Quite an Explosion

Someone decided to plant and detonate bombs here in Pune. I am sure the Puneiites are scandalized. After all, theirs is a peaceful city. All this 'rubbish' only happens in Mumbai. How dare they bring it here!...

As per the last update I read last night on some news channel website (IBN I think - I am not sure), no one died and at least one was injured. The photographs weren't gruesome either: A bicycle was in one of them and it seemed to have withstood the hammering of the blast. This probably prompted the newsmen and newswomen to term the explosions to be low-intensity blasts. That they were six or seven in number did not seem to matter. No life was lost and bicycles also seemed to have made it. So, this was indeed an incident low on everything: blood count, vehicular damages, etc., etc.

The police say it's an act of mischief - the local police that is. And the union secretary of state happens to say that the act of terror cannot be ruled out. All this, on the same day itself. I wonder why no one from the local police decided to telephone the union secretary and tell him the story they have in mind for the media.

I doubt they have proof to back their statements either. Probably, the media  arrived earlier than expected and someone just had to give them a statement rather than risk being called an uninformed task force or an ignorant secretary.

What no one realized is that two statements make them both a party to gross misinformation. And that's worse than being termed anything else!

But I think they'll tide over this too. Someone - this time from the PR department - may have already drafted a clarification which runs thus: "The reason given by the police and the union secretary imply one and the same thing: that the blasts are an act of mischief - the mischief being perpetrated by a certain terrorist organization. A manhunt is on for the culprits and an investigation has begun. The findings of the investigation will be available in a fortnight or so. Meanwhile, we request people to stay calm and not rely on hearsay, rumors.... etc., etc., etc."

And to think they began the whole thing by differentiating between mischief and terrorism! :)

Comments