Bombay Blast : Judgment Day

Recently judgment was delivered on the Bombay Blasts Case as it is referred because the city had its old name when those unfortunate incidents took place. Many things have changed in these 13 years, the city for one has got a new name Mumbai; powers have changed hands a couple of times in the state. Dawood Ibrahim the prime accused in the case fled from India soon after with his family and all the key members of his gang to Gulf and some are said to be presently residing in Pakistan. What perhaps hasn’t changed is India and its criminal justice system, the long delays happening in the courtroom, witnesses being examined and the countless span of time the victims have to wait in the hope of justice. There is a famous saying “Justice delayed is justice denied”. It took 13 years to deliver sentences in one of the most high profile cases in the history of independent India.

The incident which had shocked the country had the recipes of a Bollywood movie and even a superstar among the suspects. A few books have been written on this incident and even a movie made which fell into controversy even before it was released. Several hours of news content has been dedicated to asses the progress of the case. But apart from a key member Abu Salem who split from Dawood’s gang or D Company as it is referred most of the key suspects such as Dawood, his younger brother Anees and the planner of the bombings Tiger Memon remain outside India in their safe hideouts.

The questions here arises is can the administration and the judicial system claim to have made justice by sentencing only those people who planted and helped in bringing those explosives to the city. Even if yes what took so long in path to justice in a case concerning the country’s national security. The scale of the blasts gave us clear indications that this was planned months in advance and was a handy work of the D Company the most feared of the underworld gang in the with the logistic support coming from the other side of the border.

The accused that have been served the sentences are only the ground people who have had enough trauma during this period when the case alone ran for 13 years. The point here is that these people deserve the rigorous punishment for their acts, but hasn’t the case been dragged too far over a decade where some of the accused did not live to the day sentences were being served. Doesn’t this send strong signals to those people sitting both inside and outside the border that there are several loop holes in the Indian Judiciary?

So can we really say that judgement has been delivered in the Bombay Bomb Blast case and does this carry any meaning to those families who lost their loved ones in that madness which happened when internet was not even a known medium. That for me is a fraction too long.

Information Age: North-East?

Being a student of Media and Communication internet for me was the best thing to have happened in the world as whenever there was an assignment to submit the best way was to surf the net, download the information and copy paste add my own touch and print!!!. Sounds easy right, it really is. Well there are lots of better ways to use the net. Words like 'Information Society', 'Information Age', and ‘Information Super Highway' make me feel very excited. The world has truly become a smaller place to live in as all the information we need is just a few words and a few clicks away from us. It’s like a river where information is flowing at a very tremendous rate and anybody who is sitting in any part of the world can access at his own convenience.

Information is one function which respects no geographical boundaries, social differences, economical barriers and which can bring in development at a very fast rate as it unifies all the fragmenting factors that exist in the society.

It is very sad to know that our states in the North East are still lacking behind in the race for communication compared to the other parts of the country. There is a common feeling amongst us that mixing and communicating with the people from other parts of the country may be a threat to our cultural identities and this reason has been used time and again to keep the region isolated from rest of the country. Thus the question arises. Is our culture the same as it was 200 years ago? The answer is a straight No. The culture has evolved, changed from time to time and will continue doing so because what remains unchanged cannot survive. Thus remaining isolated and underdeveloped in the name of protecting cultural identities cannot be accepted. The centre has most of the time been blamed for step motherly attitude, but have we put in our best efforts from inside? Nobody could have stopped us from making north-east a well known place but the truth is that somewhere we have seriously failed ourselves. The problem lies in the fact that in doing so we are seriously falling out of the race of the most prestigious thing of the future 'Information'. It is a well known fact that the future Super power will be the countries which will control the information rather than manufacturing and exports. North-east whose main potential I believe lies in tourism hasn't explored this industry to the maximum especially when the foreign tourist are concerned not because of militancy but because there lack of information to those people across the world. Poor connectivity, infrastructure are also reason but these will change as soon as tourist begin to pour in. For the tourist to first get attracted we need to provide them with 'INFORMATION'. There is no better way than using the internet as it has the broadest coverage and is very cost effective.

It is sad when a part of the country underperforms in an industry but it is an absolute misery when it doesn’t even after having the tremendous potential to do so. It is for those who motivate public opinion to make people understand that regionalism will not only isolate us but also put this region through a dark age.