Terror strikes-yet again

Enough and perhaps more that what is necessary has already been said and seen on the 60 hour terror-hostage drama. To see Mumbai, the financial capital of our country being held to ransom was extremely saddening. The modus operandi of the terrorists is a rudewake up call to our lax security system.
A huge salute to our security forces for having done such a wonderful job in such a grave and delicate situation. The fact that the lives of hundreds of innocent people were at stake made their task all the more difficult. Now that the unfortunate drama has ended, it does raise a few compelling questions.
The ridiculous failure of our intelligence is of serious concern. While Mr. Ratan Tata, in an interview to CNN has said that there was some intelligence reports to suggest that the five star hotels could be terror targets, the Maharashtra Government has been adamant in saying there was none. The insensitive comments by the Maharahtra home minister RR Patil added salt to the wound and I am pretty sure he has positioned himself in the line of fire, what with elections due in October 2009. The lack of sensitivity is appalling, RR Patil's comments is just the beginning. More politicizing is certain to continue with each party trying to gain maximum political mileage. The BJP's ad campaign in Delhi, on Thursday is proof enough.
Politicians have begun the blame game and the Congress in a desperate attempt to salvage some pride, has sent Shivraj Patil to the slaughter house. If media reports are to be believed, Vilasrao Deshmukh is next in line, his visit to the Taj with his actor son Ritesh and film director Ram Gopal Verma also drawing a lot of flak. These political gimmicks are a must given that this is the election season. With Delhi all set to go, the Congress is desperate to stop the slide at least in the general elections which are due in May next year and is hoping a few 'tough' measures such as these would make things better.
To those reporters who were present at those places bringing us minute by minute updates, hats off. Sensational reporting is the order of the day. I would have personally liked the media to have been more responsible and restrained. A few incidents which put me off:
1. It was originally reported to be a 'gang war' due to a 'drug deal gone sour' and 'Nigerians were allegedly behind it all'.
2. The manner in which the reporter at the TV station wanted to extract all possible information about terrorists and the fire from a guy who was stuck inside the Taj was insensitive.(he was on phone with the news channel)
3. At one point, breaking news read 'First blasts after Obama's victory'. Can it get more ridiculous than this??
4. While I appreciate Narendra Modi's rather bold initiative to visit the Oberoi (though he could have waited for the situation to come under control), the fact that he called Hemant Karkare a hero was blown into a 'breaking news item' because of the fact that he had called him a 'villain' a few days ago. (At the same time it was immature and inopportune of Modi to have ridiculed the PM's speech to the Nation, though I would have to agree with him on this.)
5. Even as the operations were going on, there was a breaking news which read, 'Fresh gun shots heard in CST'. More caution and restraint should have been exercised. (Later, Rajdeep Sardesai apologized for providing wrong information.)
6.At one point of time, the media was giving live commentary on what was happening (especially at Nariman House when Operation Black Tornado had just started) akin to a cricket match little realizing that this could be potential input to the terrorist. In this age of 'Blackberry and Internet', to use a term coined by the media, it was unintelligent and almost laughable when they defended their stupidity by saying power was cut off to Nariman House.
7.Panelists for a discussion on the issue (on CNN-IBN) included, Mrs Vinod Khanna, Rahul Dholakia, Mahesh Butt, and two relatively unknown people one each from the Congress and the BJP. Common now, please get serious!!!

In the larger context of the issue, it is time we pull up our socks. It is not enough if our politicians make the right noises, often they just pale out as time passes. Given the number of attacks in our country the past few years, it almost seems that terrorists can strike at will. With public sentiment hugely against political gimmicks, in the best interest of our country and our people, our politicians should drop the religious rhetoric, come to a consensus and evolve a concrete strategy to counter and prevent any more such attacks from happening in the future. This may just be wishful thinking, but lets hope for the best.

PS. If you click on the links which take you to 'youtube', note the extremely strong religious flavour in the annotations and other videos-deeply worrying indeed.