Living dangerously....?

It has been just 19 days since the terror attacks on Mumbai trains...dead are being mourned and horrific pictures are slowly receding to the time passages as sands of new daily headlines keep pushing them into deeper recesses of mind.

Was reading brij's post about heightened security as an after thought in India and got to thinking about the dates when these major attacks have happened in India. Wikipedia has this on the major attacks

• Oct 1, 2001 - Militants attack Jammu-Kashmir assembly complex, killing about 35.
• Dec 13, 2001 - Attack on the parliament complex in New Delhi.
• September 2002 - Militants attack the Akshardham temple in Gujarat, killing 31.
• May 14, 2003 - Militants attack an army camp near Jammu, killing more than 30, including women and children.
• Aug 25, 2003 - Simultaneous car bombs kill about 60 in the Mumbai.
• Aug 15, 2004 - Bomb explodes in Assam, killing 16 people, mostly school children.
• Oct 29, 2005 - Sixty-six people in New Delhi.
• Mar 7, 2006 - At least 21 people killed in three synchronized attacks in Varanasi.
• Jul 11, 2006 - At least 183 people killed in a series of 8 train bombing during the evening rush hour near Bombay

This makes scary reading.... frequency of major attacks is atleast 1 every year!!!
We are living in such dangerous times and fact that we go on living with such a state of security and intelligence failure is maybe a sign of not such vaunted spirit of Mumbai or spirit of India but somewhat loss of sensitivity of people and government machinery towards the gravity of such incidents.

Like everything the Indian culture assimilates in itself I guess we are assimilating terrorist attacks also as part of life. For a few good days, till the wounds are fresh, government machinery will go into investigations routine and some heightened security drills will be at place and soon enough as memories fade away so would be the state of affairs on security of the nation.

Above all we the people are also to be blamed for lack of vigilance. I remember when there were some 400 small warning bomb blasts around Bangladesh, a father turned in his own son for suspect activities of fanatic militancy. When we would see such vigilance in our social fabric as a precaution to nurture sense of discussion on issues and sense of fairness and swiftness in justice then only we can hope for end to this Us and them world of violent actions and counter actions.

Ershad... Ershad ...Ershad !!

Politics is a dirty word in subcontinent and then one wonders why? Cliches like politics makes strange bedfellows will not die a quick death in subcontinent politics.

These days in Bangladesh politics there is nothing called untouchable. Everyone has some votebank or the other and main parties i guess have eroded their base themsleves so much that they lack confidence to face elections alone.

Never in his wildest dreams General Ershad would have thought that he would have any role to play in Bangladesh politics after his ouster from office , let alone such an important one. Today ruling party seems to be in such dire need of ex general, arch enemy of democracy that there are moves afoot to offer him likely Presidential post if their coalition were to win 2007 elections!!!

I guess any party that makes a deal like this with ex-dictator will have lot of explaining to do with their electorate but given the state of politics in subcontinent they may get away with their strategy in this number game.

Massive protests on 1990-1991 where millions would have toiled to overthrow regime of a dictator, come 2007 he may just get voted back into same president's chair again!!