PARIS ATTACKS- WILL WE BELL THE CAT?

Saturday morning was a rude shock as the airwaves were ruled by the ghastly accounts of the attacks on Paris. As the news slowly sank in, the stark contrasts emerged clearly. The Western world was shaken and it was therefore an "Act of War" while India had been counselled over the years to bear the brunt of terrorists attacks while ammunition found its way from China and US for the strategic balance to be maintained. Phrases such as "Non State Actors" had been coined to explain the menace away. It is time the world woke up to reality.

Let us understand that a well guarded bank can be robbed. A compound wall can be scaled. CCTV cameras can be escaped. Bugs can be evaded and intelligence agencies can be fooled. But the one loud message these attacks over the years have failed to send to our visionaries is that "United we stand, Divided we Fall". The billions who are unarmed need to stand up together. We need to insulate our spaces by interactions. Let us note that there is no attack on any village. This is due to the very rustic culture of identifying the stranger and working on him in a non intrusive manner but always keeping a guard. The network functions without any need for tipping off. No Government teaches them the need for survival. They do it by instinct.

In the urbane world, we wear privacy on our sleeves. Unless introduced we would not venture to talk. A stadium or a cafe or a concert hall or a railway station wherein the terrorist will be easily outnumbered does not act in cohesion but reacts as being terrorised. We succumb to a bully due to our naivety. Let us wake up and get back to our roots. The roots instil in us a survival instinct. We will not entertain an intruder. We could make him uncomfortable and feel endangered. The weapons will fall and terror would be a "past" word in the dictionary.

Will we really rise upto bell the cat which is strolling around as a maneater?

The media also needs to highlight the courage of the people and not play up the terror aspect. It needs to term the entire act as cowardly and not dastardly. It should stop riling the security forces for failure but should focus on the fate of the aggressor if the crowd had nabbed him. They should realise that media is also followed by these entities which would feel victorious in the manner we cover and should be made to thirst for victory. We need to resist the temptation of identifying the organisations but should merely term them as ragtag associations which style themselves under a banner. The thirst for attention would thus remain unquenched. The media glare on the good rather than the bad would make people feel better to be in the good camp. The fencesitters would bid goodbye to such acts. Will the media world over come together for this act or prefer to rake in the moolah for some primetime coverage is a question only time can answer.