Holes in law enforcement, says Ratan Tata

The terror attacks in Mumbai revealed deficiencies in law enforcement, especially in the areas of crisis response and management, Ratan Tata, owner of the Taj hotel, which bore the brunt of the carnage, has said.

He also said the hotel had temporarily increased security after being warned of a possible terror attack. But, he said, those measures, which were eased shortly before the terror strikes, could not have prevented gunmen from entering the hotel.

Tata said the terrorists had done a “lot of pre-planning” and that “they seemed to know (the hotel) in the night and in the daytime”.

On deficiencies in law enforcement, he said, “we were getting the cooperation that they (authorities) could give us, but the infrastructure was woefully poor”.

 

As an example, the Tata Group Chairman said it took three hours for firefighters to get water to the Taj after a blaze broke out in the oldest part of the 105-year-old building. “We had people who died being shot through bullet-proof vests,” he told CNN.

Tata said that not even the army or commandos who ultimately took over the offensive were prepared for the level of organisation and execution that the attackers seemed to have put into their plan. “They seemed to know (the hotel) in the night or in the daytime,” he said referring to the terrorists. “They seemed to have planned their moves quite well, and there seem to have been a lot of pre-planning”. On the issue of the warning about a possible terror attack, Tata said, “If I look at what we had ... It could not have stopped what took place.”

“It’s ironic that we did have such a warning, and we did have some measures,” Tata said, without elaborating on the warning or when security measures were enacted. “People couldn’t park their cars in the portico, where you had to go through a metal detector,” according to the excerpts of the interview posted on CNN’s website.

However, Tata said the attackers did not enter through the entrance that has a metal detector. Instead, they came in a back entrance, he said. “They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our arrangements are in the front,” he said.

“They planned everything,” he said of the attackers. “I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen.”

Tata said the attacks underscored the need for law enforcement to develop infrastructure for crisis management, even if it meant seeking outside expertise for training, equipment and strategic operations. “We’ve been very complacent, because we’ve really not had this kind of terrorism inflicted upon us,” he said. “We should not stand on ceremony to hold back. We should go to the best place possible to get expertise.”

Tata was hopeful that the attacks would unite Indians behind a common goal of preventing a similar tragedy, according to the website.

“Rather than have us succumb to this kind of terror, what it has done is given us a resolve that nobody can do this to us,” he said.

“We’re indignant, but we’re not scared. If there’s a view that this has pulled us down, I think it will unite the country that much more,” Tata said. He said he derived those sentiments from members of his staff, who have pledged to stand behind him and restore the Taj to its former grandeur. “The general manager lost his whole family in one of the fires in the building,” Tata said. “I went up to him today and I told him how sorry I was, and he said, ‘Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was. We’re standing with you. We will not let this event take us down.’”