When terrorists attack the US, the world changes. 9/11 becomes a worldwide phenomenon, not just American. It has far-reaching impacts worldwide both politically and economically. When London gets bombed on 7 July 2005, the world’s top leaders including the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh present a combined face against these terrorist attacks at the G-8 summit. This was when just two days ago, there had been a terrorist intrusion in the very hallmark of India’s religion – Ayodhya. An incident which largely went unnoticed at the international stage.

Apart from these two incidents, the US and the UK have hardly seen any major terrorist activity in the recent times. During the same period, India has seen umpteen number of terrorist attacks. The attack on the Parliament was within 3 months of the New York attacks. Attack on the Akshardham temple. Serial blasts in Mumbai local trains. Every major city has been through the wrath and hatred of terrorists – Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and many others. And now the lowest of all the lows – terrorist attacks inside the top hotels of Mumbai. Beyond doubt one of the biggest blobs in the face of the Indian intelligentsia (if one exists at all) and of course in the face of the government.

Whatever the roots of these terrorist acts be, the striking dissimilitude between the attacks in India and those in the US or the UK has been the failure of India to garner international support in its favor. When the US was attacked, it projected its “War Against Terrorism” as if it was liberating the whole world from the clutches of terrorism. How much they succeeded, is altogether a different question to answer but the attack on the US suddenly began to be perceived as an attack on the whole world. While presenting a unified stand against terrorism is all right, it was by and large a problem of the US. Why did the whole world have to change because of it? Was it that the world woke up to terrorism only after the New York and London attacks? What about the numerous terrorist activities which have been going on ever since in India? While the London subway bombings became a worldwide issue, what amount of attention was paid to the series of blasts in the Mumbai local trains which had left dead many more people than London?

It is true that the Indian intelligentsia has never succeeded in presaging such attacks, which is just baffling because such organized attacks are never possible without the involvement and support of the locals. But the handling of the aftermath of these incidents has been even more listless and sluggish. Who really cares for these ghastly acts of inhumanity? The Home Minister is busy flaunting his apparels and the only justification of his being on this post remains his allegiance to Sonia Gandhi. All the other leaders are trying to gain the maximum political mileage. The news channels consider a bigger achievement in bringing those “live pictures to your home” than anything else. That the pictures are of streets and building burning and the civilians dying isn’t a concern for them.

The police and the army try their best no doubt, but even their hands are tied by the rigid bureaucracy above. And sometimes when they do succeed in finishing off these criminals, they are condemned with dealing with them in an “inhuman” way. As if the killings of hundreds of people by these terrorists was not inhuman enough. The perpetrators of the crime are rarely caught and even when they are, they are hardly put to justice. Not just because the system of justice is slow in India, but mainly because the government is unable to take a tough stand. It fears that bringing tough laws against terrorists would project them as “anti-secular”. That these terrorists are responsible for such heinous acts is not a matter of solicitude. Since these terrorists are Muslims, politicians fear losing the Muslim vote-bank if tough actions are taken against them. Ridiculous to say the least.

At the end of it all who are the sufferers? None, but the common man. Not the politicians, not the bureaucrats and not the religious leaders. They will keep on delivering their sermons and in way further perpetuating these crimes. But the one who will keep dying in the streets, markets and trains would be none but the common man.