Are we ever going to live down Vinita Kamte's book or Hasan Gafoor's alleged inefficiency or the mystery behind the three officers --Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar --taking off in one police car?

Vinita is an amazing lady. She made it a point to show everyone why exactly her husband went in the same car after having some seriously gross and unthinking people question her about it. I assume the book is based on facts as I know she worked hard on it. But one must remember she lost her husband. It is possible, and she is legitimately entitled to, that she sees things differently. She may be right about Rakesh Maria and, then, she may be wrong.

I would tend to give Maria the benefit of doubt. It was an unbelievably chaotic night and he was being hemmed in by calls from all directions. He directed Kamte allegedly to his death, according to Vinita, at a time nobody had a clear idea of the scale of the attacks. Rumours were floating in thick and fast, panic frenzy had set in even among the cops, and everybody wanted to find a way to checkmate those demons.

I would think we are complaining with the benefit of hindsight. Mistakes take place in an abnormal situation, particularly when the administration has completely dispensed with the crisis management plan. The state and the city of Mumbai have separate disaster management plans. But both lie in cold storage. No minister has ever bothered to keep it active by training officers and men and carrying out periodic mock drills. Had that been done, the police rank and file would have been better tuned in, would have responded better, with the command and control lines being clearly drawn.

This, according to me, is where Vilasrao Deshmukh failed. This is where the political machinery took our lives for granted and this is where the officers were betrayed. One needs to look at the larger picture.

Vinita's book is a worthwhile effort and must be read. What I am tired of this media projection of a battle. Each day, the papers go on and on about her charges, Maria's justifications, quotes from has-beens.

Sure, the channels and the print media have perfected the art of smelling a controversy out of nowhere, conjuring up clashes, and living off it for a week till it is well and truly spent. In the process, nobody goes beyond the given and the issue gets trivialised. The reader/viewer gets what he read/saw yesterday and the day before with a few tweaks here and there.

Ditto for Gafoor. Poor man. He was a simpleton who did not build his camp in the police force and paid for it by losing his job. I know he was not inefficient and he was made a scapegoat. Yes, he could have done better but then, so could have everybody else including us.

Why are we not talking about real culprits? Gafoor, Maria etc. are being blamed for what happened at the spot. Why are we not attacking those goons in white who kept security matters on the backburner for years? These guys laughed at coastal security, ignored the crying need to reform the police, neglected disaster management preparedness, and were busy filling their own coffers by inking large business deals and selling off coast to corporates for hefty haftas.

These politicians are the real crooks, guys. They need to be hanged.

Until we do that, we are merely nitpicking, completely mistaking the wood for the trees. And worse, there is no telling if we are safe from a second attack if they do nothing even NOW. Who's to make them?