As a dumb Indian, I have been hearing for decades now terms like resilience, cultural and religious harmony, perpetrators will be brought to justice, dastardly acts, terror has no religion etc (Maximum Seismicity, Jul 25). Nothing seems to have changed. Resilience still means cowardice, a dastardly act still remains dastardly, the perpetrators are still at large, secularism is yet to be defined, and religions, purportedly, are still full of peace and harmony.
R.K. Sudan, Jammu
What kind of message is India sending to the world? Like Ghauri in the middle ages, the terrorists will continue to attack us because we let them every time. We must communicate to the terror planners, be they in ghq Rawalpindi or the camps in Pakistan’s south Punjab, and we must use exactly the language they are using with us. Putting the squeeze on the local help would be next.
Ashutosh Kaul, Toronto
Every project in Mumbai is built on bribes and slush money. Every system, from the bmc to the mca to even the Mumbai police entrance exams, is rigged. With so much muck to be cleaned up, how can you expect terrorists to be caught? Get real, Mumbaikars.
S. Bose, Madison, US
How Much Longer Can Mumbai Take This is a question to be asked to the Almighty now. For our government seems to have no answers.
S. Jayakumar, Mumbai
The picture on your cover is just the kind of picture the terrorists want to see. Why encourage them?
Prateek Joshi, Palanpur
We have a tendency to think that terrorists are highly motivated and dangerous, which is nonsense. Our creaking, outdated security systems give them the advantage.
B.V.G. Rao, Warangal
As the stories on our post-26/11 purchases gone to waste showed, our general state of anti-terrorism preparedness is zero. No one can help us.
Ali, Panchkula
The close comparison of Mumbai to “a battered wife...” says it all.
K.S.C. Nair, Indianapolis, US
The spirit of Mumbai today is helplessness and contempt for the ruling class. Our curse is the Thackeray clan, the Pawar clan and other such clans. The present CM is faced with an onerous task. He is the right man but in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Sanjiv, Mumbai
It had to happen in a city where the rich and poor live in different worlds. At the lower tip of Mumbai, where the mighty live, where the Ambanis build their billion-dollar houses, even autorickshaws are not allowed, for they like their silence. There are sanitary goons standing everywhere to fine you for spitting, littering, etc. This, when the rest of Mumbai is going through hell. This partition is at the root of our failures.
Santosh Gairola, Taiwan
The picture of the PM and Sonia with the injured boy says it all. He knows they are no solution to his plight, rather they are the cause of it.
P.H. Bhanage, Mumbai
As it is, the investigating agencies will unearth only what their political masters want. And now we have the home ministry’s latest brainwave on restricting the use of ammonium nitrate, which is readily available in tonnes for use as fertiliser. Next they will be regulating the use of mobile phones, for wasn’t it used to trigger off the blasts? This government will never learn.
C.V. Venugopalan, Palakkad
An article that reminds us that Mumbai has had 11 terror attacks in 18 years veers ever so beautifully from denouncing the perpetrators. Instead, we get a creative leap into the psychology of a battered wife as a simile. We have, right here, the brand of “secularism” and “syncretic culture” as practised in this country.
S. Bhattacharya, Gurgaon
The blame game has already started. But what the state’s main concern should be is that no terror group has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Jayanthy Subramaniam, Mumbai
Who harms us Indians more, the cowardly terrorists or the manipulative politicians?
Vinod Kumar B., Bangalore
Mumbai will have to keep more from what it offers the national kitty because it has become an orphan city. The burgeoning city requires a separate entity to take steps on its behalf without political interference. Why not make it a Union territory, allocate its security to a separate department?
Sanjay Ranade, Pune
The home ministry, instead of pointing fingers blindly, must rethink its strategies to counter terrorism.
Srinivasan, Secunderabad
‘Good report. Outlook should think of becoming a bi-weekly. You will leave your rivals cold on the track.
Mukesh Parpiani, Mumbai
India is a soft state. It is only natural that it should receive special attention from jehadis.
Pradip Singh, Stafford, UK
Why do you glorify terror? Shame on you media guys, splashing those gory images.
Puraskar Ranjan, Bangalore
How is one religion the root cause of most terror in the world? Stop playing victim and let the world live in peace.
AP, San Francisco
Thank Rahul for preventing 99% of the attacks, you thankless Indians. He allowed this one to happen just so that extremists also feel included!
Kiran Bagachi, Mumbai
Not that I’m a big fan of Narendra Modi, but if it takes him to end the scourge of terrorism and plunder of India, I say bring him on!
Alakshyendra, Hyderabad
