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India Looks for Leadership

There is word on the streets of possible 9/11 kinds of attacks and that airports in key cities have been cordoned off. Hotel lobbies are empty, there are commandos on the streets and most people are staying home — too scared to step out in a world of swirling rumours.

At the Imperial Hotel in central Delhi, where a global luxury conference was postponed after the Mumbai attacks, people talk in hushed voices. They now have to walk through a metal detector, many of which have appeared in the city. Why did so many people die in Mumbai? Couldn’t these attacks have been stopped? Who were the killers? Where did they come from? You think they will attack Delhi? Where was the intelligence failure? Are politicians useless? They all have questions, but no answers.

Not far away, at India Gate — a British colonial-era structure for those who died in the two World Wars — hundreds of physically challenged people gather for a candlelight vigil. They demand action from politicians.

Do something. Save us from another attack. Let us live freely in a free country.

The government is confused, angry at its own failures, and at this point incapable of handling mounting public pressure.

The Taj and the Oberoi hotels in Mumbai were like second homes to people who mattered in this country — politicians, businessmen, top company executives, everybody who made some difference to India and Indians. Few, if at all, would have imagined dying in attacks on those hotels. The people who matter are shaken and they want the government to act, fix responsibility. The common man wants little to do with politicians.

The good news: for the first time in India people who matter and those who do not are sharing their fears.

The bad news: there is little solace from a beleaguered government seeking to get out of a mess, that has been created through years of neglect that the country’s security system has suffered.

The new voice, of those who had one and those who did not, is gradually turning into a nationwide roar for change and maybe that turning point in India’s post-independence history has finally arrived.

Nobody realises this more than the politicians who rule the country. They have withdrawn from public eye after some scandalous comments in the immediate aftermath of the attacks that raised public ire.

One said such incidents (terrorist attacks) could occur in large cities (Mumbai); another lost his temper when the grieving family of a commando killed in the fight with terrorists stopped him from coming in. ‘Even a dog would not have gone to the commando’s house had the commando not died in the attack’, said the chief minister of the southern Kerala state. He was forced to apologise after the media took him to task.

The chief minister of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, had to go when television networks showed him visiting the gutted Taj Mahal hotel accompanied by a Bollywood filmmaker.

But then politicians have never been the most popular people in India; now they are hated across parties. Young people came out in droves to vote in the Delhi state elections after the attacks in Mumbai. The results will be out next week.

It is surprising to see a large and powerful country as India grappling with the political and diplomatic fallout of the events that occurred over three days last month. It needs to come with new solutions than merely recycle the old ones by blaming neighbouring nations for the events that unfolded one scary night. While it is mandatory for any government to secure its borders, it is also imperative that it secures itself internally by raising the level of intelligence and through better coordination between various agencies responsible for India’s security.

Uncertainty, confusion and mixed signals from the government and political parties would not work this time. The need is to make people believe in India’s leaders giving them confidence and a sense of comfort and safety. That unfortunately doesn’t seem to be happening — not as yet.

The blame game between intelligence agencies that is currently playing out in the Indian media has to stop. There are serious issues to be answered and the quicker they are the better it would be for everyone — the victims of the attacks, the families of the dead and the people on the streets filled with fear.

But India is India and unbelievable as it may sound, politics and not security seems to be taking centre-stage. At a time when newspapers are reporting that the intelligence alert on the attacks was not shared even with officials planning the Prime Minister’s visit to the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai — only three days after the attacks — politicians are busy battling each other over who would be the new chief minister of Maharashtra. Some things don’t change in a democracy in a hurry!

Rahul Sharma is Editor of Khaleej Times. He can be reached at rahul@khaleejtimes.com

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