By Sam Paul

The country and the world has watched in horror the 60-hour ordeal of the 9/11 of India.

The NSG, the Mumbai Police, and officers and personnel on duty expressed a rare and wonderful courage to bring a return to normalcy and to reign over the terrorists. The nation pays homage to the 14 police officers and the NSG Commando that gave their lives in this operation. As one of the ex-DGPs of Maharashtra said, we should hope that the officers and police personnel appreciated them not only after their death, but even when they were alive. For sure, this is a pertinent lesson to all those in authority and in command.

The media did a splendid job of keeping abreast of issues. The wonderful Consulting Editor of the Times of India, Sabina Sehgal has fallen prey to the terror in the Taj. Several heroes and renowned journalists of the regional, national, and international channels did a wonderful job of covering the siege minute by minute with live interviews, thus keeping the nation and the world informed. Thanks for this wonderful work.

It was appropriate that the Prime Minister, accompanied by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the leader of the Opposition in the Parliament Mr. LK Advani, visited Mumbai to meet with the survivors and to take stock of the situation first-hand. This was a rare show of unity that the country has not seen for a long time.

The news channels that are dissecting the matter are making it obvious that there was prior intimation to the Coast Guard and the Mumbai Police.

BJP spokesperson Mr. Rudy, commenting on the resignation of Mr. Shivraj Patil, has rightly demanded that we witnessed a collective failure of the whole government and the whole government should resign alongside Mr. Patil. This is indeed a key question upon which we could deliberate.

When terror strikes, as in the case of Mumbai or as in the case of Kandahar, when our Union Ministers flew to the scene to deliver the most wanted terrorists as VIPs, it is best that all political leaders stand united. Hopefully our politicians will learn this valuable lesson.

Shivraj Patil resigned and after a brief pause the Prime Minister’s office has accepted the resignation declaring Mr. Chidambaram the new Home Minister of India. The Home Secretary, the IB Chief, the Maharashtra Chief Minister and the Home Minister of Maharashtra are considering whether they, too, should be relieved of their posts.

On the 25 August 2008, a group of Christian leaders met the Home Minister and informed him about the massive terror attack on Christians in Kandhamal and other districts of Orissa. In the following week or so the toll there rose to over 54,000 displaced. After a few days the State government itself had to house 24,000 in its own relief camps. Over 350 villages were cleansed systematically of Christians, destroying over 6,000 homes, causing the death of 65 people and leaving 200 or so unaccounted (the CPI[M] Fact Finding report puts the death toll at 500).

When the Union Home Minister and the Union Government gave the shallow condolence of the attacks on one community in Orissa : “It is a shame on our country,” and “It has shamed India, wherever I have visited.” The President of India met with several delegations but has yet to take any significant action, except for a brief, vague mention of this in her speech in North East India.

One begins to wonder, is the country of India hijacked by the well to do people that can afford to live in the Taj and Oberoi Hotels ? The poor tribals are made to flee their homes into the jungles, some walking as far as 160 kilometers to reach Bubaneshwar and are still, several months later, in relief camps. There are ongoing threats that they should convert to another religion or they will be killed.

I personally met 125 families in Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh on 27 November 2008. They looked worse than any refugees of any war zone. There are 50 families that have traveled as far as Kerala and the government made a public statement that they will care for these true heroes.

How did Mr. Shivraj Patil and the Government that is in power during the terror attack on Christians in Orissa and its ongoing ramifications look the other way instead of taking the needed action ? Mr. Patil should have gone after just a week or 10 days of unabated violence in one community in Orissa.

Prannay Roy, Barkha Dutt, Srinivasan Jain, Rajdeep Sardesai and many scores of editors are rightly calling this most recent travesty an attack on India not just on Mumbai. Why, then, this discrimination and lack of attention on the poor people of Orissa ? Though we live in a developing country, most of our media looks like it is concerned only for the well to do and rich. There is a significant lack of coverage on and importance placed on to those that are in the rural areas, those that are poor and probably could not place an ad on their channels like the Taj, the Oberoi and others so freely do.

Thank you Mr. Patil for gracefully moving on… though it is just three months late.

(The writer is a Human Rights activist based in Hyderabad).