Do you know Ashok Chaturvedi?

While the battle still rages at the Taj, and we all watch in horror, while TV cameras from across the world zoom in and news channels at home and abroad broadcast the enormous human tragedy, I find no other way to vent my feelings than through the keyboard. I know it’s impotent and futile, but at least its better than keeping the anger locked inside.

We have all reacted in our different ways - from calling up friends and relatives, being glued in front of the television, starting communities or blogs on the Internet, changing our IM status messages, to just shrugging it off and changing to another channel. So has our government, typically by blaming Pakistan and shifting the attention from the real issues.

As a nation under attack, we have no clue how to react, whom to trust and whom to scrutinize. We are like this pack of wild dogs sleeping under the brush, who when bitten by some wasps, get up snarling and in their confusion end up biting one another and whoever else they see in front.

Before we shift the focus to Pakistan, before we start the mindless jingoism, let’s take a step back and analyze this episode. We are talking about a group of roughly 50 young men, armed with some of the deadliest and most advanced weapons and ordnance, funded with ATM and credit cards from almost every top Indian bank, well-versed with all possible details of some of our most prestigious establishments landing on the shores of Mumbai, going unnoticed until the first casualties’ breakout.

For the sake of our current dialog, let’s neglect the role of the Coast Guard, Customs and Navy. Let’s even discount the local police for the moment. But think about it, that kind of equipment gathering, recce, information, resources can’t be whipped up in a week. It can’t be done even in 6 weeks. This is obviously the result of meticulous planning spread over several years. An act of war against the Republic of India planned well in advance, probably around the same time two years back.

And it’s precisely to find out and prevent these kinds of planned acts of war and terrorism that our elaborate intelligence department is paid and maintained. Unfortunately, they have failed and are failing miserably. We should consider ourselves lucky that this number was just 50 and not 500 men, that their target was just the Taj and not Chatrapati International airport and that Mumbai doesn’t have a nuclear power plant in the vicinity. Shouldn’t we thank these men that they didn’t get some nuclear missiles instead of just AK 47s? I think they did us a favor with that.

Because, while our intelligence network was either sleeping, or bribed to keep their mouth shut, our financial capital could well have been run over or decimated right under our noses. Before we blame our neighbors’ for the dirt in their homes, its time we found out how dirty and stinking our own closets are. It’s that stink that’s encouraging the rats to come ashore and screw us (apologies for the language) in our own beds.

Just when I got frustrated at the 54+ hours of battle at the Taj, I googled up some interesting information about RAW (our countries top intelligence division). I will let you do your own research, but do Google about Ashok Chaturvedi, who thanks to our Prime Minister, heads the RAW right now. I found this (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070119/asp/frontpage/story_7282285.asp) and this (http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Chaturvedi_Ashok_1162892301.aspx). Read these and do your own thinking. And please don’t blame anyone but your own self. In a democracy, you get what you vote for. We have developed a mechanism to live with and acquiesce corruption, sleaze, bribery. We have perfect the "chalta hai" attitude till its become second nature and is on its way to school textbooks. Now we can’t complain if it’s all blowing up in our faces.

I could continue this rhetoric for another half hour but I won’t. All I want to do before I wind up is drive home a point. Mumbai and India don’t let this go by like the earlier times. Please don’t forget and forgive. If need be, get up each morning and prick your wounds until they are raw and hurt.

And while they are raw, come lets go out on the streets and ask our own selves, our government, and our intelligence department whether they have been doing their jobs. Let’s not just keep talking on orkut and MSN. Its time we got up in the morning, looked in the mirror and asked ourselves - is the Indian in me doing his part of the job.