Mumbai 26/11 - Hostage Drama plays out on Electronic Media

It is has been over 42 hours since Indians have been struggling to come to terms with the new face of terrorism which descended on Mumbai with altered ‘rules of the game’. The wake of terror has left around 125 dead, over 300 injured and some 30 presumably held hostage.

Yes, the security lapses are evident, from the luxury hotel staff level to anti-terrorist forces right through counter-terrorist bodies & intelligence agencies. Yes, the Financial Capital of India, Mumbai, with a population of around 19 million coupled with a humungous figure that floats in and out each day as immigrant work force makes it a rather uphill task to enforce a security blanket or track potential threat perspectives with surety.

Yes, the security forces may have fumbled initially but to insinuate that they were a bunch of headless chickens running amok is wrong, biased, outright stupid and irresponsible as some of the international media tried hinting. The BBC World Services went to the extent of stating that the Indian Security Forces were adopting the same foolhardy approach that the Russians had taken during the Chechen separatist / terrorists’ October 2002 seizure of Moscow's Dubrovka Theater, where approximately seven hundred people were attending a performance. Russian Special Forces launched a rescue operation, but the opium-derived gas they used to disable the hostage-takers killed more than 120 hostages, as well as many of the terrorists. BBC London went the whole hog on how India has transformed from a strong emergent economy and a highly favoured foreign investment destination to a highly unsafe, terror and strife ridden country. According to initial reports from London, foreign investors are trying to withdraw their capital, lock stock and barrel. It seems that this illustrious institution of journalism forgot all about the global credit crunch, recession in Europe and the United States of America, not to mention China, India, Japan and the rest of the world. Interestingly, all of the major financial rating companies have attributed the decline in foreign investment in India to the global credit crunch and strongly feel that 26/11 – the Mumbai crisis will have a marginal effect in the long run. The foreign media seems to be much more concerned with the foreign tourists being targeted rather than the human tragedy which is unfolding. However, despite the initial reports of British and American passport holders being singled out, according to the reports filtering in, out of the 125 deaths so far, only six were that of foreign nationals while the death toll of security personnel lost has still not been released.

Paula Newton, an international security correspondent for CNN based in CNN's London bureau, came up with an equally ridiculous stance that the Indian Intelligence was as blind as a bat and had no idea how to react to situations like 26/11. She then embraced a didactic avatar educating the viewers about how the security forces should have conducted themselves and what precautions should have been taken by the Indian Security Agencies post-Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing that occurred on 20 September 2008. She made it seem that American Security Agencies knew that 9/11 would take place and they had prevented it. She spoke of how western security concerns are addressed by their respective countries. Ironically, the security agencies in the world’s most monitored city by all sorts of cameras failed to foil the 7 July 2005 London bombings (also called the 7/7 bombings).

Al Jazeera had its own take! Mahan Abedin, an insurgency analyst, deliberated on the “sheer inequality of life in India” theory. Al Jazeera is confident that India has highly fractured, bitter and acrimonious inter-communal relations between the Muslims and the Hindus as the order of the day. Terrorism in India should be seen in this light and be regarded as home grown. Abedin stated that even people who commit heinous acts of violence occasionally make a valid point. I do concede that indeed by showing genuine concern for the plight of the millions of people who are at risk of death from poverty and by honouring the sanctity of the lives of the most destitute, we have the best chance of defeating the ideologies of hate. However, it is pertinent to point out that this alleged hatred is confined to the ultra-rightwing thinkers of both side of the divide only. India would have not emerged as a major economy if a state of peaceful coexistence and profit making had not existed.

Here I would like to point out that it is highly probable that there is a ‘foreign sectarian conspiracy’ that seeks to punish India for having sided with two major western powers in its so-called war against terror. This foreign hand has tapped on the ultra-rightwing minorities. But the Indian Terrorist/Separatist Movement (and mind you I refer to all ultra-right wing Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Nagas) has never ever targeted the western populace. It has at most indulged in planting bombs, low or high intensity, but never sent trained warriors to undertake ‘urbanised terror-war games’. Unfortunately, the appearance of the Grand Old Butcher of the Western Indian State of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, on the national media with his blame game did validate Al Jazeera’s claim.

The very fact that India’s war on terror, and I use the term with some reservation and it is not in the same way that Bush uses it, is summoning up resources from various federal and state authorities, also came under fire from many an international news agencies. All three major and respected broadcasting agencies used disparaging terms like ‘confused’, ‘uncoordinated’, and ‘aimlessness of the effort’. I am yet to come across any security operation conducted by any security agency anywhere in the world having invited the media as its silent partner. The media has always been used by everyone as a vehicle of their intent only. Yet it is the duty of the media to work as a watchdog of society to deliver authenticated facts and not indulge in rumour mongering. Maybe, in retrospect, the Indian authorities should have had regular press-briefings to feed the media with controlled information that could circulate in the public domain. When the press briefings did happen they were definitely uncoordinated, ill prepared and the authorities seemed to present unfriendly officers before the press. These officers were members of the actual tactical teams that had gone in. Further, these officers had not been briefed, by their superiors with public relations experience, about how much to speak or what to speak.

It was natural for all international media to turn to the Indian broadcast institutions for information. It turned out to be a case of the ‘blind leading the blind’. NDTV, one of India’s major news channel’s coverage looked immature charged with passion, devoid of any real authentic facts, pathetic use of clichés, and highly ungrammatical usage of English. We heard pidgin statements like “terrorists full of guns”, “eighth round of gunshots”, “forces will encounter here”, “two terrorist are encountered here”, “this is where fresh blood fell”, “they first come by sea” etc.

The first 12 hours were reported with the enthusiasm of an election coverage mated with readings of a cricket score card. Reporters, it is obvious were fresh and had no idea how to report an incident like what was unfolding in Mumbai. One excited young lady reported with spasmodic gestures, “These are fresh blood stains, this is exactly where somebody was killed.” Another, journalist was seen beaming with pride that she was at an undisclosable location to witness “the end game” unfold… a refrain that she is still using after a lapse of 40 hours of the hostage drama. Another journalist, obviously impressed by the phrase, adapted a new construct of ‘final push’. Then there was another journalist who could only utter “there is utter confusion here” repeatedly, as the camera kept rocking and swaying only to reveal security forces calmly lining up some hundred metres away. We also heard the refrain of “mother ship”, “delicate stage of end game”, “war zone”, “this is India’s 9/11”, “Mumbai 9/11”. And we had a barrage of questions at the press conference, with classics like “What is the condition of the dead bodies?” “What is the condition of the explosives?” and “How did the holed up terrorists defend themselves?”

However, once the initial rush of adrenaline subsided and the senior journalists descended on the scene, NDTV tried going slow on the rumour mill and projecting unconfirmed reports and conjectures as facts. Unfortunately, by then the damage had been done. International media was quoting them as Indian commentators calling the situation as fluid and highly confusing. This picture may be attributed to the fact that most Indian broadcast journalists claimed access to well placed, authoritative and informed sources and what they were narrating as facts. NDTV’s attempt to portray the human angle to this hostage drama is commendable, especially when facts are hard to come by.

On a lighter note, I couldn’t help noticing, during the early hours of the hostage drama, that when one foreign media chose to interview some Mumbai radio jockey by the name of Ms. Malini, as a witness, her accent transformed from a typical Indian to a highly affected and anglicised and nasal English…

To finally conclude, I feel that the counter-terrorist operations are being conducted in a highly professional and coordinated manner. But, the flow of information from secured governmental domain to public domain is conspicuous by its absence. The ire of the public especially those were directly affected, who had their kith and kin and loved ones unaccounted for is understandable. Here it is commendable that the dissemination of information expected from governmental agencies is actually being done by the media, no matter how sketchy at times. This is an important aspect of the outcome of this scenario which hopefully the government will review seriously. After an ordeal of 40 hours, hanging about in the hope of some news, nay any news of the ones trapped inside; unfortunately the only lists to come out were for the consumption of the foreign consulates in Mumbai. This preferential treatment speaks ill of the attitude of the governmental institutions for their own citizens. The government will have plenty to think about in the future about how to coordinate activities of various counter-insurgency, counter-terrorist, intelligence agencies and how they should work in tandem and in a coordinated fashion. Who will coordinate all these dime a dozen federal and state bodies, further how should these bodies be administered without getting caught in a quagmire of red-tapism? Maybe, the government will also want to work out its logistics as well… there are questions that come to fore… why did it take such a long time to deploy the NSG? Why were the NSG units bundled in to public buses to be ferried across the city and not deployed with the help of choppers? Are the anti-terrorist security agencies not well equipped to fight the changing face of war on terror with a change in the rules of the game? Why were no remote controlled devices used to survey the interiors of the hotel before committing the commandos to the hostile situation?

The broadcast media in the country should take a long and hard look at how they covered this situation. I feel most of the failures stemmed from the news desks and it was the editorial and research teams at the studio end which mucked up! The senior correspondents and editors could have guided reporters from falling into the trap of generalisations and sensationalisations and not project their own confusions on to the scene/scenario that was being covered. It is time that the Indian media pressurises the governmental agencies to hold regular press briefings (like the ones held in the United States and in England) through a single platform especially when multi-governmental agencies are involved. Finally, the reporters, senior and junior alike, should acquire some sort of proficiency in the language that they want to use when broadcasting. Plus these broadcast agencies and institutions should develop a style book which they can follow when in the field!