Crisis Management at Taj Hotel (Mumbai)

Terrorism has assumed serious dimentions after the terrorist attack on September 11 th on the
Twin Towers of The World Trade Center in USA .Since then periodic attacks are aimed at
various targets by the terrorist groups across the globe .Strict laws vis-à-vis non-political swift
handling of the terrorist in some countries have yielded deterrent result due to which countries
where able to fight against this serious issue.however India which is the epicenter of terrorism is
dealt with causal approach and resulted into heavy mortality

The recently held Mumbai terrorist attack where more than a couple dead and
hundreds are severely injured. Security forces did a splendid job in evacuating every possible
hostage but could not save many.

Anatomy of Crisis:-
The real challenge is not just to recognize crisis but to recognize it in timely
fashion and with a will that they will address the issue properly. Few questions must be answered
like-What are the early warning signs?, What analysis gives the early warning of change and the
possibility of the future national crisis . A Crisis is therefore an unstable time or state of affairs .
Crisis is not bad but merely characterized by certain degree of risk and uncertainty.
In 2008, 26 November, 9 terrorists attacked Taj hotel, Oberoi Hotel and
Nariman House at Mumbai and killed almost 200 people and about 300 were seriously injured in
these three places. It took three days for NSG commandos to overcome these terrorist. In the
three days long fight, the commandos were able to kill 8 terrorists and captured one injured.
Despite the terror attack, the basic feature of Mumbai as a safe and secure city for everyone,
whether he is living in a slum or is the CEO of a corporate giant, has not changed.

Crisis Management:-
Always security agencies and Intelligence agencies were blamed for such
type of crisis due to lack of coordination and inefficiencies between them. Although they
informed a month in advance that Taj Hotel is in the hit list of the terrorist but no action was
taken neither by the state or central government on this serious issue. And the result was
innocent people were killed on the railway station. This figure would have gone up if the railway
forces did not have put stiff resistance. These terrorist have been shot dead on the railway itself if
the railway forces would have been armed with AK 47 rifles. Terrorist possess AK 47 rifles but
our police force were having junk rifles, revolver, and wooden sticks. Therefore a question was
put up by the common people on the government that ,”Why not our police force are provided
with sophisticated arms and posted on the public places were loss of life could be enormous in
the event of such attacks?” NSG commandos were send from Delhi but it took considerable time
to reach there and plan a full fledged attack on the terrorist. Lack of coordination between state
and central forces has always been a reason of concern.
In the Mumbai terrorist attack media played a very important role. Due to the
timely updates given by the media many quick actions were taken. The form of communication
used for managing the crisis at Taj Hotel was oral communication. The media used was
television, radio to inform the people about the timely updates so that common people can
manage themselves.
Source-A Case Study-Crisis Management At Mumbai Terrorist Attack(European journal of
scientific research)