Politics in the Time of War*
From PM too late, Advani gone:
…Manmohan Singh flew to Mumbai this evening only an hour after L.K. Advani, who had been insisting the two go together in a show of unity, had taken off.
The separate travel plans, after the leader of the Opposition’s attempts to persuade the Prime Minister to present a united face in the terror-numbed city, led many in Delhi to believe that politics had got the better of solidarity.
Since early today, Advani was in a hurry to get to Mumbai with the Prime Minister to send a signal that the nation was united and determined to foil attempts to destabilise it.
Singh was reluctant, though, preferring to give the Vilasrao Deshmukh government more time to flush out terrorists and normalise the situation. VVIP movement could strain an already stretched administration, he believed.
Sources said Advani called the Prime Minister thrice and each time, the leader of the Opposition seemed eager to travel today. …
However, by the time the PMO decided to shed its initial reluctance for a rare coming together of the ruling UPA and the Opposition, Advani had taken the plane out.
…Congress leaders said the Prime Minister’s early unwillingness to visit “ground zero†today had Sonia’s blessings. The Congress president, herself keen to visit Mumbai once it was normal, is said to have agreed with Singh’s view that the state should be left to focus on the task at hand.
However, when she learnt about Advani’s eagerness to go today, she encouraged Singh to present a united face. By then, though, the BJP leader had left.
Caught off guard, Sonia then decided the Prime Minister should fly out right away instead of letting Advani score brownie points in Mumbai ahead of polls in many states.
* With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I am hoping the bumbling by PM and Sonia finally seals the fate of the congress party. I heard Manmohan on CNN and he made that joker Jaswant Singh look eloquent. I have to say, my admiration of Bush increased manifold. Thanks to his policies, there has been no more attacks on American soil since 9/11.
Last night I heard on NDTV quoting Shobha De:
“I don’t want any politician to visit my city anymore. the NSG and police forces are doing a good job and let them do..”
“Terrorists walked in and walked out of this city because there was a complete intelligence failure. But more than that, there was a leadership failure, which is completely and totally shocking, and the people of the city must speak up.”
Then..on the blogsphere:
(from mumbaiwallah.blogspot..
Shobhaa,
Thank you for the statement you made tonight on NDTV. You echoed what so many of us feel – enough is enough. We’re sick of dealing with inept politicians who show up only after the damage is done. Mumbai’s ‘resilience’ (for want of a better word) is nothing but a fierce sense of denial, our belief that surely, someday, things will get better.
They’re not going to. Time we realised that and did something about it.
A concerned Mumbaiwallah
Is there any way all Maumbaikars standup on their way and खदेडो (chase away) them from their city?
PS: Apologies for this mixing… 🙁
It is such a shame that in a span of 2 years this the 2nd time Mumbai has been attacked and this time on a much larger scale and in this year alone there have been so many blasts in all over the country that one loses the count of it. But after all the blast the government officials had the same dialogue `Please keep a calm and we will deal with all the terrorists and people supporting terror with strictness’ and things forgotten forever. The opposition after every such incidents jumps in and starts blaming the people in power on all the TV channels. That’s all these people are upto and till date none of them has done anything that one can say has been a work of patriotism. All this is happening because terrorists do not get caught and punished in our country. Instead if some terrorist is caught by chance then politicians and the social activists start fighting for their human rights. Terrorists have human rights but the people whose lives they claim and whose families they destroy and traumatise forever do not fall in human category. I’ve so much of anger within that I do not want to vote anyone now as none of the parties are faithful to it’s voters. They are indebted to us as we elect them. Instead we are the the ones who are paying off with our lives.
Shantanu,
Traveling separately could be part of a risk-mitigation technique, for business continuity reasons.
Hi,
Apart from Politicians, the media also needs to be given lessons on how to relay news without giving the details of military operations. It is appalling to see channel after channel giving details of commando operations live on TV. Giving positions of snipers, giving positions of approaching commandos. I know the need to give live updates, but it is stupid to give operational info.
Congress just cares about power and money. They don’t give a shit about India.
Can there be war without politics, and politics without war (war can be anything- physical, ideological etc)? Simply impossible. Only naives will think otherwise.
Jihadi-terror friendly Congress can never think of nation first. For them, Nehru-Khan-Maino clan first, then Nehru-Khan-Maino Congress party, then a looting ground call India naiton.
BJP should not give any space to these scoundrals. Trust a snake, but not these anti-national Congressi crooks. These crooks don’t understand unity and nation, they understand how to grab power, retain power and loot India and destroy it. Congress converted most part of NE India and West Bengal-Bihar into de-facto ISlamic Bangladesh.
Its a matter of another few hours or perhaps 2-3 days, Jihadi-friendly Congress will redirect their mission on Hindu-bashing malegaon case and leak stories and run their lucrative Hindu-bashing business.
There is only one way to save Bharat: Remove Congress from soil of Bharatvarsh.
Not only congress. Also those who love Pakistan and mixes Islam in daily life must also leave country and settle in Pakaistan, Bangladesh or any islamic country where they can live with “SUKUN” with their Islamic Funda.
Jai Hind!
Bharat and Indian,
Amen to your idea of removing the Congress. I spoke to
a friend in Mumbai and he was saying that it is the
beginning of the end of the Congress party. I hope it
does happen.
@ Nitin: Agreed…but in that case, they should have ensured that Sonia-ji and PM travel separately…
The report mentions: Soon after, around 5.30pm, the Prime Minister was off, too, with Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Shivraj Patil and others.
Congress is very “CHALU”. It will need comittment on part of every state to remove them and also have to be careful- by remoing congress who enters is also to be watched.
Situation like we just finished removing the cat and finds another ** has just entered.
Jai Hind!
I cant understand why these stupid politicians visit the disaster hit areas and visit people and every time to show sympathy to affected people and divert attention of authorities from the given task at hand of helping people..
its more dastard act than those terrorists because you people are….trying to great good will out of someones weak areas…
God forgive you
Terrorists should learn from Afjal Guru. Kill as many as you like and then give up. Hope nobody raises the question of millions of illegal immigrants roaming aroud in India. It is between UPA govt. and the illegal immigrants, nothing to do with courts or ordinary citizen.
From another blog, on LK Advani and Narendra Modi visit.
http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/11/28/war-on-mumbai-thinking-our-response/#comment-34982
Blogger yossarin wrote:
Z – i think there maybe undercurrents between the forces and UPA that we may not be aware of given this story abt intelligence on boat from karachi being ignored. I wud view lka and namo’s visits in light of that as a morale bldg exercise at a time when the political leadership at m’rashtra and new delhi was nt inspiring much confidence in the forces.
—
PS. lka – LK Advani, namo – Narendra Modi.
I am also concerned if the LIVE media coverage (Times NOW has 7-8 cameras!) is helping the terr0rists?
Also, another insult:
India’s rescue efforts badly planned, says Israel
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/28mumterror-rescue-efforts-badly-planned-says-israel.htm
I have nothing against Israel, but I think such comments are unwanted…
Nitin, you give too much credit to the intelligence of these people. It’s all political and nothing else. My guess is Manmohan was waiting to taxi Sonia over, while Advani didn’t want to wait for one more day. And then Congress I was trying to one up BJP.
The succession plan for Congress I leadership (and PM-ship) was put in place more than 40 years ago when yuvaraj was born.
I don’t blame politicians as this is how they have been, actually its very dangerous the way media is politicizing this issue.
Media is showing Hemant Karkare in one shot and then immediately Advani or Modi in the other. What are they trying to indicate very obvious!
Especially NDTV and others seems to have forgotten about Unnikrishnan and Gajendra and are only concentrating on ATS’s sacrifice implicitly considering the case they were working on before this operation…
I am really shocked by resignation of Mr. Patil (Home Minster). Isn’t this a very simple way to forego one’s RESPONSIBILITY?
Did any one watch his namaste gesture when he walked out after handing over his resignation…..the body language was so negative as if trying to say…please just leave me and I have given my resignation.
In such circumstances, I would suggest the Mr Patil should be forced to stay as Home Minister with a weekly/bi-weekly update to be given directly to public on what specific step politician/bureaucracy are taking to improve the security condition (e.g. coordination between different armed forces, etc.. etc.). I do believe in maxim “First mistake is ignorance and second mistake is a serious mistake to be punished heavlyâ€. So if anything happens again, Mr Patil should be hanged publicly rather than second home minister giving resignation on moral responsibility.
Before this attack, I always used to feel that FOX Channel is totally gossip channel, but now I feel that they did an excellent job of keeping the events live in memory or people to ensure sufficient measures are put in place to ensure things are not repeated again. We have to find some measure/source to keep these type of events live in memory or Indian…Indian do have very short memory and also a very great habit of forgetting their oppressors….whether they are politician or terrorist