Part 1 : Disaster (Disastrous) Management in India

Number of terrorist incidents in India between 1970-2004 : 4108
Number of known terrorist organizations identified during this period : 56
Number of deaths due to terrorist attacks : 12539
Average number of Indians dying due to terrorist activities  : 360/year

(Source : START, University of Maryland)

Let us now see India’s preparedness for a terrorist attack (which is supposed to be a common and regular disaster as per the simple statistics) in its financial capital, Mumbai:

• 26-Nov-2008 : Ten terrorists from Pakistan enter Mumbai, and start massacring people. Suddenly the Mumbai police realize that they do not have quality bullet proof jackets to protect themselves. Result, some of its men pay with their life, for this criminal negligence. Men responsible get away, under the excuse of ‘Collective Failure’.
• The Mumbai police also realize to their surprise, that .303 Rifles of WWII are now out of fashion. After loosing enough officers, they send SOS to NSG commandos and wait patiently. It seems that only terrorists are in a hurry, NSG arrives after 10 hours. Again, nobody in the administration held accountable. Everyone gets away.
• Finally another SOS is sent to marine commandos who fortunately were stationed very close to the action scene. But thanks to the ego clashes and archaic beaurocratic customs, it takes two and half hours to get approval and for them to arrive. The incident forgotton, everyone gets away.
• The firemen who turned out to be the saviors of the day, rescuing more than five hundred people, are not given bullet proof jackets and are directly exposed to fire from terrorists. Now, Fire men’s request for bullet proof jackets is also under consideration. Chance of getting that is doubtful, as the firemen haven’t received sophisticated firefighting equipment they had requestested couple of years back, still.
• It seems the National Security Advisor is the one who should have headed the operations. But neither NSA nor any other high ranking official from the administration scene anywhere in the vicinity. But one politician, Mr.Narendra Modi turns up from nowhere. Other politicians do show up, but only after the conclusion of the operation.
• It takes 3 hours for the Taj administration to come up with the building plan, this even after the management had been previously alerted by the police about a possible terror attack.
• It comes to light that, one of the previously captured terrorist already had told the investigators about the recce conducted at Taj, CST by himself. But no action was taken to strengthen the security. Nobody is held accountable this goof up. It is again termed as collective failure.
• One of the cabinet minister from the ‘minority’ community, urges the government for an inquiry into the death of a police officer killed by the terrorists, purely for his personal interests. The home minister personally issues a statement in the parliament, clarifying that, the government has conducted the inquiry and found nothing suspicious. Surprisingly, none of the members of parliament find it worth demanding an investigation into the failure of intelligence agencies, lack of disaster management preparedness even after repeated terrorists attacks across the nation.
• Everyone praises the brave NSG commondos, but the questions such as “Why it took 250, supposed to be highly trained and India’s best, 60 hours to gun down 10 terrorists?”, “Why the tools and weapons used by NSG commondos looked so old fashioned, just like the .303s in the hand of Mumbai policemen?”, “is it true that both MARCOs and NSG had to fight without night vision equipment?” etc were considered unpatriotic questions. Political parties were asked to show their support by not raising any serious questions.
• The administration does not do anything to control the irresponsible media. The NSG head has to make repeated appeals to the media himself. Even after a month, government does not seem to be interested in this issue at all, as it might hamper their PR with the media, and their ire might expose their failures.

After the incident, Ratan Tata expressed his total displeasure at the lack of Disaster Management Infrastructure and told the world that he will rather arrange for the security of the hotel himself, rather than depending on the government.

So, how does our Emergency Response Infrastructure looks compared to country like US? What are the chances of our survival, if the terrorists strike again, just like it happened again and again in various cities across India in 2008? Assume that India is hit by Nuclear missiles from Pakistan or an earth quake or another tsunami or another flood, who should we look for guidance? Is there really something called disaster management team in India, who can guide the nation?

This is what F.A.C.T. found when it tried to find the answers.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has two disaster management divisions:
Disaster Management – I : which looks after the disaster preparedness, and response
Disaster Management – II : which looks after the legislation, policies

Here is the link to the National Disaster Management(NDM) of Indian Government. The pathetic condition of the website, which is supposed to be the primary information dissemination point for these information to the public,  reflects respect recieved by disaster management among the administration. The site which is supposed to serve as the guide to its citizens and responsible government employees, today looks more like a notice board for various conference announcements and some archaic guides for building earth quake resistance buildings.

As per the Disaster Management Report (2004) (the same statistics again quoted in the 2008 annual report of the Home ministry), published on the website, here are some shocking statistics:
About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought. In the decade 1990-2000, an average of about 4344 people lost their lives and about 30 million people were affected by disasters every year.

India has a National Disaster Management Framework which is supposed to guide its disaster management planning. If you are curious, you can view it here. The 10 page document looks more like a ToDo list of the department than a guideline for the nation to follow. No clear cut guidelines, goals, no specifics about from when does the infrastructure is expected to be operational, or list individuals who will be responsible, their roles and responsibilities.

To our surprise, we found that there are ample committees that are formed to look after various aspects of disaster management. Most of the time these are non-dedicated bureaucrats or politicians, who do not find enough time to perform the primary activities themself. Anyway, here are some of ‘high’ powered (almost dysfunctional) commitees :

National Crisis Management Committee
Empowered Group of Ministers on Disaster Management
Crisis Management Group
Task Force on Drought Management

Many of these details are more than 7 years old. The responsibilities of the teams, it seems are ‘national secret’ and citizens are barred from knowing the details such as how the government plans to rescue them in the event of a flood or earthquake. Now it is left to your wild imagination, how the politicians and bureaucrats meeting and brainstorming about disaster mitigation plans, disaster  preparation and response.

Interested in knowing more about Disaster Management Plans? Visit here. Try to find the disaster management plans in the event of a flood, tsunami, chemical disaster, earth quake or nuclear attack. Only one disaster management plan is published, which is this. The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation page serves more as definition for buzz words and the list of projects that, it looks, never went beyond the formation of committees .

Indian government in 1992-93 started a Natural Disaster Management Program, with the focus of disaster preparedness, mitigation, community awareness. And here is the list of money that is spent on this.

One should read the achievements listed under this project. Really disappointing. No doubt so many of us get killed every year thanks to the non-existent disaster management.

It seems Mumbai attack has finally opened the eyes of the disaster management team. Finally a sane officer makes presentation to remind the department of their basic duty.

In 2005, in response to the great tsunami of 2004, National Disaster Management Authority was consituted. It looks like the committee was created in such a haste that, is still housed in a hotel owned by Air-India, rather than a government office.  The only detail about how the NDMA is expected to interact with other agencies during a disaster is shown in this chart. Anyways the motto of the NDMA is

To build a safer and disaster resilient India by developing a holistic, pro-active, multi-disaster and technology-driven strategy for disaster management through collective efforts of all Government Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations.

Here are the results of NDMA. A rescue force called National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) sanctioned. We initially thought, this is a nice idea, a dedicated trained to force to carry our rescue efforts. But a closer look revealed that these are nothing but couple of battalions borrowed from CISF, BSF etc, during the time of disaster and renamed as NDRF. So there is nothing new, it is the same poor army chaps, but just a fancy new name. NDMA also constituted National Disaster Mitigation Resource Centres (NDMRC), in 9 locations, which are supposed have some relief stores. But nobody really knows how many are functional as of today, provided they were created in the first place.

Want to have an insight into the functioning of NDMA. You are welcome to see the photo gallery. As usual the ‘brainstorming’ conferences and snaps of ‘regular’ mock drills to keep everyone on their toes! Finally a chart showing the gurus of disaster management. Surprising that none of these people were seen and none of the names were heard on the media during the 3 days siege of Mumbai by terroirts. Aren’t these guys supposed to be there handling the things?

This is not all. We also have a National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), which came into existence as an independent institute under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs in October, 2003. Though should have been the premier institute working on the R&D of the disaster management, it now seems to have reduced to an organization responsible for organizing conferences, so that delegates from across the country can come on a site seeing mission to New Delhi.

Conferences are better organized than Disaster rescues

Tax payers money and life, both at stake!

Disaster Management in United States of America

Contrary to the pathetic plight of disaster management in India,  US has a dedicated agency for emergency preparedness and response. It is called Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. It has nearly 2600 employees (half the number of people who die every year mostly due to disastrous disaster management in India). The department portal, gives out all the information needed by the citizens and various people involved in the disaster management. The current threat advisory for the citizens is displayed at the bottom right hand corner, that shows the overall possibility of a disaster and the state of preparedness expected for the possible disaster (Current level is Yellow).

We were really surprised to see the amount of planning that has gone into the disaster management there. Here are some examples:
Educating Kids about disaster managemet!

Disaster management for professionals!

How to plan ahead for any disaster!

There is also a dedicated website  to aid the citizens for keeping themselves prepared for any disaster. You can view it here.

United States even has an elaborate National Response Framework, unlike ours. There is an extensive training program for civilians, employees and various government officials to undertake disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery!!!

Head to head comparison between US (current super power) and India (so called next possible super power):

Disaster Management in other countries:

Canada

Australia

United Kingdom

F.A.C.T recommendation for the Indian government to improve disaster management:

We believe the people in NDM, NDMA and their counterparts in Maharashtra state are indirectly responsible the some of the deaths that happened in Mumbai attack. There was clear lack of preparedness which ensured that the death toll increased. What is shocking is that the same thing getting repeated again and again. People are paying with their lives for the criminal negligence on the part of bureaucrats and politicians. It might be in the best interest of the nation to do away with these people, at least if not punished severely. If a poor government bus driver could be suspended for his carelessness for causing the death of a pedestrian, why these officials be spared costing 4344 lives of Indians every year?

As always, F.A.C.T does not believe is just discussing the problem, but believes in finding solutions. In this case too, we recommend the following steps to the Indian government to improve the disaster management capability.

• Relieve the members of National Disaster Management (NDM) from their duties.
• Relieve the members of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) from their responsibilities.
• Revoke all those so called ‘High Power Committee’ to handle disasters.
• Form a National EmergencyResponse Department (NERD) *not* headed by PM, but directly reporting to PM.
• Recruit 2 kids from any of the IITs. Recruit 2 more kids from one of the IIMs. Recruit one of the professors from IISc or IIT.
• Give NERD complete authority execute its plans.
• Give them the objective and one year time frame (increasing the term may not be useful, as they might not be interested in working more than one year with the government, unless the government also wants complete DM plan for handling Nuclear missile attacks on the country and Radio Active disasters due to the core meltdown in nuclear power reactors).

F.A.C.T. promises a 551% improvement in the disaster management capability of the country, and atleast 30% less number of fatalities related to yearly disasters,  if the above recommendations are implemented.

(Source : http://www.changeindia.info/)

Change India (www.changeindia.in), a citizens’ movement to make ‘Educated Civil Society’ relevant and count in matters of policy and polity, is organizing nationwide “Citizens’ Rally for Change” on Saturday, 27th December-2008, exactly one month after 26/11.

Locations:

Bangalore – BRV Grounds on Cubbon Road (adjoining Cricket Stadium) – Marching to Gandhi Statue on MG Rd- Assembly 5:30pm
Pune - Empress Garden (CAMP) – Assembly 5pm
Bombay – Gateway of India – Assembly 5:30pm

Please sms START CHANGE to 575758 for your City details.

Solidarity Vigil  & Swing Vote Campaign

Educated Civil Society has always been muted and our concerns have always been ignored. Mumbai terror attacks have shaken our confidence and have brought us together for a common cause – “Things Must CHANGE”.

It is an historic opportunity, where whole nation is united for a common cause – CHANGE is what we want, in the way we conduct our politics, security, governance and everyday life. We demand accountabaility & responsibility from our leaders and bureaucrats.

CHANGE INDIA have started 2 initiatives to UNITE the Civil Society and bring about CHANGE in our Political System

FIRST Initiative is a nationwide ‘SOLIDARITY & AWAKENING VIGIL’ on 27th December – Saturday at 6pm.

This vigil is organized to UNITE the Civil Society and show SOLIDARITY towards our brave soldiers and victims of mindless terror attacks. It is also an AWAKENING call to out politicians and bureaucrats that it is “No Longer Business as Usual”.

Please join in large numbers and bring along all your friends, family and colleagues. UNITY & NUMBERS matter in a democracy.

DATE & TIME – 27th December – 2008, Saturday @ 6pm (across major Cities of India & the World)

Details/Location – Please send sms – START CHANGE to 575758 to get your city details.

SECOND Initiative is a ‘SWING VOTE for CHANGE’ campaign.

We, Educated Civil Society feel helpless as we know that even if we VOTE, our numbers being too small, we can not change the ways of Indian politics.

However, a closer analysis will reveal that in an era of coalition politics with many parties and candidates, victory margins are very small. In fact most MPs win by victory margins of few thousand votes only. Rarely victory margins are 1 Lak and above.

Each major party and candidate have their committed vote bank, but what they need and fear is the SWING votes which account for victory margin. It is difficult but not imposiblenot to have 25,000~50,000 educated people in each parliamnetary constituency as SWING VOTE BANK to get the desired electoral outcome.

Now the question is, how do we organize these educated people, analyze & interact with major candidates/party and make an informed decision to VOTE with a real posibility of having a winner of our choice.

Use of technology will make it possible, Obama has shown it working. We are technology savy and quick to adapt.

“Change India” has created a CHANGE platform, which you join by sending an SMS – START CHANGE to 575758.

Our target will be to get around 50,000 people in each of the constituencies across 25 cities of the country, accounting for around 80-100 MPs. Deatils of the candidates/parties will be shared via SMS and we will interact with the candidates via web-conference/You Tube. Decision will taken via an sms POLL to VOTE for the CANDIDATE/PARTY of our choice.

We can make a BIG impact in the next Lok Sabha election and hold our winners accountable. Choice is Ours.
Opportunity is Now, as nation is UNITED and wants to bring a CHANGE.

Lets do it -  CHANGE is just an SMS away.

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During the July, 2008 confidence motion, 6 MPs (Ateeq Ahmad [SP], Afzal Ansari [SP], Mohammed Shahabuddin [RJD], Rajesh Ranjan a.k.a Pappu Yadav[RJD], Suajbhan Singh [LJP], Uma Kanth Yadav[BSP]) were brought from Jail on a one day bail to vote in the parliament. Three of them were convicted for murder by the courts!

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More than 1300 cases are pending against sitting members of parliament!

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During the July, 2008 confidence motion, Rs 3 Crores, the money used for bribing the opposition MPs, displayed on the floor of the house. Morever, it was reported that a private channel had recorded the entire incident of bribing on tape. The speaker decided not show the tape to the nation. Suspiciously enough the T.V. Channel which recorded the sting operation also went mum. The entire matter was hushed up by a committee of MPs themselves. The only question in front of the committee now it seems,  from where does the broker got so much of money!

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In 2002, Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, candidates with criminal records won 206 out of 403 seats in the assembly, i.e. more criminals were elected than regular politicians. [Source : Wikipedia]

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In 2007 UP Assembly election, the participation by criminals increased significantly. Prior to elections, 74% more criminal politicians were given tickets by the mainstream parties (Source: UP Election Watch, independent NGO headed by ex-DIG Ishwar P. Dwivedi):

1. Samajwadi Party (SP): 35.01 %
2. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP): 32.27%
3. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): 28.05%
4. Indian National Congress (INC) : 21.60%

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As per the survey conducted by Delhi-based NGO, Centre for Media Studies, after the May 2008 elections, Karantaka tops the list of states, where votes are bought for cash. Estimated 47% of the people were bribed to cast vote in favor of a party!

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Do read:

1. Criminalization in the UP 2007 Elections
2. How the Australia, UK, China, Pak media viewed the July, 2008 Confidence motion
3. Mohammad Shahabuddin
4. Pappu Yadav
5. D.P.Yadav
6. Surajbhan Singh
7. Anant Singh: Bihar’s notorious politician
8. More about Ananth Singh
9. Criminalisation of Politics in Bihar
10. Former MP gets death sentence for IAS officer’s lynching
11. Raghuraj Pratap Singh
12. Swearing in of Raghuraj Pratap Singh in Kalyan Singh’s cabinet
13. Vote for cash scandal (Horse trading of MPs during recent vote of confidence)

The only prerequisites of this test are, ‘courage’ and ‘honesty’. Anyone with these two qualities are eligible to take the test.

The princinple of behind the “Bumba from Bushongo” test for religions, is quite simple: “Ask your religion, questions, to which ‘you’ already know the answers, instead of asking questions which nobody knows answers. If your religion lets you down while explaining the former, you can safely assume that it does not have clues about the latter as well.”

In-line with the spirit of the “Bumba from Bushango” test, you can frame the required questions for the test yourself. For example, ask your religion to explain, what is Sun, what is Moon and what are stars? Ask your religion to explain how the Solar system is created? Ask your religion to explain, what are thunder and thunderbolts. Ask your religions how rains come? Ask your religion, which I guess describes in great length about heavens, to describe the shape of earth.

Hope you find the answer yourself.

Details about “Bushongo” mythology

More about “Bumba from Bushongo” (Source : www.godchecker.com)

BUMBA: From the Bushongo in the Congo comes BUMBA, the African Creator God of Vomit. Yes, vomit.

In the beginning, all was dark. Then out of the darkness came BUMBA, a giant pale-skinned figure. He was not feeling well. In fact he had not been feeling well for millions of years. He was lonely, and the unbearable solitude was making him ill.

Troubled by a ballooning bellyache, he staggered, moaned and vomited up the Sun. Light burst forth into the Universe — and he choked out the Moon. The stars came next and then, with a tremendous effort, he threw up the planet Earth. We do live in a very sick world.

This nauseating display was brought to a triumphant conclusion when, as an encore, he vomited forth nine animals, an assortment of humans, and a pile of diced carrots.

Exhausted from his labors, he sat and watched as the nine creatures multiplied. After a while, they had evolved into every living thing on Earth. Which goes to show that Creationism and Evolution are both right.

Apart from a pesky critter named TSETSE-BUMBA, all his creatures were friendly and respectful. His loneliness abated and finally he was content.

Then BUMBA’s three sons appeared. NYONYE-NGANA, CHONGANDA and CHEDI-BUMBA added the finishing touches and thus the world was made. BUMBA spoke kindly to his human creations before ascending to Heaven, never to be seen again. So far as we know, his stomach has never troubled him since.

Using the death of a martyr to do vote bank politics!!  Even a robber, rape convict or even a murderer would have hesitated to do so, but not our politicians.

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“Superficially speaking they (terrorists) had no reason to kill Karkare.  Whether he (Karkare) was victim of terrorism or terrorism plus something, I do not know”.
-A.R.Antulay

“[The opposition will have to] touch my feet and ask for my resignation or touch the feet of the Prime Minister and ask him for Antulay’s sacking.’
-A.R.Antulay

“Both the government and the party should feel proud.”
-A.R.Antulay

“He did not make any irresponsible statement about Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare, but it was the media which distorted his utterance. What’s wrong if Antulay has demanded probe into the killing of Karkare on the night terror struck Mumbai.”
-Digvijay Singh

“An impartial probe into the incident must be ordered at the earliest as it will allay ‘doubts’ lurking in the minds of Muslims.”
-Maulana Khalid Rasheed

“Mr Antulay had acted in national interest. Whether he acted politically wisely or not I do not know. I say national interest because Karkare was an officer who had unveiled for the first time the hidden face of Hindutva terrorism.”
-Syed Shahabuddin, Convener of Babri Masjid Movement Coordination Committee

“This is not about Antulay alone. This concerns the country’s Muslims. You have to go through Urdu newspapers to understand this. How can anyone be prevented from raising questions in a democracy? As for the BJP, ours is not an ideological alliance, but only an electoral alliance,”
-Shivanand Tiwari, JD(U) MP

“Had someone not misguided them, Karkare and others could have been saved. He was an asset for the nation. I won’t go into the timing bit at all.”
-Mohd Ali A Fatmi, Minister of State for Human resources and Development

“Two days before Karkare was killed, who had given a call for Maharashtra bandh?”
- Devendra Yadav, RJD

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Have a look at the tall claims made in the front page of this website : http://www.aicc.org.in/.  After a week of national humiliation, shockingly heinous use of a martyr death for personal gains/vote bank politics, and total disregard for the national interest at the hour of national crisis, all the Prime Minister has to say in the end is “To err is human”.

We, Indians, are shocked. We are shocked to see, how easily terrorists go around the country bombing city after city. We are shocked, to see how easily killers enter  “one of the best guarded city” of the country in broad day light, straight from the enemy territory, unstopped, killing nearly two hundred citizens, right inside one’s own country. We are shocked, to hear that even repeated intelligence tip offs about terrorist strikes in this country could be ignored and ‘collective failure’ is an accepted excuse. We are shocked, to see that the police force, does not have good enough bullet proof jackets and decent weapons to save their lives themselves, let alone saving citizens.

Now, we are shocked, to see how the politicians, who take oath saying they sacrifice everything theirs’ for the nation’s interest, sacrificing nation’s interest itself for everything theirs!

These politicians, who do not consider the nation’s interest in the hour of the need and a martyr’s honor, as more important than their personal gains, will they ever think of the well being the people who voted them to power, whom they don’t even know?

We can either choose to continue to feel helpless, dejected about all these or come together and join groups like ours or someother and try to do something constructive to bring about a change. No, we don’t have any ideas ourselves, but at-least  believe that ‘trying to do something’ is better than ‘sitting in the pit of helplessness hoping for a miracle’.

“Don’t we have common sense? How can I help Pakistan with this? I am an Indian and a Muslim. I am sorry to say but both the print and visual media have twisted my statements,”

Now look at the statement issued by the terrorist who called India T.V. “We are from Hyderabad and associated with Deccan Mujahideen”.

Isn’t there a striking similarity behind the motive of the two statements? First, trick the Indian Muslims into believing that they are representing them (forcefully). Second, direct the entire incident towards how the Muslim community in India being subjected to oppression by all non-Muslims of India. Third, play the ‘we are the victims’ card, justify the incident and if possible try to promote it.

Like the terrorist who said “don’t trouble us Muslims in India. Do not demolish our places of worship”, Antulay tries use Malegaon incident to play ‘we are the victims’ card on one hand and indirectly tries to justify the action of the terrorists on the other by suggesting that terrorists only killed people in retaliation.

“Superficially speaking they (terrorists) had no reason to kill Karkare. Whether he (Karkare) was a victim of terrorism or terrorism plus something I do not know.”

A barrister-at-law from Lincoln’s Inn, London and vastly experienced politician who consistently won various elections starting from 1962 to 2008, why did he issue such foolish statements which could ruin his own political career? What might be the motive behind his statements?

The first and obvious guess will be, he issued these statements to woo the Muslim voters in his Kolaba constituency. But there are many things that suggest this might not be the motive.
- If the motive behind this is to garner Muslim votes, he would have immediately issued clarification once the whole thing started backfiring, suggesting that he was mis-interpreted and downplay the whole incident. Even the least smart politician knows how to do this and when to do this and Antulay is in politics for nearly 50 years. Antulay did not do that, rather decided to continue with his stand, as if he has thought about the whole incident and has a plan in mind, suggesting his motive might not be just vote bank.
- Though Kolaba has huge Muslim population, a disgusting statement like this during the time of national crisis, displaying cheap opportunistic gimmick, can make all non-Muslim voters turn away from him and even many Muslim voters might follow the same. This might mean a certain defeat during the next election, let alone improving the vote bank.
- By embarrassing the government, he runs the very risk of being denied a ticket the next general election. How can a politician of his experience undermine this risk and decide to go with a foolish, half baked conspiracy theory which even an uneducated rickshaw puller could prove to be false. So the motive must be much more than vote bank.

Second guess is, Antulay wants to quit Congress and join some other party, which is eagerly looking out for Muslim vote-bank such as SP or BSP. But here again, the actions and the supposed motive fails to match.
- Though he might be old, still Antulay is considered by Congress to be a Muslim leader who can help Congress keep the Muslim vote bank in Maharashtra intact. So the argument that he might be ignored within Congress is incorrect.
- Antulay is known to be a staunch loyalist of ‘Gandhi’ family. Now with Sonia at the helm, and with no other real leaders apart from the Gandhi family, Antulay can get all the things he wants by playing his loyalty and minority cards.
- Even if he chooses to retire from politics, Congress will be more than happy to appoint him as a Governor during his old age. Congress is known to use these tricks to lure the Muslim community, just the way they did in the Vice-President’s race.
- Even after the incident, Antulay repeatedly told how is how is a staunch follower of the party and did not show any indication of going out of the party. So switching parties might not be his motive. Also, no other political party is seen keen to support his stand, again confirming such a thing might not have been planned.

Third guess is, he might be a mole of the ISI. Though looks like a fiction, it is still a possibility. Though never confirmed officially, it is widely believed that during the cold war, many of the India’s leading politicians, people from media were on KGB payroll (look at the references given by this link). From the incomplete and unbelievably stupid conspiracy theory cooked up by Antulay and no-other motives fitting the description, this looks like a possibility worth looking at. Here is our wild imagination, just like Antulay’s own conspiracy theory.

- ISI under the disguise of LeT, trained the militants in handling explosives, marine operations and using advanced weapons and tools. As per their plan, this should have been projected to the world as an operation carried out by the Muslims of South India, especially Hyderbad. But the capture of Kasav alive opened the can of worms for ISI.
- With a terrorist trained by it, giving away every minute detail of the operation to the world which is eagerly looking forward for concrete proofs linking the agency to terrorist activities to make ISI fall in line has become a biggest nightmare for ISI.
- ISI is subjected to immense pressure from both national and international governments to give up its support terrorist outfits, which are its alter egos.
- It is common sense that no politician in his complete sense would have ever dared to issue statements as the ones issued by Antulay, unless he is forced to do so.
- People like Antulay, who has shown by his statements how disconnected he is from reality and believes in something that looks like inspired from a shadowy ideology than truth, will make a perfect pawn in ISI’s game plan. This game is played from decades behind the scenes between India and Pakistan intelligence agencies. What happened in Kolkatta after the Mumbai attacks shows a face of this behind the scenes operations.
- It does not take too much to black mail these people either. If ISI threatens to leak to the media or Indian agencies how in the past he/she helped them in some operations by secretly pilfering information, the individual is left with no other choice but to obey them. So theoretically it is possible to use Antulay in their mis-information campaign as a last ditch effort to soften the credibility of India’s claim, and create confusion. If intelligently played by the right use of ‘communal weakness’ of the political parties of India, the source can get out of this scot-free after causing the desired damage. By using their (Pak) own media to sell this story to their audience, ISI can once again resist the forces that are trying hard to render it impotent.
- One thing that might be a problem here is how come all these go unnoticed from Indian intelligence agencies. We should keep in mind that ISI itself is an intelligence agency, on par with our own agencies. So it will definitely try to scarcely use this prime resource it has got, sufficiently protecting it from all threats of detection. Also, if the person belongs to the ‘elite’ list of the ruling government; mere intent to keep a watch, might cost the Indian officer his job, so nobody would have dared to do so.
-It seems Antulay has atleast one previous account of trying to derail the investigation.  During the 2006 Mumbai train blasts he, it seems, suggested that a mysterious blast in Nanded might have in fact been done by Hindus. So it seems this conspiracy theory put forward by him in front of the shocked nation, is part of a bigger plan and not inspired by the actual incidents.
- If we let our wild imaginations roam freely further, we might find answers to questions like, was there an intentional oversight at the top, preventing the tip offs received from Indian and International agencies of an imminent attack on Taj and Mumbai through coastal route, from reaching the ground forces. Moreover, the shear thought of things discussed in the Cabinet meetings which are supposed to be secret, reaching our enemy is rather frightening.

We are not suggesting either Antulay is doing this for vote bank or for flipping parties or acting at the behest of ISI. But whatever he is doing is something unpardonable. It is sad that people like Digvijay Singh joining the forces operating against the spirit of India without giving a proper thought. We hope atleast our intelligence agencies will not be caught napping again, just like what happened during the attacks on Mumbai.

(Note :

F.A.C.T is not biased towards any party. Its only wish is to see a better India free from corruption and terrorism.
People who back Congress, might be offended by this article. But, we would like to bring it to their notice the injustice done by their party in playing ‘communal card’ even when the nation is mourning the death of two hundred of its citizens and the intelligent use of the term ‘politicizing terror’ to hush up any attempt to discuss irresponsibility at the highest levels. We will be really proud about Congress, if it can revoke the primary membership of Mr.Antulay for ‘politicizing terror’ and prove that a Muslim leader for Congress in not greater than national cause, unlike it is perceived by citizens of this country.)

“You are caught inside a building where terrorists are spraying bullets everywhere killing everyone in their sight. Who do you think, would come to your rescue? Friends? Relatives?”

At least these brave men would have come to save you.

Shri. Hemant Karkare (IPS)	Shri. Ashok Kamte (IPS)	Shri. Vijay Salaskar
Shri. Shashank Shinde	Shri. Prakash P. More	Shri. Bapusaheb Durugade
Shri. Tukaram G. Omble	Shri. Balasaheb Bhosale	Shri. Arun Chitte
Shri. Jaywant Patil	Shri. Yogesh Patil	Shri. Ambadas Pawar
Shri. Vijay Khandekar	Shri. M. Choudhary	Shri. Rahul S. Shinde
Shri. Mukesh B. Jadhav

Source : Mumbai Police

Devaraj, Assistant Engineer, BBMP, 1.61 Crores
S R Patellapa, Assistant Director, Agriculture, 1.28 Crores
C M Chandre Gowda, AEE, KIADB, Mysore, 3 Crores
C Srinivasan, conservator of forest, Mysore, 1.55 Crores
S C Jayachandra, Chief Engineer (Hemavathi project), Gorur, 84.53 lakhs
Veeregowda, Village Pancahayat Secretary, Rajanukunte, Yelahanka, Rs 94.11 lakhs
Chandrashekhar Venkanna Chowhan, AEE, Almatti, 77.42 lakhs.

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Do you know some more millionaires in the Government of Karnataka? Add their names to the database here.

Most of us have not even completely forgotton how the shameless Achuthanandan barged into the house of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan even after his father asking him not to visit, and passing on unthinkably cheap comments against the martyr’s father. Now we have a Union Minister, displaying a new low!

To quote Anthulay, “We may need a separate inquiry to find out how his [Karkare's] end came. Karkare found that there are non-Muslims involved in the acts terrorism during his investigations in some cases. Any person going to the roots of terror has always been the target.”

He added, “Superficially speaking they (terrorists) had no reason to kill Karkare.  Whether he (Karkare) was victim of terrorism or terrorism plus something, I do not know”.

Mr.A.R.Anthulay, you have done an unpardonable mistake. Choosing to do politics over the death of a martyr and using it for communal purposes!!

You better apologize to the nation and quit.

No. We will never forgive you.
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Note : We have decided to put A.R.Anthulay as the first entry into F.A.C.T’s National Shamelist of Politicians and Bureaurocrats involved in corrupt practices.

Click here to read the Report on A.R.Antulay in NYTimes.

New Delhi: Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata, whose group owns the Taj chain of hotels, says he is planning to set up his own anti-terror mechanism to protect his people and assets. Speaking exclusively to CNN-IBN Tata said the police force was ill-equipped to handle the Mumbai terror attack.

“You have to accept that you cannot just constantly react to something after it takes place. You have got to look at creating a deterrent and that starts with good intelligence and sustained intelligence. It starts with the ability to put into action a plan that deals – closes of the airport, everyone knows what they are supposed to do rather than think on your feet after the event. It calls for mechanisms to make that happen,” says Tata.

He recounted that when the firing at the Taj Hotel took place, for a period of time there was a view that it was a gang war and the local police were to deal with it.

“In the Taj the first contingent of policemen came with three policemen. They were ill-equipped to handle them, in fact one of them got killed, the other got shot badly and one remains. The naval seals or commandos were there a couple of hours later. But we had to go through this state machinery to get it and that took a set of time. So it was just not coordinated and easily accessible,” Tata says

According to Tata, the question of leadership comes from the fact that there has to be leadership in knowing what to do. “The Fire Department didn’t know what to do. The commandos came too late. The police were not equipped to engage. There didn’t seem to be means of getting reinforcements. So all in all, there was an issue of not having a single leader. “

“We have decided that we will now look at anti-terrorism or protection of our assets and our people ourselves and we will try to create a deterrent. We will not try to create heroes who will engage in the enemy but to try and find as many invisible forms of deterring this, containing them or thwarting their efforts and that’s what we are engaged in doing and we will seek external expertise to help us set it up,” he adds.

While 2007 was a stellar year for the Tata Group with its flagship companies grabbing headlines for its big global acquisitions, in 2008, however, the business conglomerate’s fortunes took a U-turn and the group has been plagued by setbacks.

Tata, however, remains optimistic saying the demand in the economy has not dried up and there is a need to invigorate the economy.

“There have been huge bailouts for the financial sector because it cannot be allowed to die. The rest of the economy is now left without funds and an ultra conservative and ultra risk-averse financial community. We have gone into a period where bona fide businesses do not have demands, where sentiment is negative and I think the government for the first time has to take a much, much more proactive role in providing confidence and enthusiasm to the consumers that they will in fact will see an uprising in the economy,” he says.

It is great to see citizens taking ownership and bringing up things of national importance in front of the country which is repeatedly ignored by the elected governments and the administration. On the other hand it really sad that people also use this to get some quick popularity. In this case the latter seems to be motive.

Google took the world by a pleasant surprise when it opened up the satellite maps of the world to the people, for free. Till then accurate maps were considered to be the prerogatives of governments and security agencies and were primarily used for defense, national planning etc. Google brought this to the ordinary citizen of the country, which till then was never done or never attempted by any government anywhere on planet.

Consider this. The only free maps provided to the citizens of this country by Survey of India, which finds immense pride to be the oldest scientific department of India, are the following maps – ‘the geographical maps for children’.

The vision of ‘Survey Of India’ states : “Survey of India will take a leadership role in providing user focused, cost effective, reliable and quality geospatial data, information and intelligence for meeting the needs of national security, sustainable national development and new information markets”. Clearly catering the common man’s need is not a primary goal. The only application of maps for public, they can imagine, it seems is for teaching the children. (Sorry for being so sarcastic, but having one of the oldest institutions [founded in 1767] and still common public deprived of quality maps for its use tells a lot in itself). It is only after going to moon that ISRO is thinking about doing something similar to the common public with Project Bhuvan. Identifying the needs of common man and utilizing the avalable technology, it looks, still a rocket science in India.

The person who is unnecessarily diverting public’s attention from important issues, must have at least thought about this before setting out on ambitious task of getting Google-Earth banned:
1.) Can the government ban Google-Earth throughout the world? Who is going to loose if Google-Earth is only banned inside India? Will the terrorists who get trained across the border stand to loose anything from such a ban? Or will it be really difficult for them to gather these details from our neighbor’s intelligence offices?
2.) Why not the locations of Prime minister’s home or location of India’s parliament kept secret. Isn’t keeping them secret would prevent attacks similar to the one on parliament?
3.) Following the same argument, shouldn’t we also think about banning the use mobile phones, satellite phones?
4.) Shouldn’t we also ban GPS use for fishing boats considering terrorists used the same to locate their way to Mumbai coast?

By banning Google-Earth, the greatest loss is for the common public. It does not change anything for the determined terrorists, who did several recces of the location before attacking. What is of prime importance is improving securities of important installations and not hiding information. Taking the country to the stone age and hoping that terrorists come with swords and arrows to fight is utter foolishness.

It is sad that our country still has people (apart from politicians) who like to exploit the situations for their own benefits. We can only say, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they‘re doing“.

It is 7 years to the attack on Indian parliament.  On that unfortunate day, nine people were killed, many of whom were security personnel trying to save more than 200 parliamentarians who were inside the building at the time of attack. 5 terrorists were also killed in the gun battle. The key conspirator Gazi Baba was later killed by Indian security forces an year later. Considering what happened in Taj, imagine the extent of damage that would have happened if the terrorists were not stopped by the security personnel.

Today, a news channel reported that only 10 MPs turning up at the function organized in parliament commemorating the brave security men who lied down their life to save others’.

It is upto you to judge insensitivity shown by the politicians yet again.

Some facts about this incident:

• Supreme court of this country had awarded a capital punishment to one of the accused, Mohammad Afzal Guru for his involvement in the attack on Dec 18, 2002. His repeated appeals to the court were rejected after evaluating the case again and again.
• Afzal Guru submitted a clemency plea to the President of India, which is forwarded to home ministry which was then routed to Delhi government. The clemency plea is lying there more than two years without any action being taken.
• Afzal Guru was a surrendered militant (surrendered to BSF in 1993) and was not an innocent civilian as some seem to project.
• Gulam Nabi Azad of Congress and several communist parties have supported Afzal Guru’s clemency plea.
• Arundhati Roy who is the staunch supporter of clemency said to have written this on her article : “What is the hurry? The man is locked up in a high-security cell on death row. He is not allowed out of his cell for even five minutes a day. What harm can he do? Talk? Write, perhaps? Surely, even in Advani’s own narrow interpretation of the term, it is in the national interest not to hang Afzal? At least not until there is an inquiry that reveals what the real story is and who actually attacked parliament?”
• Here is the profile of Maulana Masood Azhar, who was one of the key conspirators of this attack. He too was once locked up in a high-security cell of an Indian prison, only to be released later in exchange for civilians in Kadahar hijackings.
• “We are returning the medals as a mark of protest against the delay. We have decided to return them on our own and we are not being provoked by anyone to do so. If the government cares for the honour of those who sacrificed their lives for the country, it should punish those responsible for the attack”.Vijendra Singh’s widow Jayawanti.
• “We did not order the execution of Afzal. It’s the court that has ordered it. But this vile politics over his death sentence, which is being delayed, has led us to return these medals,” Ganga Devi, widow of sub-inspector Nanak Chand.
• “The medals given to our dear and near ones now seem to us like humiliation piled on us,” Ganga Devi, widow of sub-inspector Nanak Chand, expressing shock over then Union Minister Shivraj Patil’s remarks in Parliament that they were being provoked by BJP.
• “Afzal Guru…You are asking for the death sentence to be waived for people (suggesting Sarabjith) and you are demanding that people from Hindustan should be hanged. What are you doing? You are starting to say that those people should not be hanged and here, you are demanding a hanging”, Shivaraj Patil while speaking to reporters on Afzal Guru issue.

These things make us ask the following questions:

• It is crystal clear that Congress and the Left are hesitating only because of the religion of the convict, which might hamper their political ambitions. Hence both the center and state are putting off things. Do you think these governments can give a better justice than the Supreme Court of this country? Thinking about religion and vote bank even in cases involving national security is a shame.
• Dear Prime Minister, please stop issuing statements like “all democratic forces should unite to fight terrorism”.  Do not try to project this as a collective failure which needs a collective effort from all parties. It is completely the elected government’s job to take actions against terrorism, make arrangements for countering terrorism and punishing the guilty. You don’t need anybody’s support for doing your duty. Stop lying , stop giving wrong impressions to the country and start owning up responsibilities both at government level and at the party level.
• By delaying things (for your own political motives) you are actually making more and more us suspect the establishments like Supreme Court of India, President’s office.
• If you cannot punish a terrorist who is in custody, what the nation can expect from you in tackling terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim, Maulana Masood Azhar, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed who are sitting across the border and controlling all the terrorists activities. Please atleast now, start making postive moves to restore confidence in the public.

It is worth quoting noted lyrisist Javed Akthar’s words, “when they fired at us, they did not distinguish between Hindu or Muslim. They were firing at Indians”. It is time for the government to understand that.

F.A.C.T is back with a new idea called “Auto-Mate”. This time it looks to fight corruption beyond public places.

• Have you ever been harassed by an auto-driver demanding more than the actual fare?
• Have you ever been refused ride by a rogue auto-driver?
• Have you ever felt you want to fight back in the above situations but felt helpless?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to all the three questions, you are at the right place.

Here is how ‘Auto-mate’ works:

• If you are subjected to incorrect treatments from an autowallah, simply note down the registration number of the vehicle.
• Simply compose a mail in the following format and send it to <refactor.india@gmail.com>
  • To: refactor.india@gmail.com
  • Subject : [Auto-mate]:<Registration Number of the auto or taxi>, <dd-mm-yyyy>, <place of the incident>
  • Body : [Optional description of the incident, not necessary though. If present will be useful for your own reference]
  • Note : If you can write down the driver’s license number that will carry more weight.
• We will update our page with <Registration Number> of the Auto with the <total number of complaints we received against him>
• When the <total number of complaints received against an autowallah reaches 5, we send out a mail to all the 5 complainants, with a small report of all the incidents (based on the details you have shared with us) and send the contact details of all the complainants.
• Now, the 5 complainants together can give a written complaint or file the complaint online (eg : Karnatak R.T.O) with the details of all the incidents. Since there is more than one complaint against the driver, this makes the case stronger. Take a copy of the complaint and keep it for future use. Do ask for an acknowledgment as you would like to follow it up.
• As we know, the R.T.O is going to ignore your mail. F.A.C.T will send you (all the 5 complainants) a friendly reminder after one month. Now the complainants have to do the following:
  • On a plain white paper write down:
    • Quote the complaint number/acknowledgement number
    • Question 1 : Weekly status on the said complaint
    • Question 2: The names of officers who owned the case
    • Question 3: If no action taken by the officers, what punishment they are eligible for, and how to complainant can ask for this
    • Question 4: When and what action will be taken on the auto-driver
  • Attach the copy of the email or written complaint you had submitted with R.T.O.
  • Pay Rs.10 and submit the above complaint in any of the PIO/APIOs (eg : Karnatak R.T.O). If you do not want to visit R.T.O offices, you can always file this complaint at a near by people-friendly Post Offices where PIO/APIOs are present.
• Done. Within one month you should be hearing from the R.T.O with all the details requested.

Advantages of ‘Auto-mate’:

• Working in a group means reduced work/responsibility, higher motivation to follow up things.
• More solid proof against the habitual offender.
• The probability of the offender getting punished is high as a group is involved.
• Even if you are not interested, it will be helpful for others who would like to take this issue seriously.
• General awareness among public. Hopefully it will restore the public’s self-confidence against fighting these menaces.
• Awareness among autowallahs about their basic responsibilities towards the community and public’s capabilities.

Click here to view Auto-mate Database

http://www.giftoflifeinternational.org/aboutus.html

There is a link that ties Pakistan and India with this movement. In cases where the heart surgery is too complex and cannot be performed in Pakistan, they are sent to India for medical treatment. Hospitals like Narayana Hrudayalaya take care of the treatment. The travel and stay expenses of the families are also taken care by organizations like Rotary.

The idea:

Terrorists in Mumbai took away lives of 179  innocent people. What if we initiate a national movement and collect funds enough to treat 179 Pakistani kids and give life to them! For every life the terrorists have taken, we try to save one!!

The effect:

This will clearly tell the terrorists what they really are, just killers. It will show them that, if in fact, they want to serve their religion there are much better ways than taking lives.

No amount of argument/brainwash can possibly convince a person that killing an innocent person is more greater cause than saving a kids life. Even the sympathizers of terrorism cannot withstand this, and hopefully the overall misinformation that has spread giving the impression that killing people is the supreme thing you can do for a religion should go away.

For eg:

• Complaint box in government offices
• Giving a representation to the immediate superiors of a corrupt official.
• Some public offices run consumer grievance cells.
• Some times corrupt officers and politicians can be referred to Lokayukta, who will try to catch the corrupt redhanded.
• Using Right To Information act to force corrupt and inefficient public servants do their duty and get the jobs done without paying bribe.
• Television channels and newspapers doing sting operations to uncover the corrupt faces.

Still corruption is pretty rampant in our society. As on March, 2008 India was ranked 72 in Corruption Perception Index by UK based Tranparency International.

Why does the above methods fail to make an impact?

Basically all of the above methods, either completely useless (eg: complaint box) or require sufficient time, money and in some cases risk.

So, an ideal solution should have the following properties:

- Should not consume so much time that the person reporting the issue feels it is not worth.

- Should cost nearly nothing.

- Should be risk free.

The solution :

• A organization such as F.A.C.T should maintain a public web page.
• A person who happen to pay a bribe, sends an email to the site, reporting
  • The name of the person who took the bribe
  • Designation
  • Department
  • Date, Time, Location
  • Amount of bribe taken by the person
  • Name, Address, Email address, Phone number of the person reporting the issue. (which will not be displayed, but can be made use in case of any contention by the accused)
• Ideally the organization should reach the person reporting the issue, just to check the authenticity of the claim. However this is optional. If this step skipped, though most of the data received will be correct, there may be chances of false claims, whose percentage hopefully will be very small.
• The organization updates its page with the data it received. The page will contain the list of corrupt public servants, how many times they taken bribe and how much amount they received through bribe.
• Hopefully, the embarrassment this can bring upon the officers should keep them away from taking bribe.
• The corrupt officer can contest the claim. Such a list will be separately maintained. If some more people reports the issue against him, he will be put back into the original list and will not be removed from there. This fear should make the corrupt public servant from wrongly trying to contest the claim.
• There will be an option for a corrupt public servant to tender an apology and pledge that he will remain clean. In such cases his name will be immediately removed. However if he commits the crime anytime there after his name will be permanently placed in the list.
• No legal actions are perused against the people in shame list. Hopefully public humiliation will be good enough.

The risks for an organization implementing this idea:

There may be possibilities of lawsuits of demation. However, to do that the corrupt public servant have to prove that he is not corrupt. This is more tougher than it looks. The accused, if fails to prove that he is not corrupt in the court of law he will certainly loose his job. So, unless the person is really honest he will stay away from a legal battle. Also, there may be more than one person who might have reported the issue. If they all appear before the court of law against the accused, the accused’s case will be certainly diluted, and chaces are high that he may be proven guilty.

So as per the guestimate 99% of the corrupt public servants will either silently apologize to get their names removed from the list or choose to undergo the humiliation, rather than fighting a legal battle.

Public response:

As we can guess, such a simple solution will be an instant hit with the public. And the hightened media attention means more humiliation for corrupt public servants, which should discourage people from becoming corrupt.

Alternatives to overcome legal complications:

If the organization is not willing to fight occasional legal battles they can follow other approaches.

-A system based on Wiki culture, where the responsibility is distributed across thousands of people. Arrested all of them is impossible.

-Operating from another country, where Indian legal process cannot reach.

-Hiding behind untrackable machines. Though possible, having an unknown face does not give the required credibility.

Take a look at this blog. Yes, its about the same Mumabi train blasts, where scores of Indians were killed by terrorists. To be specific the death toll was put at 209. And more than 700 injured. So approximately around 1000 families living in Mumbai were directly affected by this tragedy.

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Dec 3rd 2008. It was one week after the Mumbai massacre. More than 2.5 lakhs of Mumbaikers thronged the Gateway of India. Anger and frustration filled in the air. Some were angry. The rest were really angry. They were angry about indifferent politicians. Some were angry about international community, which still thinks Pakistan as their top ally in the fight against terror. Others were asking ‘why we still we haven’t bombed the terrorist camps in Pakistan’. Some wanted know ‘why is our intelligence agencies failed so miserably’?  Some asked, ‘why the financial capital needs the commondos to come all the way from Delhi to fight 10 terrorists’?

The situation was similar across the length and breadth of this nation. It seemed that the the total number of questions raised in the last one week across the nation could easily exceed the number of  questions asked since Independence.

Editorials were written in newspapers, how this is going to be the beginning of a new sea change. T.V. channels asked their viewers to take pledge through their websites that they will fight against terrorism. Some channels even allowed to do this using emails and SMS.

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Lets go back to the blog which we saw at the beginning.

The first blog entry happens exactly on 11th July, 2006 (the day of the bombings) and the last on 14th July, 2006.

To put it bluntly, public’s interest in any tragedy lasts approximately for 4 days. (You might argue against this, but I am pretty sure that you will come up with a number which is pretty close to what we have come up with).

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First rule of self-improvement : Don’t forget your mistakes

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Going back to the Mumbai massacre, the public has so many valid questions.

- Why was there no crisis management infrastructure? Name of the beaurocrat or politician holding the place of responsibility, who should have started working on this after previous repeated bomb blasts.

- Which agency was responsible for not passing on the intelligence inputs given by both international and national intelligence agencies. Names of the officers. Actions taken against them.

- Media was telecasting the whole incident live to aid the terrorists and its strategists sitting across the border. What is the plan or guidelines for the media during future crisis?

- Any mock drills to train various agencies (fire brigade, ambulance and hospitals, police, CRPF, NSG, army, political leadership at various levels)? Proofs that such drills will be conducted atleast as seriously and diligently as preparing school kids for Independence and Repulic day parades.

We the public needs to keep the unanswered, unsolved questions afresh in our minds. We need to raise them repeatedly at every available occasion. Our responsibility does not stop after raising a question once, it continues till we find answers and set things corrected.

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We at F.A.C.T discussed this problem of keeping these burning questions afresh in our mind as well as with the people around us. One of the simple, achievable, reasonably effective way of doing this, we found to our surprise is, designing T-Shirts. We decided to design T-Shirts themed after the Mumbai attacks, with all the burning questions written on it. Instead of protesting with placards on one or two occassion, wear it and take the message wherever you go, to office, to the shopping mar, to the college… This way not only we are reminded about our unfinished task of finding answers, but also possibly keep these issues alive with the public (certainly for more than 4 days, hopefully for months and years).

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Please write to us at <refactor.india@gmail.com> or join the group <refactor-india@googlegroups.com>, if you have

- A better solution

- An apt t-shirt design that can serve the purpose

- Or to be part of the F.A.C.T and “refactor-india” movement.

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Update :

We have received an entry for the T-Shirt design. Write to refactor.india[at]gmail.com, if you are interested in buying one of these.

Front

Back

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Mine is a story so improbable that if it were made into a movie, no one

would believe it. It begins innocuously enou gh with a dinner

reservation with another couple (Shiv and Reshma) at a leading

restaurant in a world class hotel, and ends 12 hours later in a brazen

commando assault by the Indian army that allowed us to be freed. My

point in relaying this story is not to tell a sensational true story,

but express my eternal gratitude and to pay tribute to the staff of The

Taj Mahal Hotel, who literally sacrificed their lives in

disproportionate numbers so that we could ultimately survive. They,

along with the bravery of the Indian army, are the true heroes and are

deserving of due respect.

Let me also preface this by saying that my wife and I were married in

the Taj at the Crystal Ballroom, her parents were married there and the

couple we were with were married there as well. My wife and Reshma, both

Bombay girls, grew up hanging out at the Taj and the Oberoi. Many of my

wife’s fondest memories are at this place where she spent so many happy

hours and often partied the night away at her favorite nightclub the

legendary 1900′s.

My wife Anjali and I arrived at the Taj with Shiv & Reshma at around

9:30 for dinner at The Golden Dragon, one of the better Chinese

Restaurants in Mumbai. We were running a little early for dinner, (our

friends had just welcomed their 1 month old into the world). We walked

through the lobby and made a left to go to the restaurant. Our wives

decided that they would go to a book shop on the other side of the lobby

and meet us at the restaurant.

Fortunately our table wasn’t ready. Though we were a little early and

had reservations, the staff told us we would have to wait 10 minutes for

another table to be freed. Hearing this we then walked next door to the

Harbor Bar for a drink. A minute later our wives crossed back across

the lobby and joined us at the bar. We had barely sat down=2 0and begun

to enjoy our beers, when the host of The Golden Dragon came to our table

at the Harbour Bar and told us our table was ready. For reasons unknown,

we decided to stay and finish our drinks.

Literally 30 seconds later we heard what sounded like a heavy tray

smashing to the ground. This was followed by 20 to 30 more similar

sounds and absolute silence. We knew something was terribly off. Our

initial reaction was to crouch behind a table in the bar feet away from

what we now knew were gunshots. At this time terrorists had stormed the

lobby and were firing indiscriminately. The Harbor Bar is situated

right next to the lobby, and while they couldn’t see us the terrorists

were within 30 feet of us.

My friend, Shiv, and I knew we had to act fast. We took a chair and

tried repeatedly to break the glass window i n front of us, but it

wouldn’t budge. We then looked and saw a stairway that was inside the

bar, but across open space that could be seen from the hotel lobby.

Fearlessly, the Hostess of the Harbour Bar stood at her post as all this

was going on and ushered for us to go up the stairs and escape this

initial wave. She literally was looking straight out into the hallway

and lobby and motioned to us that it was safe to make a run for the

stairwell. She also mentioned that there was a dead body right outside

in the corridor. We believe this courageous woman was later murdered.

We later learned that within minutes of our decision to climb up the

stairwell the terrorists came into the Harbour Bar, shot everyone who

was there dead, as well as also executing everyone who was still at the

Golden Dragon next door. It has also come to light that the staff of the

Golden Dragon, who were equally valiant, attempted to usher their

patrons into a basement wine cellar which they thought would be

protected. They locked the doors in an attempt to keep the terrorists

out. The terrorists unfortunately managed to break through the doors

and lobbed in grenades that wound up killing everyone in the basement.

Back to the previous – The stairwell connected the Harbour Bar on the

bottom to a restaurant called Wasabi on the second floor. After fleeing

up the stairwell and having the “fortune” of having the terrorist choose

to hunt down people in the Golden Dragon first, we ran into the annals

of the kitchen on the 2nd Floor. Our friend Shiv was familiar with these

back ways as he had used them at times when his wife was pregnant and

could not walk up the stairs. There we took refuge in a small office.

The chef and staff were very accommodating; they served the four of us

food and drink, and believe it or not were apologizing for the

inconvenience we were suffering.

At this point we were hoping against hope that this was an isolated

incident and police/military would arrive soon. In the office was a TV,

and we and the staff were able to watch the reporting by local media.

We were also able to text and e-mail with others to try to get a sense

of what was happening. It became apparent that this was a full fledged

terrorist assault on Mumbai. We were hopeful that our obscure location

would buy us enough time to make it out safely. For about an hour or so

we sat as quietly as possible in the office trying to make sense of the

situation unfolding around us.

At that point 10 different locations in Mumbai were under assault,

including the police station. There were reports that terrorists had

even stolen a police car and were impersonating police – killing people

randomly on the street. We thought that while not safe, we were in the

safest place possible at that moment. There were also no points of exit

from our location and the terrorists seemed to have blocked off many of

the entry/exit points so we decided to stay put and hope for the best.

Fortunately in the office was a massive wooden conference table. We had

positioned the table 3 feet from the door so that if anything felt amiss

we could move it quickly to barricade the door. Suddenly at around

11/11:30 the kitchen went silent, we knew something was wrong. We took

the table and slammed it against the door, then turned off all the

lights and hid where we thought we would be the most protected from

gunshots. There were 5 of us in the room, all of the kitchen staff

remained in the kitchen, not one staff member had run, not one.

Suddenly “Slam”, “Slam” the door was trying to be broken down, but the

door and our table wouldn’t give. Again, “Slam” “Slam”. Then again,

“Slam” “Slam”. We then heard the terrorists asked the chef in Hindi if

anyone was inside the office and he responded very calmly “n o one is in

there it’s empty”. This is the second time the staff saved our lives.

After about 20 minutes passed we heard a slight knock on the door, and a

staff member whom, we had been with earlier identified himself in

English. Many of the staff then stood in a line and provided safe

escort down a corridor to an area called “The Chambers”. The Chambers

is an exclusive members only area of the hotel. We were told that The

Chambers was the safest place we could be, had been secured off that

there as the only two entrances were now guarded by the army.

The mood in The Chambers was relatively calm. There were perhaps

200-300 people in the 6 rooms that comprised The Chambers. Inside,

staff was serving sandwiches, alcohol and drinks. People were nervous,

but cautiously optimistic. We were told that this was one of the safest

places to be in all of South Mumbai . The streets were still unsecure,

there had been firing at CST- a major railway station, The Oberoi Hotel

and even the Cama Hospital for women and children. The army was at the

time was being mobilized more fully.

Then at around 1/1:30 the mood began to get more tense. Some member of

parliament had phoned into a live newscast and let the world know that

200+ people were “secure and safe in The Chambers together”. What’s

better, he made sure to let it out that there were several CEOs,

foreigners, and Members of Parliament in the group. The news station of

course made sure to broadcast this fact as well.

Adding to the tension and chaos was the fact that via SMS and cell

phones we knew that in the heritage wing of the Taj the dome was on fire

and potentially moving downwards.

The staff was becoming increasingly concerned for our safety. At around

2am they decided to attempt an evacuation. We all lined up to head down

a dark fire escape exit. Things were going smoothly for about 5

minutes, then grenade blasts and automatic weapon fire pierced the air.

A mad stampede ensued to get out of the stairwell and take cover back

inside The Chambers.

Having barely survived two chances with death already, my wife and I had

discussed and decided that in the event The Chambers got broken into and

became a real hostage situation we would hide in20different rooms.

Whilst wanting to be together if this was to be our end, our primary

obligations lay with giving our children the best possible chance of

having one parent alive. Given that I am American and my wife Indian,

and with news reports stating that the terrorists were targeting US/UK

nationals, I believed I was further endangering her life by being with

her if we were to get into a hostage situation.

Thus, when we ran back to The Chambers amidst gun volley I fled for a

toilet stall and my wife stayed with our friends who fled to a large

room across from the toilet stalls. For the next 7 hours I lay in the

fetal position on the floor of the stall while my wife huddled silently

with close to 100 others, including our friends. We were able to stay

in contact via email on our Blackberries. I had one and Anjali was with

another friend, Vishal, who was holed up with her who had one as well

and he kept in contact with me. We were all dead silent and had all

silenced our phones.

Outside The Chambers the slaughter continued. Most of the people in the

stairwell got shot and killed and many staff valiantly stayed outside

the doors in another attempt to protect the guests. I believe many of

the staff that stayed outside the door to lock it perished. At this

point there were multiple grenades and volleys of gunfire. It sounded

as though the terrorists were engaged in a firefight after having

murdered the first evacuees and staff.

The layout of The Chambers has six rooms along two corridors which forms

an “L” shape. The corridor that runs east/west had five rooms attached

to it and was accessible by the obscure door connected to the escape

path referenced earlier. The north/south corridor had one big room on

one side and the men’s restroom on the other. I fled to the toilets,

Anjali and our friends to the large room connected to the north/south

corridor.

Back in The Chambers, the staff had again acted quickly and turned off

all the lights as soon as we ran back in. The place was pitch black.

Unfortunately, the terrorists once again managed to break into The

Chambers via the exit where we were previously trying to evacuate. The

next 10 minutes, around 2:30, were extremely frightening. Rather than

hearing the volley of fire/counter fire, we could just hear single

shots. We would later learn that the terrorists went room by room on

the east/west corridor and systematically executed everyone they could:

women, elderly, Muslims, Hindus, foreigners, anyone. How they did not

manage to enter the other corridor is a miracle – it was the commandos

at the other side that kept firing back and saved our lives.

The Indian commandos were on the Sou thern end of the corridor,

Terrorists on the North (remember the east/west corridor connected to

the north/south, so after they had butchered all the rooms in the

east/west corridor, all they had to do was make a turn around the corner

to come after our two rooms). The next 5 hours was comprised of an

intense grenade/gun battle between the Indian commandos and the

terrorists that was fought in pitch black darkness in which each side

was trying to outflank the other. Our lives hung in the balance.

Anjali could literally see commandos advancing and retreating feet from

her, gunshots and grenade blasts were within feet from her and the

others in the big room.

We heard a grenade explosion that seriously injured one commando, but

amazingly for the hours that hundreds upon hundreds of rounds were

expended no one was seriously injured in this battle.

During t his time I was huddled in the fetal position on the floor of

one of two toilet stalls in the bathroom. I had picked the toilet stall

as the preferred hiding location because if we were in an overt hostage

situation the floor to ceiling door could conceal my identity. I was

joined in the stall by Joe, a Nigerian national with a US Greencard

whose wife had recently divorced him. He had moved to Lagos and was in

Mumbai on business. For the next seven hours he sat on the pot (full

seat down), me on the floor, and we tried to make sense of the

situation.

I had, through a friend, gotten in touch with the FBI via Blackberry,

where several agents were helpful in giving me a status update

throughout the night. I cannot even begin to explain the level of

adrenaline running through my system at this point. It was this hyper

aware state where every sound, every smell, every piece of information

was ultra acute, analyzed, and processed so we could make the best

decision to try to maximize the odds of survival.

Was the fire above us life threatening? What floor was it on? Were the

commandos near us, or were they terrorists? Why is it so quiet? Did

the commandos survive? If the terrorists come into the bathroom and to

the door, when they fire in, how can I make my body as small as

possible? If Joe gets killed before me in this situation, how can I

throw his body on mine to barricade the door? If the Indian commandos

liberate the rest in the other room, how will they know where I am? Do

the terrorists have suicide vests? Will the roof stand? How can I make

sure the FBI knows where Anjali and I are? When is it safe to stand up

and attempt to urinate?

At one point we received an incorrect text saying that the terrorists

were killed, Joe went out to check on the situation- he lives in Lagos

and is much more fearless than me. He saw 5 commandos in the hallway,

then another volley of fire broke out and he dove for cover, eventually

retreating back to the bathroom stall with me. 10 minutes later we

heard a pin drop and what sounded like an object tossed. We said to

each other “grenade” and braced for impact. Fortunately we were wrong;

no grenade had been tossed.

Meanwhile Anjali was on the other side of the corridor in the large room

with our friends and about 100 others. She and others were in what

basically was one continuous mass of people clinging to each other lying

on the floor. People barely moved for 7 hours, the last 3 hours they

felt it was too unsafe to even text. From her vantage point Anjali

could clearly see the commandos advancing/retreatin g, advancing

retreating. Whilst I was tucked behind a couple walls of marble and

granite in a bathroom and toilet stall, she was feet from bullets flying

back and forth. She was also in the middle of the corridor on one side

and the terrace on the other. Gunfire and grenades going off on both

ends at some points. Shiv and Reshma were up against the glass terrace

doors that was all between us and the terrorists. Ironically, the group

right next to Anjali were devout Bori Muslims whom would have been

slaughtered just like everyone else. Everyone was in deep prayer and

most, Anjali included, had accepted that their lives were likely over.

After several attacks and counter attacks, dawn broke and the commandos

were able to successfully secure our corridor. In Anjali’s words “a

young gorgeous looking commando” came in just like in a movie and told

Anjali and the others in the room to put their hands up. He asked

whether anyone had a weapon and was told that no one did and this was a

peaceful crowd. He asked them to follow single file to safety. When one

woman asked whether it was safe to leave, the commando replied: “Don’t

worry, you have nothing to fear, the first bullets have to go through

me”.

The scene was one literally out of a movie, like Die Hard. The corridor

was laced with broken glass, bullet casings, and debris. Every table

was turned over or destroyed. The ceilings and walls were littered with

hundreds of bullet holes, blood stains were clear, though fortunately

there were no dead bodies to be seen.

A few minutes after Anjali had left, I peeked out of my toilet stall

with Joe to see multiple commandos and smiled widely. I had lost my

right shoe while sprinting to the toilet so I grabbed a sheet from the

floor wrapped it around my foot and proceeded to walk over the glass and

debris to the hotel lobby.

On my way out next to me was an older Hindu man who had=2 0suffered an

abdominal wound. The staff had placed him on a sheet and was holding

the sheet to carry him out to safety. He said nothing, though I’m sure

he was in agony. However, he was still, his hands were clenched tight

in prayer, eyes focused above, and his expression was peaceful. It was

as if he had accepted that there was a higher power that would determine

his fate. I will never forget the look on his face. For myself, I was

scared beyond belief of death. I had no peace, everything I attempted

was to try and increase my likelihood of survival. Towards the end when

it sounded like perhaps the Indian commandos had been flushed and we

were in trouble, my heart was pounding so hard it felt like it could

explode. As an aside, even though I hadn’t slept a wink that night, I

couldn’t go to sleep until 1am that night- the adrenaline was just that

strong.

Anjali and I were reunited in the entrance to the Taj on the ground

floor. From there we embraced=2 0for the first time in 7 hours. At

that point I didn’t know whether she was dead or injured because we

hadn’t been able to text for the last 3 hours. By a sheer miracle she

was untouched, Vishal was untouched and Shiv and Reshma were untouched.

We also knew Amrita and Priya Jhaveri who were in there with us who came

out along with us. Amrita’s husband Chris a foreigner as well.

I wanted to take a picture of us on my blackberry – Anjali did not want

me to as she wanted us to get out of there before doing anything. She

was right – our ordeal wasn’t completely over. A large bus pulled up in

front of the Taj and, just about as it was fully loaded gunfire erupted

again. The terrorists were still alive and firing automatic weapons at

the bus. Anjali was the last to get on the bus as I pushed her up and

Vishal pulled her inside – I crouched down separated from her once

again. We were all told upon coming out of the hotel that we would be

taken to a police station to identify ourselves. However, 30 metres away

they were let off the bus as gunfire continued – they ran t o the Regal

Cinema and into Vishal’s waiting car and away to safety. I ducked under

some concrete barriers for cover as the gunfire continued. (It later

turned out that pictures of this moment were the ones that made the

international news.) Shortly thereafter an ambulance came and drove a

few others and me away to safety. An hour later Anjali and I were again

reunited at her parents home. Our thanksgiving had just gained a lot

more meaning.

Some may say our survival was due to random luck, others due to divine

intervention. Being 72 hours removed from these events, I can assure

you of only one thing: Far fewer of us would have survived if it

weren’t for the extreme selflessness shown by the Taj hotel staff, who

organized us, catered to us, then in the end literally died for us.

That is not to take away from the extreme bravery and courage of the

Indian commandos, who in pitch-black darkness and in unfamiliar,

close-quarter terrain valiantly held the terrorists at bay. It is also

amazing that amongst our entire group not one person screamed or

panicked through the entire ordeal and there was an eerie but quiet calm

that pervaded – this is one more thing that got us all out alive. Even

people in the adjacent rooms who were being executed kept silent.

This is to remark on the truism that only when faced with the worst of

humanity can one witness the best. It is much easier to destroy than to

build, yet somehow humanity has managed to build far more than it has

ever destroyed. Likewise in a period of crisis it is much easier to

find faults and failings, rather than celebrate heroes. It is now time

to celebrate our heroes. “

It’s 6. I reach B.R.V.Junction. I ask an autowallah and he confirms that it is infact the junction. But something was missing, the crowd. I look around. Have they left already? I may have been late by 2 minutes. So how far they must have walked? I look at the watch again, its still 6 or may be 5:59 to be exact. I look around again. I see a couple of students waiting at the corner of the road. I can see a paper roll peeping out of the bag. Oh, that must be the placard, I tell myself. Shocked seeing just 5 of them, I stand there for a second, without knowing what should I do next. Then I see two more people joining them. I walk upto them and ask ‘Are you for the candle light vigil’. One of them tries to smile sheepishly and says ‘yes’. Now there 6 or 7 of us.

Instead of feeling pity about myself, my resolve to be part of that vigil becomes stronger. Another 10 mins passes. We tell each other, whatever may be the number of people, we will start in another 20 minutes and start our walk towards Mahathma Gandhi park and light the candles. We decide to wait till 6.30.

6.15 : One lady comes hurriedly and approaches us, and enquires  ‘is this…’. We interrupt her and say ‘yes’. She tries to smile. She immediately turnes around and starts walking back.
6.18 : We are joined by another group of college students or may be just out of college, not sure. May be 4 to 5 in number. I hear a girl in their group screaming at others, ‘who is it that forwarded me the e-mail’.
6.20 : The lady who went back couple of minutes ago, comes back with couple of her family members. One of them holding the tricolor.
6.22 : We were joined by two more students.
6.23 : People started looking at each other, some murmuring, ‘shall we…’. One of the students say that another group has gathered at nearby Anil Kumble Junction. Our group of 15 to 20 decides, lets walk upto that junction and join them. The traffic police man observing us and knowing what we are doing, stops the vehicles and escorts us safely across the street. I want to say thank you to him, but my ego stops me from doing that.
6.34 : We reach Anil Kumble junction. No trace of any group. Again one of the members of our group tries to call his friend. Others wait.
6.40 : After some confusion, clarification and exchange of co-ordinates, they finally decalre, ‘other group is already at the Mahathma Gandhi park’.
6.42 : We reach the entrance of the park. We could see some 20 candles lit in front of the gate. There is a sizeable crowd of 20 to 25 persons. We join them.
6.45 : We light the candles. Nobody really knows what to do. Nobody wants to leave either. For the first time in my life, I really feel the importance and need of a leader. There are people willing to listen, waiting for instructions, hoping somebody leads them. But there is no leader and nobody chooses to become one. Everyone discussing things in groups of two or three. I stand there alone.
6.47 : I could see some people taking pictures of themselves in front of the candles. Already shocked enough, I stand there shell shocked.

Another couple of minutes passes. One gentleman declares “this gathering is a success, I expected only 20-30 and here, there are 40-50 people”. Another gentleman frowns and rejects this claim. The girl still murmuring, ‘where are the organizers’?

We wait for few more minutes. I had thought that my mind will be peaceful after I light the candle. But it isn’t. I was angry, feeling disgusted about my own identity. I feel like a cockroach in a gutter.

Suddenly three of us (I had acquainted myself with two others from some company in the beginning)  in the group look at each other. One of them suggests, lets walk inside the park to the Gandhi’s statue. We nod positively.

I say, “shall we observe two minutes silence in front of the Gandhi statue”. Other two agree.

We enter the park and walk up to Bapoo’s statue.

One says, “let’s remove the footwear”. We follow the instruction.

6.50 PM:

We stand there,

just three of us,

in front of the statue

with closed eyes…

and heavy heart….

observing silence….

not for the dead….

but for the living….

-Submitted by one of our member

New Delhi, Dec 13, 2007 (ANI): Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today condemned blast in the Rajdhani Express in Assam.

“I convey my sympathies to those killed and pray for speedy recovery of those injured in the incident,” said Patil in a message.

“People of our country understand the designs of terrorists and will not be cowed down by such incidents. The State Governments and Railways will take necessary steps to provide protection to passengers and see that such incidents do not recur,” he added.

Shivraj Patil condemns militant attack on CRPF in Rampur

New Delhi, Jan 1: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today condemned the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Group Centre at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

“I condemn today’s attack on the CRPF Group Centre at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. The Home Ministry is in touch with the Uttar Pradesh Government and CRPF authorities following the incident,” said Patil in a message.

Patil said a detailed report has been sought about the facts and circumstances of the incident. He also added that the concerned authorities have been asked to take immediate and effective measures to identify and trace the culprits and bring them to book.

Sonia Gandhi, Shivraj Patil condemn Bangalore blast

By our Correspondent, Last updated: 07/25/2008 23:50:03

Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Friday has also condemned the serial blasts in Bangalore, the country’s IT capital, promising all help to the state government in tracking down the perpetrators.

Two persons were killed and six people were injured when a series of bombs fitted with timer devices went off in several places in the city.

‘I strongly condemn today’s blasts in Bangalore. I convey my sympathies to the affected families and pray for speedy recovery of those injured in the blasts,” he said in a statement.

“The ministry is in close touch with the Karnataka government. Such incidents will not deter the government from pursuing its policy of dealing with anti-national elements in a resolute manner,’ he said.

Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil condemns serial blasts in Ahmedabad

New Delhi, July 26, 2008

Anti-national elements have been trying to create panic among the people of our country. Today’s blasts in Ahmedabad seem to be part of the same strategy. I condemn the blasts and appeal to people to maintain calm. I pray for speedy recovery of the injured. The Union Home Ministry is maintaining close touch with the Gujarat Government. I am confident that the culprits will soon be identified and brought to book.

Shivraj Patil condemns Mehrauli blast in Delhi

New Delhi, Sept 27 (ANI): Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has condemned todays blast in Mehrauli in Delhi, in which one child was killed and over 15 were injured.

He conveyed his condolences to the family of child, killed in todays blast and he prayed for speedy recovery of the injured.

The Minister also directed the hospital authorities to provide all facilities to the injured.

He said the Government has taken a series of measures recently to beef up security in Delhi. Whatever more is required to be done will be done expeditiously.

Patil also appealed to the people of Delhi to remain calm. (ANI)

Three Central teams rushed to Agartala to investigate serial blasts

Oct, 3 rime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar about the blasts and the prevailing situation. Mr. Sarkar apprised Dr. Singh of the incidents and measures initiated by his government.

Dr. Singh strongly condemned the attack on innocent people and wished the injured speedy recovery.

On Wednesday night, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil also spoke to Mr. Sarkar. Mr. Sarkar told The Hindu that he could not comment immediately as the State and Central governments were working together and investigating the matter.