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

[uttam borthakur]

Ram Da,

Your conclusions and hopes do not seem to have live nexus with your your findings, as it appears to me.

If it is a 'systemic rot',is that 'system' of vested interest  capable of change by itself? Why would it change at all after all these years? If that rotting system has to go, who will throw it away? It is trite that there is all encompassing corruption in India; the question shall be whether the whole population or a part of it? If a part, what part has polluted the whole? Can or will that part redeem itself? What is the basis of such assumption that after 26/11 corruption will go away? If the entire population is corrupt, what would make it saintly? If India is a sitting duck due to its burden of corruption, why would not any rogue element or country (why do you exclude the US that meddles every where) try to satisfy its own interest at India's costs when its own citizens want to ruin it through all pervading corruption? Who will decide whether India wants to be a world player: the policy makers, the power that be? But as you rightly said
 they are seeped in the bog of corruption, how do you expect them to change? Will the "until" ever come? 

I may be wrong, but life so far has taught me one thing, there is nothing called 'altruism' in absolute sense. Even when you do real charity, you actually satisfy a personal need, however cynical it may sound. What is the 'need' here for the people seeped in corruption to change? Why would they overturn their own applecart? 
 
Uttam Kumar Borthakur




________________________________
From: Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com>
To: cmahanta at charter.net
Cc: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world <assam at assamnet.org>
Sent: Monday, 8 December, 2008 8:14:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite - NYT

C'da,
>What left you speechless :-)?  Disbelief? Doubt? The improbability of it
all?

Hehheh!

No, C'da, there is no doubt and no grand illusions.

I think, most of us know that there exists a systemic rot. This is like
mold, it seeps into almost every facet of India efficiency (or
inefficiency). I strongly suspect, that at least in India's case, this
happens to be one big reason as why this tradegy could happen in India so
easily, and why the actions post 11/26 were sloppy at best.

At the root of all this is an all encompassing corruption that permeates the
country.

Now, having said that, it does not in any way mean that this is the green
light or a go ahead for Pakistani and Bangladeshi elements to launch such
attacks on India.

Maybe, in a way, this incident, as horrible as it is, will be the turning
point for India. If India wants to be a world player and be taken seriously
for the right reasons, then it has to awaken from its deep stupor.

Until such time, it will be 'Chalta hai' .

On another note, I did get to see a trailer of 'Slumdog' on TV, and have
read rave reviews. Unfortunately, the movie hasn't yet made it to these
backwaters yet :).

--Ram



On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 11:27 PM, <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:

>
> Hi Ram:
>
> I saw the article this morning.
>
> What left you speechless :-)?  Disbelief? Doubt? The improbability of it
> all?
>
> BTW, I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire today, at San Francisco. I thought
> it was an extremely timely movie for anyone interested in India in general
> and Mumbai in particular to watch. It is a must see movie.It will
> immediately remind you of Snehalaya. If you were left speechless with the
> NYT article, I am not sure what Slumdog Millionaire would do however. Maybe
> you should not risk watching it :-). Incidentally, I have seen even
> worse--at Ahmedabad.
>
> Finally I was struck by the decay of  the Victoria Terminus --C Shivaji
> Stn. (?). Last time I saw the place was in 1964. 44 years later I cannot
> believe how decrepit the place looks. And it is one of Mumbai's most
> important public facilities-- for the ordinary millions that is.
>
> c-da
>
> ---- Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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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