I do appreciate the initiative and feel that awareness about slavery is required. But I’m not sure whether such initiatives actually change anything apart from making people like me feel guilty. During my years of crazy travel I always felt guilty of Carbon Footprint. A few months back I attended a session by WWF Hong Kong and I felt guilty about excess usage of resources in Hong Kong. Every time I see an initiative like this I do take corrective actions in areas that are in my control. Such initiatives are finally funded some government agency or organization who in some mystic ways end up having links with the problem themselves.

I do want to go beyond just feeling guilty but don’t know which way to go.

I was sad to see the politicians making a parody out of this tragic situation. Here are the examples that made me angry.

This is what Mr. P Chidambaram, Union Home Minister said at a press conference this morning:

“no intelligence input to state or central agencies”

“Intelligence is collected every day, every hour. It (blasts) is not a failure of intelligence agencies…who ever has perpetrated the attacks has worked in a very clandestine manner”

“the attack was unfortunate but not an attack on India’s commercial capital”

What was Mr. Chidambaram expecting? The terrorist give him input or warning through a letter. Terrorists always work in clandestine manner and job of intelligence is to pick up these underground activities. How can he even say that it is not a failure of intelligence agencies. What is the use of information that he is collecting on a daily or hourly basis if it can’t stop attacks. How come three co-ordinated bombs are not considered as an attack on the commercial capital of India? I found it shocking coming from a Home Minister who justified evicting peaceful protestors from Ramlila ground just a month ago.

Let us see what the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said.

“I have asked the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the Union Home Minister to continue to coordinate their efforts and resources to relentlessly pursue the perpetrators. They must be brought to justice quickly and be subject to the rule of law that they have sought to subvert. I seek the cooperation of all citizens in this effort. We owe this to the grieving families. I assure the people that the government will do everything in its power to prevent such attacks in the future. In the final analysis, it is the unity and strength of the people that will defeat these efforts to divide our people and destroy our civilised way of life.”

How is it different from what he said on 26/11. Perpetrators of 26/11 blasts are roaming around free and the lone capture is enjoying five-star treatment at the expense of poor tax payers. He promises to do everything in government’s power but I wonder whether he can really execute it because he seems to be helpless all the time. Anant Rangaswami today wrote an open letter to the PM. It is worth reading & sharing.

Rahul Gandhi feels the urge to opine on everything that happens in the country. He certainly has assumed the PM-in-waiting role. He claimed that 99% of all attacks are stopped? Where did he get this statistics? He also said it is very difficult to stop every single terrorist attack. Really?

Opposition parties rushed into slam Rahul Gandhi. Advani repeated his standard statements. And left also had its own tune. Immediately Abhishek Manu Singhvi had to clarify what Rahul Gandhi really meant. I wonder why Rahul is so cryptic that Abhishek Manu Singhvi or Manish Tiwari need to give explanation after most statements of Rahul. Here is what Abhishek Manu Singhvi said:

“The incident (in Mumbai) is very unfortunate. While the security forces have to be correct everytime, the terrorist has to succeed once in his designs. Rahul Gandhi said this evident truth,”

This guy certainly seems to think that India is a mega casino. Most of the times the casino wins (security forces) but every once in a while players (terrorists) are allowed to win.

These statements prove that none of these guys are serious about stopping these attacks. It makes me sad. It makes me angry. But I still don’t know what else can be done so that these politicians are brought down and well-meaning capable people are installed in power.

I think the advertising industry in general is getting carried away by the creative awards. I’m not against awards as it motivates people to do great work but it should not motivate people to work that is actually not meant for clients and audiences. It is our professional responsibility to create winning advertising and not just ‘award winning advertising’.

With all the due respect to Prasoon (and I do like his work) he should introspect rather than blame the stringent procedure. I guess the organizers put the watchdog in place because in the past jury members didn’t act appropriately and that led to controversies. I personally think the industry should be thanking the advertisers for keeping the awards clean and avoiding controversies.