I will answer this question on behalf of Savitri, a girl from Mumbai.
She was 4 years old when she travelled for the first time in Mumbai local train. She was very happy. Children feel excited as they see new faces, new things around them & they love how trees run away from them as they travel in train. She returned home safely but many others did not. Mumbai came to halt as 13 bombs killed hundreds of people & leaving many people behind who could never walk. It happened in 1993. It was the first example for Savitri, of a man killing a man.
Savitri was trying to forget those visuals of the city. It took her a few years before she could return to normalcy however that was temporary. There were terrorist attacks in Jama Masjid in 1997. There was another next year in Malad & another one the next month in Virar. Savitri had turned 8 & had already seen casualties a few times, in newspapers & on the TV at the sweet shop near her house. She did not have a TV at her place.
Indians are amazing at cooping up with the circumstances, Savitri was trying the same. She started restricting her visits to the crowded places like markets, temples & railway stations.
Savitri had turned 12 & she had to start using Mumbai local because that was the quickest & cheapest option to reach her new school.
Since her childhood, she was always told to stay away from crowd. But it was no more an option. She could attend her school only for a few days before the city was shaken by a series of blasts. There was a blast in Ghatkopar, followed by one at a railway station, 4 days later. It wasn't over. There was one more in Vile Parle the next month.
She had stopped going to school because he parents thought survival was more important than education. However mental truama did not stop following her because her father also used to travel by train. She wasn't sure when would it be his turn.
A couple of months later, another bomb blast happened at Mulund Railway Station. Savitri kept crying till her father returned. Less than one month, another blast at Bandra & then another one in Ghatkopar after 3 months. That was followed by a deadly attack at the Gateway of India & Zaveri Bazaar. Savitri had visited both of those places previously. She could emotionally connect with the people who died in those attacks.
City was calm for 2–3 years & Savitri thought that the good days had arrived for Mumbai but then everything returned, with a worse face this time.
Mumbai was shattered as the largest scale attacks happened in Mumbai. 7 high intensity blasts at 7 different locations of Mumbai had left hundreds of people dead & a few hundreds got disabled permanently. That happened in 2006.
Savitri had realised that Bomb Blasts won't stop, they had become a routine thing for her, as it happened in Syria & Afghanistan. However what happened on 26th November 2008 was something new to her. Terrorists with leathal weapons in their hands & their backpacks walked on the roads of Mumbai & shot everybody that came their way. Savitri & her family locked themselves in the house for hours, hopeful that their door isnt knocked by anyone unknown. She was lucky again, nobody knocked her door. She survived while many others lost their lives. The government again disappointed Savitri as the Prime Minister did not let the security forces take action, he remained quiet, again. A top leader said that all terrorist attacks cannot be stopped, another crossed all limits & blamed Hindu organisation for these attacks.
It was still not the end of the show. There were a few more of serial bomb blasts in 2011. It was when Savitri had turned 22 & got married to someone in Ghatkopar.
From last 10 years, there hasn't been any terrorist attack in Mumbai. Savitri doesn't feel scared as her husband & her kids travel in Mumbai local. They can visit the temple, crowded market & all those places which Savitri could never dare to visit.
Who do you think will Savitri vote for? The government which made her entire childhood & her teenage a bag full of fear or a government which makes her kids feel safe?
This question isn't just about Mumbai. It's about entire country. National security had always been a concern.
I will join Savitri & vote for the Prime Minister that makes me & my family feel safe. I will vote for the one who has guts to let his brave soldiers use those bullets & not just hang those machine guns on their shoulders as people burn candles & cry for the death of their loved ones.
Thanks for reading,
Rahul.
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