Lessons to be Learned from Mumbai Holocaust
By Nadeem Ishrat (India 18/12/05)
Finally the Rain Gods have become a bit lenient with Mumbaikars and have stopped the heavy downpour that ravaged Mumbai last fortnight. The wounds of this disaster are still fresh and the people are fighting hard to rise from this trauma , the pitiable condition of Mumbai have been further aggravated by the presence of a Multi-headed demon "Epidemic" which started making its presence felt in the Business capital of India.
Hatred and Anger at the apathy of the govt. has replaced the initial shock that all Mumbaikars felt. The total failure of the govt. to cope up with this calamity and its inexperience in the area of Calamity Disaster Management were exposed to the extent that none of the excuses given by their representatives were acceptable.
This freak incident in Mumbai raised some questionable issues which were either not heard by the common people or they pretend not to listen to them.
It is the biggest Misfortune of Indians that we blindly follow what is offered to us without enquiring its authenticity and without analyzing the ramifications and beneficiary of it.
Everybody knows the ground reality of Politics and the leaders. This truth is confided no where that leaders would never help this country or the subjects of their constituency , they are just there to help themselves and their close relatives as definition of world means this much them. Yet again when leaders approach during election campaign, we gave them red carpet welcome; make their rallies successful by turning up in huge numbers? Listening to their same old story why? Nobody knows and does not try to find out . This deceit has become their destiny and what I think they have made habit to live by false dreams and promises and by doing so they are deceiving none other than themselves only.
One positive outcome of this though as short lived as a bubble is the communal harmony. The people were helping each other in their hours of need without discrimination on the basis of religion but the most important thing is to follow. This communal harmony has rang some alarm bells in the camps of radical forces (especially saffron forces) and they are planning day and night how to break this communal harmony. On one thing I can bet that some VHP and RSS leaders will be spending sleepless nights planning their next move.
Hope, this time my country people should break this hallucination of these opportunist leaders and should not implement their nasty thoughts. They brainwash my country man and my Hindu brothers and will soon incite them to do something untoward in the name Lord Ram and will again want to obliterate this feeling by either mobilizing the Ram Mandir movement or by planning some POGROM like Gujarat riots, Bhagalpur and Moradabad riots and many many more to name.
I throw a question to my fellow Hindu brothers "Where were these Self Proclaimed Protector of Hinduism when many Hindu people were lying stranded in Mumbai, where were the hard working workers of RSS and Bajrang Dal, why didn't they come for help?" I think they would be engaged somewhere in organizing the felicitation function for family members of some great men like Dara Singh etc. and to honor them,
All the mumbaikars are SECULAR unlike Jinnah so why they didn't come for your rescue and the same thing implies to Muslims brothers also that where were their saviors and well wishers of Muslim community when people needed their help, a question for all of you to ponder at least once.
The people helped people without any selfishness and self interest, they are true well wishers and not these leaders. There were many incidents where different communities helped each other, thank Almighty that these leaders didn't poke their nose into this and didn't issue notice to help only the people of their respective community and to leave others in their state of despair as they belong to different community.
This time govt. didn't have any option to hide its loopholes and faults otherwise it would not have wasted any time to pass its bug onto ISI and held it responsible for heavy rain that occurred. ISI is like a trump card which is shown whenever some untoward incident happens which hides the govt failure and inability to curb or control any of these incidents.
The other Lesson that should be learnt from this incident is that we should stop criticizing govt. and others. Being a responsible citizen of this great country, is this not the moral duty of each of us to shoulder some responsibility of social welfare. How much time do we devote on making and helping others, how much effort do we take to exterminate corruption.
If the govt. is to be held responsible for the pathetic condition of people than they too share the same amount of responsibility for their condition.
Our constitution has given all the citizens of this Country the biggest power i.e. Right to vote which if used sincerely using brains and without partisan, can lead the country and its subjects to path of development else will lead to nothing less than devastation.
Now the time has come to think what we have been doing wrong in the past should be ceased. Now we have to work at grass root level to help and build our country. Choose and vote only to the best person irrespective of his party, caste, creed or religion. Don't get beguile again by the religion and caste cards shows by different political party. When literate and able people will be in Govt. than the issues will be solved automatically and promptly without unnecessary delay.
Social welfare societies should come up block wise or even street wise, issues should be raised in these meetings, minor issues should be solved in those meetings itself.
Disaster management and first aid camps should be promoted. Many NGO's are working for public welfare, help can be sought from them if required for training the people how to react and handle these situations.
People should start implementing the true essence of religion in their lives as no Religion in this world promotes hatred, massacre and evil deeds rather all teaches to live cohesively and love each other and emphasizes on preserving and promoting humanity.
Weekly collection should be made from each house and should be spent on social welfare schemes and minor issues like repairing roads, sewer etc. without waiting for govt aide to come as it will take decades and even Birbal's khichri would be cooked before the aide comes and finally when the aide that will reach it will be 20 to 30 % of the original sanctioned as the rest get distributed among the high and lower authorities.
Phenomenal rise in the power of media should be exploited and if you see anything illegal inform media and police because this Silence has cost us very much and the time has come to break this silence by a shriek, a shriek for Rights, a shriek for better life and a better tomorrow, a shriek for goodness and a shriek for the development of the country.
It is written in Quran [verse 11 of Surah Al-Rad, chapter 13] that
"There is no doubt, Allah does not change the conditions of a nation until it makes an effort to change by itself"
This thing can happen anywhere so wake up before it's too late.
