As usual after anything big that happens, people have to find someone to blame. Post the Mumbai terror attacks, Politicians are going into a tizzy demanding each other’s resignations. They’re so busy blaming each other and asking for our votes in the same breath that they’re really not doing anything about the security situation we have at hand.

I was watching this interesting piece of reporting on CNN IBN yesterday. They were calling it the operation water Rat (you know Indian telly with their inclination to drama!).

Anyways, the piece had a smart looking reporting doing a dry run of smuggling suspicious looking wooden crates (that the reporter claims could easily be carrying 100 kgs of RDX) into the waters of Murud Janjira (a little ride north of Mumbai) and then moving on land in a tavera all the way o the gate way of India. The reporter claims to have tried this 3 different times and in different ways and not being challenged even once!! It’s that easy. He was saying it was such a cakewalk that anyone can do this…you don’t really have to be a trained terrorist.  That’s how vulnerable we are!

Some further investigations by the reporter took him to the customs office in Murud J. The customs have a joint responsibility of shore security. He reports that the office list 21 customs inspectors on its roll, but he has to wait till 12 pm to find the only one that decided to saunter into the office that day. Wearing casuals, yawing and asking the reporter to switch off the camera, he is hardly a solace to us Indians whom he is to protect.

The customs officials are expected to patrol the waters around their post and ensure no materials in being smuggled in or out without proper check and authority. Locals who were interviewed shared that some customs officials come in only 2 -3 times in a month and that too only to sit around and drink tea. On being questioned further on what really the customs office is supposed to do, the inspector very calmly says, “I don’t really know! You should check with the bahe sabih” (that being his boss)!! Apparently they have only a few boats that are used to patrol the seas and most of the time they do not work. And the people who patrol the seas are contract workers who have no clue what to look for! On being asked what their job is, they claim in broken hindi that they’re not very clear on that. They are asked to just take the boat for a ride around and bring it back safely.

This is the state of shore security….after the 93 blasts, after the train blasts and multiple other threats that the police receives on a regular basis.

I really have nothing else to say except…. OMG!! God save us… ‘cause we are definitely not going to do much else except find someone to blame.