Salute Our Real Heroes

This piece of article is in a way an extension of the previous post “Let’s re-think”. I suggest the readers to read the previous post “Let’s re-think” before setting the context here. The act of terror on our financial capital Mumbai from 26th Nov to 29th Nov 2008 should be considered a national tragedy. When I penned the previous line, I felt demolished. The modern form of terror has a start and end date associated with it which is very frightening. This act of terror has claimed hundreds of lives and left hundreds injured.

We also need to think of hundreds of people who were rescued safely by our Army, Marine Commandos and other Para-military troops. They have done an outstanding job in saving so many innocent lives and just think how grateful those rescued ones would feel. In the rescue operations, many commandos, police and Anti Terror Squad personnel lost their lives in their line of duty. At the end it was a job well done. But for those families who lost their loved ones in the code of work, life could well be a trauma.

I had a chance to follow a TV news channel which clearly showcased the various rescue operations done on various focal points. Even though what was telecasted was just a fraction, I could sense a lot of courage, dedication and patriotism in them. They have sacrificed their lives in saving so many innocent people. There were a few interviews with those rescued who were out of words to thank these greats. I felt numb several times in a short span trying to realize the kind of toil these selfless heroes have extended. There were also many sincere senior officers who have fallen prey to the attacks. A few names to mention are ATS chief Mr. Hemanth Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Mr. Ashok Kamte, Police Inspector Mr. Vijay Salaskar, NSG Commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and NSG Commando Mr. Havaldar Gajendra Singh. There are more people who have fallen trap and I would have preferred to include all the names if I would have known. The reason for mentioning names here is that, when I read my own post later and read those names, I can always remember their faces. A person like me who has followed the news freezes without words, think of the rescued. Lets all salute our real heroes. They have done something more than extraordinary.

It is not ending here by just saluting them and writing a post. It needs to go further in eliminating this bloody terror. How are we going to do that? We as public can contribute to an extent in helping the architects. But the fundamental landscape of our constitution towards terror should change. Terror is purely secular. That is something which everyone as citizens needs to understand. We need to fight terror irrespective of the religion, caste and language. If there are ways to fight terror from a more scientific angle than from a physical angle, it could be more rewarding from a result perspective and less defeat from a human standpoint. End of the day, we need to protect everyone exposed to this dreadful virus called terror irrespective of classification.

It already poses threat to our countries image in the international arena. We need to solder that image and embark as a county that could stand up against all odds. If we are able to do that, there would be greater meaning in the sacrifice done by our brave men in this instance.

When our National Security Guards and Marine Commandos came out of one of the terror spot, I heard a slogan in the television by the mob “Bharat Matha Ke Je”. That’s patriotic. I felt proud. To my dismay I heard something so provocative. Guess what. A slogan representing a faith at that juncture. Even though it was something associated to a faith that I follow, it was unacceptable at that point. I totally agree that we feel so relieved about the fact that a terror spot has been cleared from terrorists and us as human need to express our emotion. But we also need to understand the mob sentiments. That is something so elementary a person living in an urban area needs to know. Let’s think before we express. That is called the sixth sense.

Lets all unite to fight terror and eradicate that from our vocabulary. Lets all salute the brave heroes who have fought the battle against terror. Jai Hind and may God bless the world.