A hectic travel schedule, speaking engagements and computer trouble have created a backlog, which I hope to make up in the next few days. I must begin, though, with the indiscriminate firing at the Indian Institute of Science. Eye witness accounts have varied but one or more assailants threw a grenage and opened fire on the participants of a scientific conference, as they came out of the J N Tata auditorium in the IISc campus. Four people were injured and Prof. Puri, a mathematician from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi was killed. I was in Bangalore when the attack occurred and have been reading since then about rumours and occasional panic in the city. What’s the story here and who is responsible for the attack? Was it Lashkar-E-Toiba, which has begun looking for non-political targets or some disgruntled students, including an IISc research scholar, who targeted participants of a conference at IISc or the underworld, which wanted to send a message in the wake of Abu Salem’s trial in Bangalore?
In the quest for undermining India’s political society and in the constant search for new soft targets, is Bangalore the target for terror mongers and others because of its software prosperity and scientific establishment? Terrorism expert B Raman speculates as to why was Bangalore targeted. Domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, including the FBI, had warned both the State and Central Governments on the new targets for terror. Bangalore police arrested yesterday a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist from Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh. Also an employee of a US based company, who is suspected to have links with the LeT, has been arrested. Investigations and speculations will go on but what should we be concerned about?
Terror visits Bangalore, most visibly. Regardless of the garb in which they enter, terror, suspicion and violence have become part of the landscape of Bangalore for a while now, as was the case in Mumbai and to a lesser extent in Delhi. The new prosperity has attracted more mafia interest, especially of landsharks and real estate dealers. Sadly, most politics and some activism (including Kannada activism) has been about collecting hafta, brokering deals and acquiring real estate. I suppose we needn’t be surprised since we have already seen this happen in Mumbai.
Still what do we do in the face of terror, when AK 47s are used and grenades are lobbed indiscrimnately, be it by disgruntled students or terrorists? What do we do when fear and anxiety lurk in every corner? What do we do when the source of such fear aren’t terrorists but our neighbors, shopkeepers and taxi drivers?
Bangalore has had to come to terms with the second kind of fear far more intimately than acts of terrorism. In December 2005, the IISc attack wasn’t the only traumatic event Bangalore had to confront. On December 13th, Pratibha Srikantamurthy, a 24 year old employee of HP GlobalSoft was raped and murdered by the driver of her taxi that had come to pick her up for late night shift. Both in the English national media and the Bangalore based Kannada newspapers, the murder as well as the underlying issues were widely discussed. In particular, security of women who work late shifts in the mushrooming BPO outfits and call centers and the responsibilities of the companies themselves has increasingly become the focus of debate. So has the question of public behavoir and socialization of those who work in the gloablized, new economy companies. NASSCOM has issued new guidelines for companies demanding they take more responsibilities. But who is responsibile? Read this and this and I will do a follow up on the larger issues involved here.
Fear, uncertainty and anxiety can not be allowed to become dominant rasas of our lives. Watchfulness and precautions both by the individuals and the companies are necessary but not enough. How do we forge better talmel (understanding) a word my friend Shankar repeats like a mantra, in Bangalore and elsewhere ?
The appeal of the Bush/Jack Bauer model is irresistable but also read what Joe Klein writes in his column this week on the reality that Hollywood perceives.
Ultimately, it is for us to figure out what kind of cities and communities we want to live in. We can not forfeit that responsibility.
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