BULLET PROOF???

Since times immemorial, India has constantly been attacked for innumerable reasons and it has invariably managed to produce heroes who rise to the occasion and lay down their lives. What drives them is the sheer love for their motherland and fellow countrymen. November 26th, we all know, was no different. Mumbai was under seige by the terrorist and the Police Force, Army, Navy, and the NSG rose to the occasion. Do we respect these martyrs? Is their valor an inspiration to us to do something for the country or just a topic of discussion for a day or two? As we are starting to come to terms with the trauma, will we remeber these martyrs or will our memory conveniently erase it to occupy absolutely irrational issues?
When three collegues of mine, namely Ashish Dave, Sandeep Chagger and Raksha Bhagat came forward with this idea of starting a blog (and a community down the line) to act against terrorism and asked me to join in, I felt really proud of them. Further, I feel really obliged to be asked to contribute to this blog. There is so much to talk, so many issues to raise, so much to do. The best way to go about it is to start the easy and the most necessary ones.
Back to that fateful day, Mumbai Police lost three of its best officers. Do you think two young terrorists were too much for them to handle... and we are talking about the likes of encounter specialists here? No, definitely not. Do you think our Police is incompetant to handle 10 terrorists? I don't think there are many who will answer this question in the affirmative. Then why did we have to pay such a heavy price to counter this attack? Reports suggest that bullet proof jackets could not stop the bullets from piercing the chest of these brave hearts nor were the helmets good enough to save the best brains in our poilce force. I thought we could have given them a better chance against these cowardly terrorists who needed human shield to fight the NSG.
I was deeply saddened by the lack of ammunition for our Police force who will happily take the bullets down their chest so as to ensure every Mumbaikars' safety. The reports I read the next day on this issue was even more startling. The police force had ordered bullet proof jackets way back in 1992 and still use the same ones. The same material was reordered in 2002 but have we taken into consideration the fact that the arsenal of terrorists is getting more sophisticated by the day. The answer is a big NO... we weren't bothered because we did not know perhaps... the politicians must have known but did not care. This very fact raises serious questions over our respect for valor, bravery and patriotism of these martyr. What every human being in our country including our politicians (you got to put them in the same class because of their appearance) tends to forget is that the more we take these sacrifices for granted, the more we are compromising on our safety. The bullets shot by these terrorists is moving towards you and me, we are saved just because the Karkares,Salaskars and Unnikrishnans are happily standing as a human shield in front of us.
The sad part : they are ensuring that our lives are bullet proof but we cant give them good quality bullet proof jackets.Its time we atleast do this. Lets give them a level playing field against a terrorist with AK-47s and grenades. I dont have much faith in our politicians and I am not too sure if our Policemen will get new jackets before the next 'n' attacks. I am even more sure of the fact that any Indian reading the post will echo the same sentiment. So, as we take our first steps towards a revolution to rectify (t)ERRORISM, we can begin by contributing, in our own humble way, to collect a decent sum of money to facilitate our Policemen with the best available bullet proof jackets. Let's not sacrifice any of our brave men (already very less in number) to these cowards from across the border.
If we, the stakeholders of this blog, unite as a community, we can definitely make the lives of our bravehearts BULLETPROOF... so I urge all readers to drop in a comment, just to let us know that you believe in this initiative ( if you truly do) and help us assess the strength of true Indians in bringing about a revolution!!!