How much is "too much"?

The title “How much is “too much”?” was a prime time theme of a leading news channel recently. Yes..it aptly fits in the current context and beyond. There is so much of thought, anger, and helplessness in me that I don’t know how to condense it to a write up. But still I would give it a shot because unfortunately this is the only thing that I can do.

India, as a country getting attacked is not at all a “breaking” news. Time and again, we have made sure to project ourselves as lame ducks and the easiest possible target. Starting from Air India plane hijack, Parliament attack way back in 2001 to the recent Mumbai mayhem, I am yet to see a comprehensive list of people responsible for it and steps we have taken to counter it.

We keep watching the attacks, riots and read ridiculous headlines like “The spirit of Mumbai” the next day. Every time I read such cover stories, my blood boils as an average Indian has to go to work the next day to keep his livelihood moving. Going back to work is definitely not the spirit that is being projected but the mere compulsion of an Indian. So seriously this is the moment when each of us should question how much is too much? How long we are going to be a mute spectator of these barbaric acts? When will we start taking actions to those countless small-big injustice like Mumbai occurring almost every month in India? Sometimes it is a nun raped, sometimes it is a blast in Assam, sometimes forceful bandhs across cities…the incidents are just countless.

One of friends in an obvious state of distress said that why don’t the terrorists blow up the Parliament..atleast we will get rid of the inept bunch of politicians. With the home minister of the state of Maharashtra saying “These kind of incidents happen” to the total reaction time taken by our entire security forces, it looks like there is no accountability anywhere and a reaction as aggressive as my friend’s is not at all a shocker. I do not see a reason why millions of unemployed youth are not getting trained as some anti-terror force or some intelligence agency or why police constables are still expected to fight with wooden “lathis”? Why the tax payer’s hard earned money is going to be spent on buying Russian submarines and other fancy war ships when our Navy along with special Coast guard forces is not able to detect the vessel containing explosives? Random questions like these end up nowhere.

I feel incapacitated in these troubled times as I don’t know how as an Indian apart from doing my job dutifully, never breaking a law, paying tax regularly can contribute in alleviating our situation. I know I don’t have any right to be foul mouthed about politicians when I am doing nothing. But the current political and administrative system has no room for people like me. I don’t even have the right of vote because I do not have a place of stable residency. In my 24 years of life, I have shuttled six different places which makes me disqualified to vote for a place. And I know there millions like me in India who want to contribute but don’t know how. Even suppose my voting problem is sorted, what do I do next? Voting for Congress or BJP is like choosing the lesser of the two evils. While one fractured India on the basis of religion in the recent times, the other has been a constant divisive force who chooses sometimes caste (read reservations) or pseudo secular acting to split the country. Regional parties are no better. On regional parties like the ones owned by the Thackeray clan, who were chanting slogans “Mumbai for Marathi” just a week ago, I want to ask a simple question. Will they ever ask a NSG commando, risking his life to salvage Mumbai, his state of birth? Let them stop the non-Marathi men in uniform from entering the burning “Taj” the same way they had stopped Biharis from attending the Railway exam. And what are their so called “sainiks” doing in this moment of crisis? The more I ponder on all this, the more agitated I become.

If you turn the pages of history, starting from Moghuls, Turks to the British, every one of them has successfully executed their plans to slaughter people of our land and walk away casually. I don’t see any instance where Indians have fought for their rights and protected their country. Let’s do something to prove that the fight for independence was not an oddity to the sequence of events. Let’s please define how much is “too much”?