Accountability!

I was watching a movie called "The Kingdom" the other day. Its about a terrorist attack on a US residential compound in Saudi Arabia, and how a special FBI team engages the Saudi administration, visits their kingdom, performs an investigation amidst tight security, almost gets killed in the process but ends up killing the mastermind behind the attacks - all within a week.
Now since that was in a movie, it can be dismissed as a story which cannot be translated into reality, but it has been more than 2 months now, and have we made any progress?
In these 2 months Obama became President, Slumdog got nominated for the Oscars, our cricket team won many matches in a row, and we forgot about the Mumbai tragedy?
Our government submitted a report to the Pakistan government. Zardari appeared on the Riz Khan show harping the "we're also victims of terrorism" song. Pak govt is going to submit their own version of their own investigation to New Delhi.
And we wonder, what in heaven's name is going on??? How many reports need to be exchanged??? How about some action????

We need to demand accountability from the administration and need to ask why after two months we still don't know who was behind the attacks.
Acocuntability from the government is our right and we don't seem to exercise it enough!!

Components of a Democracy

Thanks people for your response. Please continue sending them in. I know they are very few in number but every response is a sign of hope.

In addition to the very well thought and valid causes that a new party needs to stand for, I received another interesting viewpoint - that the political forces are too strong in order to form a new party, and that we need to change the system from within. I think this is a big challenge and would need to prepare to handle it well. I believe that the following two components are crucial for a democracy to function effectively - 1) a government that truly keeps the interest of its people at its core 

2) a people who have the strength to question the government and demand accountability regularly

Today we have lost both these things.

- We have a government that cares about nobody. The heads of state are dummies and the powers behind them are dumb and selfish.

- as a nation we have allowed our indifference and "patience" and "tolerance" and "chalta hai" attitude to lead us here. While a new party would aim at freshening up our governance, we also need people to be brave enough step up and act as auditors of our system, and formalize the process. However, we need to first clean up the governance. The reason we haven't been able to question our powers that be is precisely that the political forces are too strong.

What are your opinions on this?

Will this too be forgotten?

The standoff at the Taj is over. But will this incident also be forgotten like the many more incidents before this??? 

I hope not.

I hope we continue to remember this.

I hope we let it motivate us to arise from indifference and work together to bring about change, to reform the system, to strengthen ourselves.

But how can we achieve it? Can we continue to rely on our politicians? 

Not any more.

Lets take a look at the two biggest political parties. Is there anyone we can look upto as the next leader...or even as a leader??? 

They are all either too corrupt or too vain or too submissive or too uneducated or too old or too casual.

These are the men "leading" our country. Is there any hope we can have with these people in power???

Then how will the change happen? How will our "system" change???

We need to join politics. All of us who have a decent education and rationale and sense of responsibility should enter politics. Its the only way. Its the long term solution. We may not all succeed, but if we start now at least 20 years later we will be a different country.

Come on all bloggers, lets get together. Lets get more people together. Lets get motivated. Lets start a movement.  Lets form a party that truly cares about the country and truly wants to save it!!!

Lets save India!

Please be Vigilant!

Almost 48 hours later they are still continuing to fire. How much ammunition do they have? Did they already plant the ammunition in the hotel beforehand?

How many are there out on the street? After all they came by sea and nobody stopped them. Who knows how long they've been there for and what they will do next!

Nobody knows how many are there inside the Taj. 

We hear continuous gunshots and minor explosions on the news channel. We hope that it ends soon. 

I hope they don't strike anywhere else. I hope this ends soon.

There could be loads of them out there in the country so everyone please be extremely careful. Please report any suspicous activity to the authorities!

Please be safe. May God be with us!

Where's the Superhero?

They are fighting over who owns Mumbai. They want to flush out non-Marathis out of Mumbai. They are idiots. They think they own Mumbai. How wrong are they! Mumbai is not owned by the Marathis. It used to be owned by everybody. Even those who didn't own any land in Mumbai were kings of Mumbai in spirit.

Not any more. No. It is now owned by the Mujahideens. The terrorists. The 20 somethings systematically brainwashed by the f**ing fanatics to go and kill. They are the real owners of Mumbai. Not the Marathis. Not the Thackereys. Not the Gujjus. Not the Marwadis. Not the UPites. Not Bollywood.

So what are the true Marathis trying to achieve by trying to drive the "non-Marathis" out of Maharashtra? Can't they see this regionalism is a mere trap to divert their attention from the real problems of Mumbai?
This is a classic Indian problem. Some idiots tell us to fight amongst each and we start fighting like monkeys and make a misery of ourselves while they eat the cake and laugh.
From Alexander to the Mughals to the Britishers, we've never been united.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR US TO UNITE?? Not the '93 riots. Not the Delhi blasts. Not the Mumbai train blasts...Oh I know when we were united. During a cricket match!! And also during Kargil.
So basically we are united when someone else goes and fights for us and we sit and watch and cheer and sometimes cry. That's who we are. Aise hi hain hum. Aakhir dil hai Hindustani.

All this public unity and common man fighting terrorists and a hero standing up to corrupt politicians - it does happen, in movies. Not in real life.

What will it take for us to unite?

Clearly if all these incidents have not united us, nothing will...

But in my heart of hearts I want to be proved wrong. I want to be proved wrong after what happened last night in Mumbai. I want to be proved wrong because nobody can mutilate my country like this.
I want a superhero to rise. I want a big brave nasty superhero to rise. I want the superhero to prove me wrong. I want the superhero to protect us. I want the superhero to destroy the terrorists and make India a safe place.

But where is the superhero? Within us! Yes! I want all of us to look inside ourselves and find the superhero and let it rise unbridled.

Look everyone, look at what is happening to you."Shame on India" - says CNN. "How come such a large country gets caught off guard time and again?" - they ask. What do they know! Its not easy running a country of 1 billion!
Look at what the politicians are doing? They're "condemning" and they've been getting fat.
Look at what our police force is doing. They are trying real hard. But look at them. The poor cops don't even have helmets. They have no armor. They are using outdated machinery. They are brave. The are fighting. But they are ill-equipped and they have families to go back to. And that explains the fear in their eyes.
Look at the intelligence force. Of course we cant look at them. But we can see what they've been doing. Not much. Or this wouldn't have happened.

Where is our tax money going? Certainly not towards protecting us.
It has been more than 20 years since this started. How long does it take to curb this problem? It cannot take forever. People, lets get together and do something. They can't protect us, but let them not drive us into fear and misery.

We were taught that whenever evil forces go out of control an Avatar will be born, a saviour will rise, an Angel will be sent from above.So where is our Avatar? Where is Ram, where is Krishna, where is Jesus, WHERE is the Angel??

He's within us. This is our opportunity to introduce Him to the world. Wake up folks! Wake up!Let the superhero rise!

(If you have found the superhero within, please post a comment or write to the author.)