Mumbai: Young and old, couples and widows, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, the rich and the poor... Thousands of angry Mumbaikars gathered at the Gateway of India on Wednesday to mourn those slaughtered in the terror attacks and to vent their anger at the country's political establishment.
Waving Indian flags of all sizes, holding banners big and small lampooning politicians and screaming Bharat Mata ki Jai slogans, men and women walking in the shadow of the Taj hotel - where commandos gunned down the last of the terrorists to end three days and nights of mayhem - hit out at politicians for failing to provide security to ordinary people.
It was the biggest gathering in India's financial hub since terrorists struck at 10 places on the night of November 26 and went on to massacre 161 Indians and 22 foreigners and injure more than 300 in the most audacious terror strike in the country.
By evening, the police were estimating the sea of people at several thousands - a spontaneous show of citizen power and mass homage to the innocents gunned down in cold blood by terrorists who India says came from Pakistan by boat. There were also a few foreigners - men as well as women.
The Mumbai demonstration coincided with similar angry protests across India - in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Noida and Jaipur.
"Love All, Hate None" - read one cardboard banner carried by a young man. "The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing," read another. Yet another with a woman showed mug shots of "most hated politicians" - Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh of Maharashtra and V.S. Achuthanandan of Kerala.
A young woman held a black banner that said: "I would prefer a dog to visit our house, than a politician."
