Reflections On The Bomb Blasts

The newspapers are full of the stories of the bombs that went off, first in Bangalore, and then in Ahmedabad.

Over 40 people died.

It is precisely in moments like these that ordinary people like you and me call for the government; that too, “strong government.”

This is a grave error, especially in India, where over 100,000 people die on the potholed roads every year – an average of 274 per day, every day.

The government police and the political class do nothing (and say nothing) about these easily preventable deaths.

Are these totally insincere and incompetent rascals going to combat what they call "terrorism"? In reality, they govern by terrorising the citizenry, crushing them under the jackboots of the state police.

Funny thing about these “bomb blasts” that are becoming fairly routine is that they differ from normal “criminal” activity, in which the criminal seeks personal gain – as with dacoity, burglary etc. By letting off these blasts, the criminal gets nothing. Why do these blasts happen so regularly then?

If such bomb blasts have nothing to do with monetary gain, but everything to do with “politics,” we must surmise that something is seriously wrong with our “politics” which no amount of normal policing can cure. Indeed, the phenomenal amount of VIP security given to ordinary politicians in India is actually a sign of the fact that our politico-administrative class has many enemies and cannot hold their own in civil society: they must be “protected” from the people. In London, in stark contrast, David Cameron, the leader of the Tories, cycles to work every day – often deliberately omitting to wear the mandatory helmet. The Tories, since Thatcher, call themselves “the party for law and order” – and this is no vain boast.

The answer, then, is not “political action” and “strong government” (and certainly not “central government”); the answer is to build a “body politic” in which all the citizens of the city or town feel proud to belong. In such a “body politic” the citizens are the eyes and ears of the police. Without this direct co-operation, no government policing and no “tough anti-terror laws” can work.

We must think anew. These bomb blasts only confirm this.

That all is not well in India is proved by the fact that millions of Indians are trying to emigrate. In Delhi, queues start forming outside western embassies from 2 AM! The New Indian Express has this funny story today of a temple dedicated to the “visa god”: pray at this temple, and you are bound to get your visa! It is no more Saarey Jehan Se Accha. It is more like "there must be someway outta here."

These are all signs that something has gone horribly wrong with India’s experiment with centralized socialist democracy. Unless we change this government, we cannot fix this mess. Let no bomb blasts shake us from this resolve.