A year since

A year since those horrific, numbing 60 hours in Mumbai. A year since a band of misguided young men brought a mammoth metropolis to it knees. A year since India realised just how shamefully inadequate its emergency response apparatus is. A year since we saw just how little coordination our emergency services have.

The memory of the 26/11 attacks of 2008 remains alive, with plenty of periodic reminders and public discourses on the subject. Yet it has turned out to be a year of squandered opportunities, of misplaced priorities and an unpardonable waste of time.

Our first responders remain woefully ill-equipped to take on terror, or even a natural disaster. Firemen have reportedly been given bullet-proof vests rather than better equipment to contain blazes. Our overburdened hospitals struggle to cope with any sort of pressure, be it a terror attack or a public health outbreak.

Our police forces remain largely armed with archaic weapons that can certainly not match the new generation assault rifles that terrorists favour. Just some weeks ago it was reported that the government hadn't even bothered to arrange basic accommodation for several security personnel. These men had set up camp under the imposing canopy of the Gateway of India, sleeping, cooking and bathing out in the open. This is how we treat men we expect will put their own lives in jeopardy to protect us!

The broadcast media remain shrill and prone to sensationalism, gaining no maturity from the tragic experience that exposed their tendency to stoke panic and even jeopardise rescue efforts with their overzealous coverage.

What's worse, there's no sign of the seamless coordination between emergency services that is key to effectively responding to threats of any nature. And the unfortunate thing is that there is no one person or office that can be held responsible. It was a collective, systemic failure.

Even at an individual level, we've failed. Life has trudged on, regaining the momentum that was rudely interrupted by those harrowing few hours last year that claimed nearly 170 lives. While the tragedy unfolded in south Mumbai, we couldn't tear ourselves away from our television sets. We watched in disbelief as a bunch of youngsters swaggered through our streets, killing people at random and holding the city to ransom. We - even I - vowed to ensure that this incident would change us forever. We pledged never to allow our leaders to leave us so vulnerable again. But life went on. Personal preoccupations soon pushed any proactive public campaign efforts to the backseat. The 2008 terror attacks didn't even figure as an issue when we elected a new state government for Maharashtra in October! Nothing changed.

What's the way forward? I feel we need to shake off this Indian tendency to react rather than preempt. It requires a fundamental change in belief and behaviour as a people. It won't be easy. We need strategists who sit together, think up various worst-case scenarios and ensure that we remain prepared for each at all times. I'm not saying that we could have pulled this off in the one year that has passed since the Mumbai attacks. But we could have made a start and already covered a lot of ground. That's what's disheartening. We haven't even begun.