The modern thinking Indian

When an accident happened in October 2008 in the Metro construction in East Delhi in which one of the sections of the under construction metro collapsed, killing 2 people, it seemed like a one-off thing. It was still a major shock for the Delhi Metro project, since the corporation believes that it is one of the safest and most reliable project executors in India. However, it was clear for the people living in areas where the metro was being constructed, that no matter how important the metro was to the overall transport situation in Delhi, there were some compromises being made so that the main projects can be ready in time for the Commonwealth Games. For example, on some of the ongoing metro line construction, the proud claim of the DMRC that they would ensure that roads would remain tip-top was no longer true. Roads that the Metro corporation built after removing their barricades were not level with the current roads, and had ditches and potholes; in a couple of cases it would seem that the DMRC put barricades long before work was being started. Now, for a huge majority of construction areas, DMRC was still much better than the other construction agencies such as PWD, CPWD, etc, but it was clear that their quality levels were starting to slip.
Today, the Delhi Metro construction zone had another accident. When the metal construction bridge was being loaded onto a pillar near Lady Shri Ram College, the whole setup collapsed, causing the death of 6 people, injuries to many more, and the loss of atleast Rs. 6 crore, along with a huge setback to the confidence of the Metro system. The problem is, there is a perception that in the rush to complete the various sections before the Commonwealth Games, quality is not being checked as much as is necessary, and this is demonstrated in the various other incidents that have happened when cranes have toppled, or barriers have fallen.
The DMRC has outsourced the construction to various private companies, and without knowing the level of supervision practices by the DMRC, it would seem that there are problems in ensuring that the quality levels need to be maintained. There are arguments that these are complex constructions, and a certain level of accidents are inevitable, but the building of overhead rail Metro links is a well established technology, and after that, it is all about ensuring proper project execution through strict compliance to quality norms and a detailed project management and execution process.
As of now, the news is that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation head, the respected E Sreedharan has resigned claiming moral responsibility. Now E Sreedharan is a very well respected engineering oriented project head, and so far, not a single political party has called for his head. He is respected for his honesty and integrity, and the Government needs him to ensure that the various projects are on process for the Commonwealth Games. Further, the completed sections of the Delhi Metro are used by a huge number of people daily, and are part of the pride of Delhi, so it would real hard for the Government to accept his resignation, that too owing moral responsibility, since that would also sharpen the demands to claim the head of some political figure in Delhi for more moral responsibility. At the same time, since Sreedharan runs the DMRC project, he needs to ensure that quality norms remain in place and such incidents are properly analysed so that they do not recur. That is his moral and official responsibility.

Labels: Accident, Construction, Death, Delhi, Infrastructure, Metro

The Mumbai terror attacks of 11/26 were a major shock for the world. Every nation fears the prospect of armed terrorists attacking civilians, and here were these 10 well armed terrorists who held the armed forces of a nation at bay for 3 days. How do you protect against terrorists who emerge from the night (from a vast coast), disperse swiftly into the night to their various pre-planned destinations, and attack civilians at will with automatic weapons and grenades. No matter what the security level, there is a more than even chance that some of them will evade detection and managed to attack. Today this happened in India, but given the ease by which the attackers managed to enter, and with some local support, the scenario is replicable to many countries which are on the cross-hairs of global terrorism.
If you read this article in TIME magazine (and I recommend reading the article), you will realize how easy it was for this youth in Pakistan to become a terrorist; there are institutions present everywhere that will feed a disgruntled person and make him feel valuable, and will then guide him on the path of taking up guns and willing to become a suicide terrorist, somebody who has no qualms about killing innocent people.

It was in Rawalpindi that Mohammad Amir Ajmal Qasab, the surviving gunman from the terrorist massacre that claimed 165 lives in Mumbai last November, took his first step toward infamy. In 2007 he visited a market stall run by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an Islamist extremist group that has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks, among others. Understand Qasab's story and you begin to understand why young men throw in their lot with Islamic extremists, why Pakistan may be the most dangerous country in the world.
In 1990, Muslims in Kashmir — the Himalayan territory that India and Pakistan have been arguing and fighting over since 1948 — rose up against Indian rule, and the mujahedin soon found a new cause. The Pakistani military used the jihadi movement, hoping that guerrilla warfare would destabilize its enemy India where conventional warfare failed. Jihadi groups in Pakistan collected donations for Kashmir. Young men signed up for training camps, where they concentrated on physical fitness and learned how to use weapons. Jihad wasn't just a diversion from ordinary life; it was a rite of passage.

When you read the article, it makes it seem so easy. Here is a person who has rebelled away from his family, fled to a city. He comes into contact with a militant group while trying to learn how to live a life of crime, and is sufficiently brain-washed and impressed that he will go in for arms training and learn how to be a terrorist. This is sufficiently scary, but when you combine this story with how it seems so easy for this to happen, how arms training happens right under the umbrella of the state and the army in Pakistan, and you start to realize the dangers. What is to stop such a similar incident happening in a country like Great Britain which has a radicalized minority among its Muslim population, and it is easy enough to plan such an attack.

Labels: 11/26, 26/11, Attack, Infrastructure, Investigation, Mumbai, Pakistan, Terrorism, Terrorist