India: Mumbai blasts in International Media
Written byNeha Viswanathan
Sibin on the coverage of Bombay blasts in the international media. Is it adequate? Does it pale in comparison to the attention London and Madrid received?
Written byNeha Viswanathan
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Serial bomb blasts in Mumbai (not Bombay) were quite a stunning shock to the Mumbaiites and a tragic irreparable blow to the many unfortunate families who lost their near and dear ones. That the national leaders and the Prime Minister paid a personal visit is apparently a consolation. But the question is as the Prime Minister, Dr.Manmohan Singh pointed out why the Maharashtra State authorities did not pursue on available clues and carry out a thorough investigation which could have avoided this disastrous blow to the urbs prima de Indis.
Mumbai is the financial capital of India and the very nerve centre of economic activity of the nation. One cannot forget the Prime Minister on his earlier visit to Mumbai had noted how Mumbai was in the grip of land mafias. This consmopolitan city has again and again been subjected to sudden political upheavels like the one a few days back on the desecration of statue of the late wife of the Shiv Sena chief.
Mumbai is also broght to a standstill by an a heavy monsoon downpour. The Municipal Commissioner blandly admits that the drainage system of Mumbai is more than 150 years old and can cope only with 25 mm rain. This is quite a disgraceful state of affairs especially since what happened in the deluge after the 26th July 2005.
And yet the Maharashtra State rulers have the ambitious plans of turning Mumbai into Shanghai! The urban, political, natural woes of Mumbai and utterly chaotic state of affairs, whether of suburban traffic or municipal administration, which cannot be remedied unless and until Mumbai has autonomous administration free from political vagaries. Otherwise it is fast heading into a disaster.