Failure of Imagination

The 9/11 Commission Report has said what the world already knew. It was a failure of intelligence and a bigger failure of imagination. We in India have been spared the catastrophe but the twin failures refused to spare us.



The Trust goes down: No one talked about it till the Reserve Bank of India started talking. Global Trust Bank, one of the major private bankers, was about to collapse but there was no apparent run-up to the collapse. It came all of a sudden and the Indian media was caught napping. Are a bank's liquidity and transaction such secret things that no one smells the smoke until the place is up in flames? So much for transparency.

Bill ki baatein: One chief minister of the Indian state drafts a bill, that threatens India's federal structure, and presents it in the Assembly and the nation knows when it's passed and becomes an Act. We have a massive intelligence apparatus working under home ministry and the ministry is clueless about a proposed law that has the potential to disturb the order in large parts of the country. Is Intelligence Bureau really an oxymoron?

Never Soren-der: A Union Cabinet minister is not your average anonymous criminal that he can hide under the Old Yamuna Bridge for 10 days and surface after his plea comes through. Mr Shibu Soren is a known and recognised figure. He goes missing and no one has a clue where he is. Is he alive? Has he been kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents and held hostage in Fallujah? Pick your question. We still don't know where that man is. The Prime Minister writes letters to him without knowing his address. He does not come out to say the least: I'm innocent. Is it the end of innocence?

Rain, Rain, Say again! The rain gods must be crazy. When it rains it pours in Assam and Bihar. The Meteorological Department has satellites up there tracking monsoon and its behaviour. And their guess was a normal monsoon once again. Now it's been normal in just about one fourth of the land. Elsewhere, it's calamity. Is it failure of intelligence? Is it failure of imagination? Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal says it's the failure of equipment. Take your pick.

Laloo ka Prasad: Shri Laloo Prasad, oh sorry, Lalu Prasad is the president of the party that rules Bihar. His wife is the chief minister of a state most of which has been under water for a fortnight. So where is the intelligence failure in this? Well, nobody expects intelligence from Mr Prasad, much less from his wife. But people continue asking him questions about floods knowing that he's the funny man of Indian politics. He has got a sense of humour and he is the king of nonsense. The unfortunate dying for relief get a fatherly rebuke and reporters get their byte. This is not flood. Mother Ganga has visited your house, worship her, and don't crib. These floods are good. Now even the backward caste and minority community people can have rare fish, a rare delicacy. More floods, more fish. Excellent. Sheer intelligence on Laloo's oh sorry Lalu's part and a failure of imagination on our part.