- The speculation was about the identity of the terrorists. There is no dearth of people with grievances against Delhi, but when I heard about the attack on the Jewish centre, I was convinced that this had to be an outside group. While there is much friction between Hindus and Muslims in India, anti-Semitism is unheard of.
- I don't see any advantage of the Pakistani government in this either. This only brings India, the U.S. and Israel closer which does Pakistan no good. But the reality is that Pakistan, like Palestine is almost an ungoverned land, LeT might have operated with or without the knowledge of ISI.
- What maddens me most is the failure of the Indian intelligence services to preempt this. I mean such attacks will happen from time to time, but this is like the fourth or fifth time this year. Someone high up has resigned, for a change, but does that improve things?
- If it wasn't Bombay, the emergency services would probably have been much much worse.
- What's the impact on the economy? Already investments were drying up, now business travel will inevitably take a hit.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Terrorist Attacks in Bombay
Somehow I always have a mental block every time I type Mumbai, so Bombay from here on (even my automatic spell checker gives an error for Mumbai). Anyway, when I first saw the T.V. report, I thought just another attack. But as the story unfolded, it seemed clear that this was very different.
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I am also wondering what a step down does in this situation? Is it better to leave your post than to explain to the public(and the world in this case) why measures were not taken to prevent the attack, or atleast some intelligence that it was coming?
You also bring up an interesting point that there is virtually no anti-semitism in India. I am wondering how this event will change the presence of Jews in the country, or the relations between India and Israel.
From most reports I read, the reaction among the Indian Jewish communities still left in India is somewhat ... something I'd not have thought of. The reaction is mainly that this was an attack on Israelis and Westerners and not Indian Jews. On other news, the people executed in the Jewish Center were tortured before being killed. I am not sure if any in the hotel were.
I am sure this will understandably reduce Israeli tourism to India. The Indian Jews seem to be staying put for now. But this might have shown a brighter light on them, which might invite copy-cat attacks in future. India and Israel has been growing closer for some time, this will only hasten the process.
There has been some criticism from Israel about the handling of the hostage situation. Understandably so, apparently the commandos were held up for 10 hrs since there was no plane to bring them into Bombay. Many such snippets are coming out now, but this is India, there will be a big show, some resignations, big speeches, never will this be forgotten, and then back to the usual.
On the other hand, I also recall that on 9/11/2001 the U.S. air-force couldn't scramble jets on time. Hopefully things have improved.
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