I watched HBO’s documentary “Terror in Mumbai” last week. ( link). the documentary is produced by Dan Reed ( who produced “Terror in Moscow” and directed “Closure”) and narrated by CNN anchor Mumbai – born Fareed Zakaria . Watching the documentary was not a very healthful experience for me - all the old feelings of anger came rushing back.
(image from :rediff.com)
The first shock was that the documentary features for the first time ever actual audio of conversations that happened between the handlers and the terrorists. That’s right – the Indian authorities were listening in on conversations while the attacks were taking place. I cannot comprehend why and how nothing was done sooner. The documentary is amongst other things – a stinging indictment of the utter impotence of the Indian authorities when faced with a well -coordinated terrorist strike. Hours and days were wasted. There was obviously no leadership – either at the political level or at the level of the Mumbai police. The courage displayed by the police ( some of them-the documentary includes the last known footage of Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare ) and the SPG ( Rest in Peace, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan!) is unquestioned. But its also clear that these were individual acts of courage – at the organizational level India failed miserably.

What was more harrowing is the interviews with survivors. I cannot forget the young Muslim boy who lost his parents and other family members in the CST( Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus formerly Victoria Terminus) carnage. He asks ” Humne unka kaya bigada tha?”( “What wrong did I do to the terrorists?”) the unanswerable question that every innocent victim of terrorism asks the world over.

There is also cringe-inducing footage of the police questioning the sole surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab. I was determined to feel hatred towards the animal who calmly shot and killed children, women, men- young and old. Instead, I felt bewildered as I saw this baby-faced young man giving unintelligible responses. He is obviously brainwashed and a very small pawn in what is an incredibly complex web of terror. He will probably hang for his offenses – but that is not going to resolve anything.

The answers -if any – lie deeper than what this documentary can reveal.

I titled this post “Resilience?” because the one thing that is being touted by all media – Indian and international – is the amazing resilience of the Mumbaikars. But is that necessarily a good thing? ( I digress here a little to say:the nadir of reporting came from the New York Times in this terrifically insensitive article entitled “In Mumbai,Reinforcing a Resilient spirit” about the renovation of a million dollar apartment. Its like a slap in the face to all the poor and indigent who died that day in Mumbai – but this is the NYT – never famous for being non-elitist!) See this article by Dilip D’souza in rediff for instance

Consider: Voter apathy in Mumbai actually touched record levels this year: Turnouts for the general election in May and for the October Maharashtra assembly election were approximately 43 per cent, the lowest ever. Another sign of the times came in early October.

A spokesman for one of the sullen parties that claim to stand for the ’sons of the soil’ in Mumbai said this to The Hindustan Times newspaper: ‘This is not a cosmopolitan city any more. People who insist on using ‘Bombay’ should be thrown out of this city.’

And most recently, a simple statement like ‘Mumbai belongs to India’ results in controversy

Nothing has changed and yet for those who lost loved ones on 26/11 everything did.

The forces of division are stronger than ever- any feeling of unity that grew during the candle light vigils has long dissipated.

Resilience is not the end of it – because resilience may lead to apathy. Instead we have to keep the anger alive and channelized into finding solutions.

This weekend as you celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones , I ask you all to bow your heads for a minute in remembering the victims of 26/11. Never forget what happened – what was done to our beloved Mumbai , the psychological slap in the face , the depravity of the violence, the senseless killings. And also never forget that division starts not just with imaginary lines drawn on maps – it starts within us, in our hearts, our minds, our demonizing of the “other”. As we give thanks, let us also hope for peace – that someday our children may be able to grow up in a world where there is no division on the basis of religion or creed or language or race.

We can always hope – that’s all we have.

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