the end of the day where does the buck stop? Who is accountable for this? No easy answers here. My sense is that this includes you, me and us. So let’s not venture real deep into this. Let the media and the politicians play their usual charismatic games. They are indeed the best at it, not just in India but worldwide and not just today but ever since Mankind was founded. You could read some Roman history to see the kind of games people played.
But why….?
The critical question to be answered by the terrorists is why did they do this? (Pun intended). Again we do have the usual suspects here. India and the rest of the world have unjustly treated the non-majority population of the world (Read as Muslims), the west (which by the way now seems to include India as well) has been exploiting the poor countries, and India has not given back Kashmir to Pakistan, India Muslims are given second-grade treatment in their own country etc. So the list goes on. But are these really the reasons? My sense is: NO!
The real motive of these people is hidden deep within them. We honestly have not reached as far to understand these people and their motives. The real heads, who call the shots, are some of the finest brains that humanity has seen. The pin-point planning, precision, training, motivation, wit, is unmatched by any army that has walked on planet earth. To bring down an army of such intelligence and motivation is a herculean task. One could say money could be a motivation. Yes, money could be the motivation, but that’s for the on-ground terrorists who carry out the so called ‘Jihad’. Open the 9/11 fact-book and you would come across scores of such terrorists who did this for money to save their family and for their well-being. Money, unfortunate as it may sound, is the cause of many wars and clashes worldwide. But this is different. Money again for the heads of such organization is not much of a problem. A simple analogy here would help – If these guys could buy so many weapons, carry out training, provide with enough supplies then it is obvious that the dollars are free-flowing. Besides one may also think, how far can money go to motivate someone? There is a limit beyond which money is no more a motivation (Ask this to our civil society stalwarts such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mukesh Ambani, The Saudi Kingdom). Money to kill someone and money for blood-shed is not enough to motivate someone.
One of the greatest quests of these masterminds is to regain world power. The rest just flows with power which includes money, respect and other worldly pleasures. And power comes with cost – human cost in our case.
However, it would be amazing to actually talk to these on-ground terrorists. For one, it is easy to be the boss and order others to carry your evil. But as an employee (on-ground terrorist) when you know you are going to kill innocent people, people whom you have never met, people who have not touched your lives, people who don’t even know your name, how do you stand-up and kill them mercilessly without a doubt in your mind? Modern management talks a lot about motivation. This, in my opinion is motivation at its peak.
We have often heard of the various tactics that these bosses use to motivate their soldiers of war. Religion is used as the greatest weapon of destruction. Most of these terrorists are highly religious by nature and are extremely God-fearing individuals. But it is what they are taught that speaks of them. If from childhood, you are told tales of horror for your family, disgrace for your nation your mind simply attunes to the music. You are told not to fear, for there is some ONE waiting to glorify you in heaven for your deeds (killings) on earth. These are in my opinion sufficient motivation factors to allow you to kill all human emotions, compassion and feelings. The recipe of an ideal ‘Jihadi’ is actually prepared right from the childhood and then the outcome is much tastier than ever imagined. No wonder most of the terrorists we hear of, especially in these Mumbai (Nov 2008) attacks are “boys” aged 18-25. Remember kids grow up un-fearful for they do not know what fear is. We, so called, civil society adults are fortunate (or unfortunate, as you may take it) that we have more fears in our lives than joy.
Strategy
I wrote enough on the general motivation but its time to get the ground reality and understand what were the motivations, objectives and strategy of the terrorists in this fresh round of massacre. My memory now dates back to the 1990s when we really saw a string of attacks and somewhere that time came the prominent use of the lingo “terrorist attack”.
The attacks continued right through the 1990s with terrorists targeting US outfits outside the United States as well as within the U.S (Car Bomb going off in WTC Basement). There were numerous attacks on US Embassies; prominent among them were the multiple attacks at Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam. The mother of all was of course bringing down the World Trade Centre. Besides, the 3 other planes destroying property and killing people.
If one were to actually go through the list of attacks in the past 25-30 years, most are what I would call as ‘a shot and its over’ attacks. So these attacks were staged in such a way that at a particular time the attacks would take place and things are over. People are killed, property is damaged and chaos is filled in the air. As expected most of these attacks would be done using bombs. So they flash boom, boom and it is over that minute.
India has experienced many terrorists’ attacks since our Independence. There were 3 wars with our ‘beloved’ neighbors as well. Again the prominent attacks among these were the 1993 multiple bomb blasts in Mumbai, the 2001 attacks on the parliament in J&K, Akshardham temple in Gujarat, series of bombs in local trains in Mumbai, attack on parliament in New Delhi, multiple bombings in various cities such as Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bangalore and the list goes on including the hijacking of IC 814 Indian Airlines flight from Khatmandu (Nepal) to New Delhi which ultimately ended up at Kamdahar.
If you look at most of these attacks you would more or less classify most under my ‘a shot and its over’ attack with of course the exception of IC 814 hijacking and the Akshardham Temple attack. What differentiates these two and their similarity to recent Nov 26 attacks in Mumbai is the length of the attack. In all the three cases there were what we would say hostage crisis. The IC 814 hijacking being the longest and the Akshardham being the shortest.
In the Akshardham attack the length of the siege was about 14 hours, while that of IC 814 was well over 8 days. The Mumbai attacks lasted for over 60 hours and at multiple sites.
Ok, so what is the deal? The deal is to instill ‘fear’. The Akshardham attack was too small to really grip someone with fear, apart from the fact that it was in a remote location in Gujarat (as compared to Mumbai that is). The IC 814 attack did grab the media attention and the public attention all over India. The good thing about that, if I can say so, was that the whole drama was taking place outside the country. Given, there were more than 175 passengers and crew members, yet what quickly transpired was that there was one casualty. What was also good to see was the quick demand of the terrorists. So now the government had something to fight / negotiate / talk against and control the situation. My point being, in both these attacks the ‘isolation’ factor played in our hands as compared to the Mumbai attacks.
What the terror groups decided in the Mumbai attack was this: We have attacked them many times, released our friends from their jails, killed thousands of people and yet I don’t see a fear in the people. I still see them going about their normal chores as if nothing has happened. The country gets back on its feet and moves on. And no doubt what also pricks them the most is the fact that India is economically very strong in spite of these fatal attacks time and again. Foreign money is pouring at unprecedented levels. Foreigners are travelling, investing and setting-up shops like its ‘their’ country. So we have to stop this. Stop this in a manner that we not only ensure that the ‘fear factor’ is deep engraved but also that the foreign people start realizing that India is no-more the place to be.
That of course, explains the various reports claiming that the terrorists rounded-up many foreign tourists and killed them. The biggest message was of course sent to Israel when the terrorists of all the buildings took over Nariman House, the jewish community centre.
This time the terrorists had no demands. They simply killed people without remorse. They destroyed heritage and prominent properties. They instilled fear in people as was never done before. It was the length of 60 hours that really got to the Mumbai people. No one wants really to get back to normal life. They are not holding the politicians necks for some action. These are the same people who have been tolerating bomb attacks, floods etc. But now they have a ‘fear’ in their minds. What the terrorists have achieved is perfect success from their point of view. They have exactly hit where it hits the hardest. Today the economic consequences of this terror attack are beyond calculations. Many companies worldwide will sit on the table again and re-strategize their approach in India. This, in all probability will have non-favorable economic consequences.
To conclude, India now has been left battered and wounded on all the fronts. People of their financial capital are living in ‘fear’. The country’s economic image is in trouble as well. Unless tough actions are taken (which have never been taken and will never be taken) our country runs the risk of becoming Iraq II. Don’t be surprised if We civilians soon start showing-off our newly acquired AK-47s (Don’t worry Bollywood, there are designer guns available as well!!!)
