26/11 - Memories and Analysis - Part 2

To come back to that fateful day. I was driving back home rather late in the evening and had no inkling of what was happening. Somewhere enroute I got a call from home saying that some terrorists had killed 3 senior cops. Then came more chilling news that something big was happening. By the time I arrived home the ONLY snippet of news that had stuck in me was that 3 senior cops were driving together in the same car and had been killed. I was thinking that when company management ruled that groups of senior management should not even fly together, what the hell were 3 senior cops doing together? In any case the information I had was sketchy at best.

Walking into home the first scene that I saw on TV was visuals of Mr. Karkare wearing a Bullet Proof Jacket and the anchor all excited and sombre at the same time announcing the killing. Sombre at the death but excited that he died wearing a BPJ. My first comment – Hell that isn’t even a BPJ he is wearing, what the hell are they talking about ? Theoretically the anchor was right but technically they were far from the truth. Those products would have offered little protection given the kind of guns used.

As I watched the scenes unfolding I got a call to relay a message from the Chairman of the company. Many policemen at the scene of the attack did not have any protective equipment and could we arrange free of cost to deliver it to them. We were connected to a senior police officer and we swung into action and started producing expensive BPJ products and the question was how to reach it to Mumbai. Speaking to the airlines they were more than happy to assist – free of cost. So for the next few days as and when products would get ready, even if a few, they would be packed, a car would rush to the airport, the airline manager would come to the gate, pick up the box, load it into the flight and take it to Mumbai. At Mumbai a police officer and sometimes a colleague would pick up the box on arrival and rush to the attack site.

In the meantime the drama was unfolding on every TV channel in real time like a Hollywood movie and as one watched and listened to the various anchors those of us who had even a modicum of understanding of such issues, our blood boiled. The questions we threw at the air around us were – "How the hell can you say that ? How the hell can you show that ? OMG, you are bloody compromising the situation. Idiots, do you realise that you are giving a running commentary to the terrorist handlers so they can recalibrate their plans ?”  The more knowledgeable spoke a lot more caustically. One question that was asked especially since some senior most officers were at the site was why all live TV broadcast was not stopped or delayed? Much later this was done but that it was not done right at the beginning was a major error.

In the meantime the news was that the elite commandoes of the navy, stationed in Mumbai – MARCOS – were at the site but as reported, they were used sparingly and in fact pulled back once other units like the NSG arrived. The delay in the arrival of the NSG itself was another fiasco. That they had to wait for some aircraft to arrive from Chandigarh did not speak highly of the political leadership. Even a avid movie goer would have seen how heroes since time immemorial have commandeered a passing car/bike and  rushed to the action scene. Years ago I recall a overseas colleague of mine telling how he was about to board a flight in Chennai when suddenly a huge contingent of armed forces soldiers arrived, took the passengers off the aircraft, boarded the aircraft and took off to wherever they needed to go in a emergency. Why such a thing could not have been done from Delhi was a big question.

Be that as it may, we watched how soldiers rappelled down from choppers to storm a building while a super excited anchor was screaming from a while as to how she was seeing choppers in the sky and what they might do. 

Anybody who has visited the Taj Palace hotel in Mumbai will realise that the media team was literally a stones throw away from the site of the action. Dereliction of  duty, responsibility, and all sense of propriety was lost even as the common public were bemoaning this perfidy going on. At one point the media got so close to the site of action that they were in real danger of being hit by gunfire. One saw after this skirmish that they were pulled back much further away. One need not have been a defence or counter terror expert to realise that there was very poor tactical execution outside of the armed action. 

The surrounding eco-system was simply not thought through or even acted upon in real time. Years later listening to a senior journalist talk of a once in a lifetime opportunity to be inside the perimeter of attack I was aghast. As social media proliferated many more citizens furiously targeted many senior journalists at what they alleged was being complicit in the attacks. Whatever the truth, the fact that senior media folks did not show basic responsibility in covering the event, media leadership did not try to control the events, speaks extremely poorly of them.

Whether the armed forces and NSG leadership demanded this media circus be stopped we have no idea, but the political leadership also failed in this because they allowed a sense of paralysis to prevail strongly. Often one is wiser in hindsight but when the events were happening any half intelligent citizen would have realised that there was a drift, a paralysis that had stuck the entire government machinery even as it appeared that they were furiously working overtime. It was as plain as day and night. Information gleamed in hindsight, even if they were opinions of experts, only reiterated this view strongly.  

While the anger within each one of us who were watching the events, especially when one felt a sense of involvement for reasons mentioned above, was palpable the final moment when a body came flying out of a ground floor window signalling an end to the attack, we cheered, wept and felt as if each one of us had been there at ground zero. Those of us who had visited the iconic Taj Palace hotel, the bile that churned within watching the dome ablaze was high. One can only imagine the feelings going on inside, with the Tata leadership like Mr. Ratan Tata.

The attack over, dust settled, the area cordoned off, I got a call from the hotel asking if we could help with some security solutions for the future. We didn’t have any answers but there was no question of saying no. Flying to Mumbai for discussions I tentatively asked if I could go to the hotel. I went all over the place, every room, every corridor, retraced the steps the terrorists had taken to enter the hotel from the rear. Knowing the legendary hospitality of the Taj Hotel group, there was no surprise that the attackers had taken advantage of this friendliness to pass through the gates and enter for a massacre. Looking at each burnt out blackened room, the smell of the smoke still strong, imagining guests being killed, burnt the feelings that raced through my mind and heart are difficult to describe. I had a hard time controlling myself from weeping. Even in this macabre atmosphere, their own colleagues lost, the staff one encountered still greeted and treated you like before. That was especially heart wrenching. One felt like hugging them and saying – “Its ok to not smile and sound welcoming”.    

A particularly gut tearing event was the General Manager of the hotel losing his entire family, wife and 2 young children, in this carnage. He had remained on duty, guiding the commandoes, showing them the way around and helping them with whatever they needed. One needs courage and dedication to be able to do that.  On a subsequent visit as I sat for lunch, I saw him at the adjacent table and my hunger vanished, the food turned into ashes in my mouth but I just could not summon even an iota of courage to go talk to him. After all what can one say ?

During those days I also visited the nearby Leopold café and had lunch often, saw the bullet holes and even to this day some have been preserved by the hotel.

The bravery, presence of mind of a constable and a train announcer are still vivid in our memory. What is more amazing is that at peak time traffic, tens of thousands of passengers all around, every alighting passenger in a rush to get home, a huge majority of them listened to the announcement and actually obeyed the instructions to alight from the wrong side of the train at CST station. Who said God doesn’t live in India ? Anybody who has seen the chaos of Mumbai especially the local trains can appreciate this miracle, but then anybody who knows Mumbai can also understand why. 

The next and final part is here.

Final part