Terrorism in Mumbai

As at 11.00 pm, on 28.11.2008, the Trident Hotel has been brought under control by ridding all terrorists.So far 150 people have been killed.
If anyone has benefitted from this tragedy, it is the media.
The media is having a great time giving a ball by ball description of events.
Like vultures who swoop down on corpses the media descend on any calamaty.
Even now they boast of giving exclusive pictures and interviews.
It is good for their TRP.
For a change, the police have kept these vultures at bay.
The matter was too serious to give iterviews and claim credit.
Battles are still being fought in the Trident Hotel and the jewish House in Mariman Point.
What a nation we are and what a cypher we have for a prime minister.
Is this what he means by zero tolerance?
A whole nation of 1200 crores has been brought to its knees by a handful of terrorists.
The article below, from the Business Line explains why we find ourselves in this situation.
See the diiference in our reaction to that of the USA afer 9/11

Radheshyam

India in a state of war!
B. S. Raghavan

In a sense, India has got what it was asking for. Whatever else its record on other counts, insofar as terrorism is concerned, the widespread perception is that the present UPA Government was slack in devising and putting into effect stern measures to leave no one in any doubt that there will be no compromise with terror. In a soft state which India is increasingly proving itself to be, perceptions sometimes count far more than arguments refuting them.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is now and then in the habit of talking about zero tolerance but that never perceptibly translated itself into policy and action.
On the contrary, his Government has given every handle to the accusation that it was soft-pedalling action against terror. It was also seen as being reluctant to let investigative agencies and the police perform their duties and pursue the leads and clues fearlessly and independently without regard to political or party considerations.
Some sections of the media and the intelligentsia also, under a mistaken notion of upholding secularism, had been constantly sniping at the police, security and investigative agencies which, as a consequence, began taking to the path of least trouble and controversy to save their skin.
Further, the solicitude for civil liberties and religious and sectarian susceptibilities of the political establishment in power and the libertarian-minded intelligentsia and the media had come in the way of enacting tough, terrorist-proof legislation (for a quick trial analogous to a court-martial, embodying some of the salutary provisions of the Patriot Act of the US) and its enforcement by a central organisation for coordinated investigation and maintenance of security.
Remember, even though the federal principle is strongly built into the US Constitution and the States enjoy all the powers not specifically vested in the federal government and even have their own separate citizenship, they have willingly come together in enacting the Patriot Act and establishing the federal umbrella Department of Homeland Security to fight terror.
If such a course was possible in the US, there is no reason for the Centre in India to drag its feet on the plea of objections by the States in a matter like the extirpation of terrorism by not only being determined and effective, but also manifestly appearing to be so.
Finally, the rampant practice of minorityism of whatever kind by governments and political parties has been the cause of untold havoc, whether in dealing with illegal immigrants or implementing the Constitutional provision for a Common Civil Code.
The law should be the same for all classes and sections of the population, without any leeway for discrimination for or against any of them. In short,
India should quickly morph itself into a hard state where anyone attempting to imperil its stability and security will come to instant grief.