The numbers in the title has nothing to do with mathematical puzzle. Those are the black dates that challenge the survival of mankind on this earth. What a dastardly act committed on 25/8/2003 in two crowded places of Mumbai! They are not in isolation. There are many such incidences (blast in a bus) that happened in the last 8 months in Mumbai itself. If the dates keep adding to this black-list, a day would come when we would question the logic and validity of having only 365/366 dates in a calendar year. We may have to assign more than one sad event to each date.

 A senior police official of Mumbai is reported to have said that there are many differences between now and the 1993 bomb blasts. It is heartening to note that someone at the high level looked at this issue in a different way. Earlier those who were involved in such acts had criminal records or an underworld connection. They were mostly uneducated and became the puppets of underworld dons for the sake of quick money. They did not have any ideological commitment for their act. Contrast this with the investigation details of the recent blasts that have taken place since December 2002 in Mumbai. It has revealed that out of 23 main accused, five are engineers, three are doctors, two are graduates, one is an MBA, and the rest are all SSC pass. None was involved for the sake of money. Similarly, except one, none of them had a criminal record. 

This is appalling and frightening. The level of commitment and successful indoctrination of educated youth is amazing. We must question why a section of educated youth is getting into these activities. Even though they are educated, the thought of senseless and untargeted deaths is not stopping them. All right thinking people should debate and discuss this. Yes, the series of blasts in Mumbai point to the fact that these blasts are to settle scores on a national mistake that we triggered off on Dec 6, 1992. All the terrorist actions in the country (by both sides) today are driven by ideology. To be precise, the battle lines are drawn within the country while we counter external invasions of our border. Although the press and the politicians romanticized the valiant resurgence of Mumbaikar out of the frightening blasts, one should not ignore the fact that individually every one living in Mumbai (and other major cities in India) started doubting whether they would pass off the day without any major untoward event. Even then, I keep hearing the educated elite, like the innocent and misguided youth, supporting the politicians act of dividing the country on the basis of religion. Who knows how many of them who died in Gate way of India blast supported the kind of massacre that happened in Gujarat, without knowing that they were to be taken on revenge for that.

 Today, someone should file a public interest litigation for the "Right to Live". Leave alone all other rights, the right to live has become a question mark. To be precise, the PIL should be to ensure not the right to live but the "right to have a dignified death" in this country (the body should not be mutilated at the end). One would not like to die in such a way that one's close family is not even getting the full body to do the final rites. With the clothes torn and body parts exposed, one would not like to fall down in a public place with shattered pieces of body while taking the last breath in life. The Supreme Court should suo motto ask the Parliament to enact a law prohibiting instigations based on religion or caste. Religion, caste, worship should be strictly restricted to the personal domain and they should not enter and affect the public life.

 Today, terrorism has no geographical boundaries. As one high Police official lamented, today the terrorist activities are planned in one city, material resource is supplied from some other city/country, logistics is provided by a group sitting in some other country, and the act is executed elsewhere. The Prime Minister can demonstrate his and his government's courage to hold the high profile Inter-State Council meeting in Kashmir amidst gun firing and bomb blasts. He can get for himself and his politician colleagues a safe barricade from these gun shots and bomb blasts. Can he ensure such a high security for all, please read, all common men in this country? Till he could provide such a high security to everyone or till the terrorist acts are eradicated completely or thwarted without any slip or error, the least he is expected to do for the good of the country and his countrymen is to ask his politician colleagues not to deepen the battle lines between the people of this country in the name of religion. 

The author would like to make it very clear that his intention to write this article is not to justify the shameful and cowardice terrorist attacks but the intention is to provoke the reader to think of the basic cause of all these events. There is no doubt that there was never a greater urgency for the entire country to come together and fight this terrorist menace. At the same time, let us genuinely try to undo the mistake committed so that youth of this country are not misled on ideological grounds. What has been happening in SriLanka on ethnic conflict (support to LTTE on ideology basis) would happen in India fueled by religious conflict. As I mentioned in one my earlier write-ups, a country can not afford to and should not repeat mistakes to learn. It has to learn from its own history or if the nation is wise enough it should learn from other's history. Time only would tell whether We as a society and nation hold that much wisdom!