[Assam] Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite - NYT

Sun Dec 7 19:11:51 PST 2008

THE LATEST daily event :RoundTables at CNBC-TV18   after StockBazars close --- maybe Bull -maybe Bear:
Subject  frantically discussed:

  WHAT MODALITY to ensure MUMBAI's Autonomy.
  WE have to be Autonomous. 
  WE need to create wealth and progress for India.
  WE cannot be linked to slow India.

MM

> Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 20:58:28 -0600> From: assamrs at gmail.com> To: assam at assamnet.org> Subject: [Assam] Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite - NYT> > I am not sure what to say - 'Mera Bharat Mahan'?> > > ------------------------------> > This from the IE http://www.indianexpress.com/news/to-south-mumbai/394275/> > and this from the NYT> > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/world/asia/07india.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print> > December 7, 2008> Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite By SOMINI> SENGUPTA<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/somini_sengupta/index.html?inline=nyt-per>> > MUMBAI, India<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/india/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>—> Last Wednesday, an extraordinary public interest lawsuit was filed in> this> city's highest court. It charged that the government had lagged in its> constitutional duty to protect its citizens' right to life, and it pressed> the state to modernize and upgrade its security forces.> > The lawsuit was striking mainly for the people behind it: investment> bankers, corporate lawyers and representatives of some of India's largest> companies, which have their headquarters here in the country's financial> capital, also known as Bombay. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry,> the city's largest business association, joined as a petitioner. It was the> first time it had lent its name to litigation in the public interest.> > The three-day siege of Mumbai, which ended a week ago, was a watershed for> India's prosperous classes. It prompted many of those who live in their own> private Indias, largely insulated from the country's dysfunction, to demand> a vital public service: safety.> > Since the attacks, which killed 163 people, plus nine gunmen, there has been> an outpouring of anger from unlikely quarters. On Wednesday, tens of> thousands of urban, English-speaking, tank-top-wearing citizens stormed the> Gateway of India<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97766004>,> a famed waterfront monument, venting anger at their elected> leaders<http://www.time.com/time/video/?bcpid=1485842900&bctid=3712277001>.> There were similar protests in the capital, New Delhi, and the southern> technology hubs, Bangalore and Hyderabad. All were organized spontaneously,> with word spread through text messages and Facebook> pages<http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52727051223&ref=mf>> .> > On Saturday, young people affiliated with a new political party, called> Loksatta <http://www.loksatta.org/index.php>, or people's power, gathered at> the Gateway, calling for a variety of reforms, including banning criminals> from running for political office. (Virtually every political party has> convicts and suspects among its elected officials.)> > Social networking sites were ablaze with memorials and citizens' action> groups, including one that advocated refraining from voting altogether as an> act of civil disobedience. Never mind that in India, voter turnout among the> rich is far lower than among the poor.> > Another group advocated not paying taxes, as though that would improve the> quality of public services. An e-mail campaign began Saturday called "I Am> Clean," urging citizens not to bribe police officers or drive through red> lights.> > And there were countless condemnations of how democracy had failed in this,> the world's largest democracy. Those condemnations led Vir Sanghvi, a> columnist writing in the financial newspaper Mint, to remind his readers of> 1975<http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/04231559/Let8217s-recall-the-lessons.html?d=1>,> when Prime Minister Indira> Gandhi<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/indira_gandhi/index.html?inline=nyt-per>imposed> emergency rule. Mr. Sanghvi wrote, "I am beginning to hear the same> kind of middle-class murmurs and whines about the ineffectual nature of> democracy and the need for authoritarian government."> > Perhaps the most striking development was the lawsuit because it represented> a rare example of corporate India's confronting the government outright> rather than making back-room deals.> > "It says in a nutshell, 'Enough is enough,' " said Cyrus Guzder, who owns a> logistics company. "More precisely, it tells us that citizens of all levels> in the country believe their government has let them down and believe that> it now needs to be held accountable."> > In India's city of gold, the distinction between public and private can be> bewildering. For members of the working class, who often cannot afford> housing, public sidewalks become living rooms. In the morning, commuters> from gated communities in the suburbs pass children brushing their teeth at> the edge of the street. Women are forced to relieve themselves on the> railway tracks, usually in the dark, for the sake of modesty. The poor> sometimes sleep on highway medians, and it is not unheard of for drunken> drivers to mow them down.> > Mumbai has been roiled by government neglect for years. Its commuter trains> are so overcrowded that 4,000 riders die every year on average, some pushed> from trains in the fierce competition to get on and off. Monsoons in> 2005 killed> more than 400 people in> Mumbai<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/international/asia/30monsoon.html>in> one day alone; so clogged were the city's ancient drains, so crowded> its> river plains with unauthorized construction that water had nowhere to go.> > Rahul Bose, an actor, suggested setting aside such problems for the moment.> In a plea published last week in The Hindustan> Times<http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=bde19709-fc96-4811-a8e8-37f3efb33367>,> he laid out the desperation of this glistening, corroding place. "We> overlook for now your neglect of the city," he wrote. "Its floods, its> traffic, its filth, its pollution. Just deliver to us a world-standard> antiterrorism plan."> > None of the previous terrorist attacks, even in Mumbai, had so struck the> cream of Bombay society. Bombs have been planted on commuter trains in the> past <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/world/asia/13india.html>, but few> people who regularly dine at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, one of the> worst-hit sites, travel by train. "It has touched a raw nerve," said Amit> Chandra, who runs a prominent investment firm. "People have lost friends.> Everyone would visit these places." In any event, public anger could not> have come at a worse time for incumbent politicians, who were at their most> contrite last week. National elections are due next spring, and security is> likely to be one of the top issues in the vote, particularly among the urban> middle class. It remains to be seen whether outrage will prompt them to turn> out to vote in higher numbers or whether politicians will be compelled to> pay greater attention to them than in the past.> > "There's a revulsion against the political class I have never seen before,"> said Gerson D'Cunha, a former advertising executive whose civic group,> A.G.N.I. <http://www.agnimumbai.org/about.asp>, presses for better> governing. "The middle class that is laid back, lethargic, indolent, they've> been galvanized."> > For how long? That is a question on everyone's lips. At a memorial service> on Thursday evening for a slain alumnus of the elite St. Xavier's> College<http://xaviers.edu/frame14.htm>here, a placard asked: "One> month from now, will you care?"> > "It's helplessness, what do we do?" said Probir Roy, the owner of a> technology company and an alumnus of St. Xavier's. "All the various> stakeholders — the police, politicians — you can't count on them anyway. Now> what do you do?"> > Tops, a private security agency, has plenty to do. It is consulting schools,> malls and "high net individuals" on how to protect themselves better.> Security was a growth industry in India even before the latest attacks.> Tops's global chairman, Rahul Nanda, said the company employed 73,000> security guards today, compared with about 15,000 three years ago.> > Mumbai is not the only place suffering from official neglect. Public> services have deteriorated across India, all the more so in the countryside.> Government schools are notoriously mismanaged. Doctors do not show up to> work on public health projects. Corruption is endemic. In some of India's> booming cities, private developers drill for their own water and generate> electricity for their own buildings.> > Political interference often gets in the way of the woefully understaffed> and poorly paid police force. Courts and commissions have called for law> enforcement to be liberated from political control. Politicians have balked.> > The three-day standoff with terrorists was neither the deadliest that India> has seen, nor the most protracted; there have been other extended> convulsions of violence, including mass killings of Sikhs in Delhi in> 1984<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DF1F3DF934A3575AC0A96F948260&scp=4&sq=sikhs> 1984&st=cse> and of Muslims in Gujarat in> 2002<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E2DF163BF934A15754C0A9649C8B63&scp=51&sq=Gujarat&st=nyt>> .> > Yet, the recent attacks, which Indian police say were the work of a> Pakistan-based terrorist group called> Lashkar-e-Taiba<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/lashkaretaiba/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,> were profoundly different. Two of the four main targets were luxury hotels> frequented by the city's wealthy elite: the Taj, facing the Gateway of> India, and the twin Oberoi and Trident hotels, a few miles west on Nariman> Point. They were the elite's watering holes and business dinner> destinations. And to lose them, said Alex Kuruvilla, who runs the Condé Nast> publications in India, is like losing a limb.> > "It's like what I imagine an amputee would feel," he said. "It's so much> part of our lives."> > Last Wednesday, on the night of the candlelight vigil, Mr. Kuruvilla's> driver made a wrong turn. A traffic policeman virtually pounced on the> driver and then let him go with a bribe of 20 rupees, less than 50 cents.> Mr. Kuruvilla is not optimistic about swift change. "Our cynicism is> justified," he said.> > Ashok Pawar, a police constable from the police station nearest the Taj,> entered the hotel the night the siege began. It was full of gunfire and> smoke. He could not breathe, and he did not know his way around. "It was my> first time inside the Taj," he said. "How can a poor man go there?"> > In The Indian Express newspaper on Friday, a columnist named Vinay Sitapati> wrote a pointed open> letter<http://www.indianexpress.com/news/to-south-mumbai/394275/>to> "South Bombay," shorthand for the city's most wealthy enclave. The> column> first berated the rich for lecturing at Davos and failing in Hindi exams.> "You refer to your part of the city simply as 'town,' " he wrote, and then> he begged: "Vote in person. But vote in spirit, too: use your clout to> demand better politicians, not pliant ones."> > "In your hour of need today," he added, "it is India that needs your help."> > <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/world/asia/07india.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print>> _______________________________________________> assam mailing list> assam at assamnet.org> http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
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