DailyPost 2838
HATHRAS TRAGEDY!
Has India become the epicentre of man-made tragedies, with no end in sight? Are we interested in setting it right or have we learnt to live with it? The moral of the story is to find an easy life wherein very little effort needs to be made. Rest can be managed with lip service, talking copybook style and taking a few actions, which even in the medium run is not bound to make any impact. In simple terms, it is fire fighting, in no manner getting into the causes of it, to stop further recurrence, though the causes can be seen even by people with no sight. It is playing for the gallery.
Hathras tragedy of yesterday fully fits into this description. Man made disasters which we term as accidents, incidents, leaks, scams, scandals and what not. Pune Porsche man-made accident is a recent case in point. The next man-made disaster, the anger against which is still raging across the country, is popularly known as the NEET 2024 exam scandal. The beauty of the game is that even in the world of governance checks and balances, every single stakeholder manages to spoil, to the best of his incompetence / fraud, whatever you call it. The real culprits go scot free, most of the cases don’t take care of all the accused. A diffused accountability smokescreen is created for this purpose.
Hathras is back again. Last we heard of it was for gang rape and murder and alleged forcible cremation. It attracted countrywide condemnation. That was 2020 and now it’s 2024, another damning indictment of callousness ending in the death of more than 120 people; the Hathras Stampede. Nothing was played by the rulebook and everything that could go wrong, went wrong. The core of the issue is that it went wrong not because of any accident or mishap, which could not be imagined. It happened because everything was done the wrong way; callous, indifferent and not even name sake compliance.
The Baba knew how to pull crowds but not to manage. There are clear cut guidelines of what is to be done and in what manner, but none was attended to, maybe that was running practice out there. Three times the crowd of what was permitted and no one to recognise the impending disaster. The policemen / officers there strangely could not see what was in the offing. Incompetence or difference; a motley mix of both with a feeling that whatever come may, they can get away with their most shabby work. The organisers were not bothered about security and no money was spent on it. Visibly everything looked wrong. The officials went ahead with the organisers, maybe not to face any wrath of the powers that be. That would be the done thing. Policemen as bystanders, the crowd frenzy, the ditch becoming a cesspool, no proper exit for the huge crowd, you can go on and on. What is equally heartrending was the broken healthcare system, where the dead and the injured landed. Governance has dehumanised its citizens.
BETWEEN THE SDM’S PERMISSION AND THE STAMPEDE, THERE WAS COMPLETE ABSENCE OF ANY SENSIBLE OFFICIAL ACTION, AS PRESCRIBED.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.