Boston bomb blasts and a contrasting state of two democracies..

Anger, revulsion and sadness well up deep inside as one reads the news reports of the Boston Marathon site bomb blasts. They shake you from the inside. So many innocents killed and maimed, why and for what fault of theirs?

Still, President’s Obama’s message was strong & definite, and I am sure the US administration will find the guilty and PUNISH them appropriately ASAP.

Dear brothers & sisters of US, we the people of India, are with you as in this grief. You may note that we too have a long history of being regularly exposed to similar gruesome acts of terror during the course of our daily lives.  However, much unlike your administration, which cares and will fight back for you, sadly the case is very different here in India.

Here in India, the wanton terrorist strikes are just opportunities by politicians to give high TRP interviews on prime time TV and do NOTHING.

1. Unlike the US, our political class hardly ever bothers, unless the dead count is in minimum three digits.
2. And then too, the reactions are invariably template based “we-condemn-the-cowardly-act” & “such-acts-will-not-be-tolerated" type impotent statements.
3. And what is done after that? NOTHING. Rarely is anyone caught, even rarer is a speedy punishment. Terrorist camps & known antagonists continue to flourish. 
4. Despite the tomfoolery & name-calling, not one PRACTICAL and effective step is taken to make life safer for the common citizen

But then, maybe this India-centric diatribe is not appropriate at the time of this US tragedy, but all I want to say is that the plight  of an average American perhaps a hundred times better than of an average Indian.

At this time, one prays for the victims and hopes that the guilty are caught and punished ASAP. One hopes, that whoever be the perpetrator, the US citizen will do well to remember that terrorism has no religion, no friends and no nationality.

While the authorities will get busy in their thing, to the fellow world citizen, i would only like to say that its time to recall that both Mahatma Gandhi and the Holy Bible advice us to Hate only the sin, and not the sinner. 

The Mahatma further adds:

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

                                                                              

Both our democracies will do well to remember the words of the wise man.