Indian cricket is feeling the heat nowadays as the latest controversy on IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and Tharoor kept the newswires and the electronic media on their feet. On Saturday evening twin-bomb-blast at the gate number 12 of Chinnaswami stadium in Bangalore shook the cricket crazy nation.
The bombs were of low strength as told by the police officials. The blast injured 15 people including several police men and spectators. While no deaths were reported, the attack has exposed cracks in the armour of the security agencies.
The match was played after a delay of one hour as the show must go on, but the attack has left with it many unanswered questions, which will surely hollow India’s claim that it has strong security plans and they implement it well.
The crude bomb which exploded near the stadium has heightened the fears in the mind of government, intelligence, BCCI, ICC and the cricket-crazy-people ahead of some important events in the country. The blast by the bombers can be seen as an indicator of their presence and the fact that they can implant anxiety in the minds and hearts of people. This blast although of low intensity in nature will give nightmares to the intelligence and the security officials as their claims were abused. But the bigger questions is that how was the Bangalore police was not able to track these packets as CCTVs cameras are installed everywhere in the stadium, strict security checks were done and all possible security measures were taken. What if the bomb would have been of a high intensity?
The blast will have a long lasting effect as India is preparing itself for the Commonwealth games (CWG) in Delhi in the month of October. The sporting extravaganza does not stop here as India will host ICC cricket World cup along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Along with these tournaments, India is trying to bid for other important tournaments such as the FIFA WC and Olympics which hugely depend on the peace in our nation and the way in which we host the upcoming CWG.
Earlier this year a militant group had warned various International communities not to send their contingents to the Hockey WC, IPL and the CWG or else face the consequences. But Chidambaram assured the world it was safe to visit India but this small attack is a contempt of his statements and tall claims.
So ahead of such crucial ties these kinds of small attacks can lead to bigger disaster. Many countries can boycott India by not sending their teams here. After Mumbai blasts IPL was hosted in South Africa due to security reasons. Australia pulled out of the Davis cup tennis tie in Chennai and England withdrew itself from the badminton championship in Hyderabad.
In March 2009, in Pakistan, Sri Lankan players were attacked, which eventually led to the boycott of Pakistan as all countries refused to play there.
Now the time has come that India must implement a sound security plan for the upcoming international tournaments. As commonwealth is just 5 months away, we must ensure safe and sound security because the whole world is looking at us and this is a crucial test of our ability to host major tournaments without any hiccups.
The government must take this attack as a wake-up call, or regret later.
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The writer is a correspondent of Youth Ki Awaaz.