It took just an anxious night for Mumbai to get back to its rush-hour existence.
A day after 17 people died and 133 were injured in three bomb blasts, companies and markets in the country’s commercial capital — which has seen eight terror attacks in the last 18 years — went on with their chores. Some meetings were rescheduled, a few events were turned into low-key affairs and the stock markets rose marginally. The only exception perhaps was the turmoil in hospitals, where relatives of the injured clung on to hope.
While Boeing postponed unveiling of the 787 Dreamliner in Mumbai, others toned down their events. The launch of a premium mid-sized sedan by Ford Motor India was preceded by a 30-second silence. Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India, said, “We thought of cancelling the event, but knowing that people in this city tend to move on, we decided to go ahead with the launch.” Ford’s launches are usually gala events.
Some international clients of information technology major Wipro who were scheduled to arrive on a business trip had to cancel their plans.
The hotel industry, which is the worst impacted in these situations, is feeling some pinch. There were cancellations at Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba, one of the targets in the 2008 terror attack, and some Marriott properties in suburban Mumbai. Rajeev Menon, Marriott International Inc’s area vice-president (India, Pakistan, Maldives & Malaysia), said, “We have had some marginal cancellations because of the attack. We are still assessing the actual impact and will be in a better position to talk about it next week.”
Bollywood cancelled at least two high-profile promotional bashes.
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The stock market was resilient. After falling 140 points in the early session, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, bounced back and closed 22 points up.
The worst impacted was Zaveri Bazar. Due to heavy rain and police presence, 400 offices of diamond exporters in the 25-storey Pancharatna building were shut. The staff of many exporters in the next building, Prasad Chambers, was absent.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the nation to condemn the attack. Singh, who visited the city in the evening with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, said he understood Mumbaikars’ anger and the government would do everything possible to prevent such attacks.
He announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of those killed and Rs 1 lakh each to those injured from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, in his morning press conference, said “all groups hostile to India were suspects” and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for those injured.
BJP’s L K Advani, who addressed reporters this afternoon, wasn’t as aggressive as the party was in 2008. But he did land some tough punches on the Congress-led government, calling Wednesday’s attacks the result of a “policy failure” and saying he was “shocked to find the entire government dysfunctional.”
The blast sites were cordoned off as forensic teams continued to sift through the rubble for evidence. But incessant rain hit work. Investigators turned to CCTV footage in their struggle to identify who was behind the blasts. Specialist forensic teams, flown in from other cities, combed the blast sites for evidence, but Rakesh Maria, head of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad, said rain was hampering their work.
The home ministry said police were interrogating suspected members of the homegrown militant group, Indian Mujahideen, who had been arrested in Mumbai several days ago in connection with bomb blasts in the western state of Gujarat in 2008.