Coaching Centre Tragedy, Wayanad Landslides, Water logging And Politics

India is in chaos, and this chaos was in the making for many years; we are now, unfortunately, witnessing tragedies unfold in various parts of the country, even as monsoon mayhem has claimed many lives while hundreds are injured and many are missing.

The entire country is in the grip of a monsoon that has turned deadly. Incessant rains batter cities, leading to waterlogging, cloud bursts in the hills, and landslides have changed the topography of regions in unimaginable horror.

First, it was Mumbai; the city had been flooded owing to incessant rain, resulting in the financial capital coming to a standstill, followed by Pune.

Delhi, on the other hand, has witnessed the tragic deaths of young students who were caught even as the basement of a coaching centre flooded.

Similarly, the landslide horror in Kerela’s Wayanad has changed the topography of the region, with countless deaths and many missing even as the army and IAF are pressed into service.

Karnataka, too, has witnessed landslides. Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla and Mandi region saw a cloud burst early this morning, leading to deaths and many missing. All this, even as the rains continue to lash and the weather seems to be turning for the worse!

Even as we witness nature’s fury, we hope and pray that these incidents are it and that no further incidents will occur, but alas, this might not be the case.

However, while we cannot stop the rain from falling, in many cases, these tragedies could have been avoided if the respective administrative authorities had done what they were supposed to and not sat and warmed their chairs as they received their monthly “government salaries.”

Let us consider what is happening in our national capital –

New Delhi, even as the front runners, aspiring IAS Officers who would one day be a part of the administrative system, are shouting “foul play” at the top of their lungs and demanding justice, even as they are dealing with the tragedy of losing their peers and friends due to flooding in the basement.

However, what did the administrative authorities, including the police, do?

They simply arrested a common man who was struggling with the waterlogging and happened to be driving right outside on the road to the coaching centre, under the ridiculous reasoning that his driving caused a wave and resulted in the basement flooding!

How dumb and stupid do these authorities think that the people of this country are?

The fact is that the Delhi municipality DID NOT, HAVE NOT, & perhaps NEVER will take their responsibility seriously.

Instead, they will continue to warm their bottoms and draw salaries even as the majority of citizens work hard to keep their jobs in these troubling times.

What is to be said about the police, who, instead of catching those who did not do their jobs, have caught yet another innocent citizen and held him responsible for this ghastly incident?

Moreover, something needs to be said about the Delhi Chief Secretary, Naresh Kumar, who (please check the picture; he has a finger on his mouth. Was he signalling the reporter to shut up?) told a reporter, “Kyun Pange le Raha Hai”, when he was being questioned about the coaching center incident.

Why, Mr Naresh Kumar, are you so full of yourself?

Are you so entitled that you should threaten a reporter doing “HIS JOB”?

Are you so secure and regaling in your “Power” that you have the audacity to make this statement even as young students are mourning the loss and yet being “strong” to not willing to “back down” even as the govt announces “death money” for families of the victims!

Now, let us come to Kerela’s Wayanad tragedy. This tragedy could have been avoided, and so could many others.

However, the blame game of politics has already started.

Apparently, the Union Govt gave a warning to the Kerala government of heavy rain and the possibility of landslides on July 23 – as early as seven days before the Wayanad landslides occurred – said Home Minister Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday (July 31).

Shah added that on the same day, nine teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) left for the state under his approval. He said that if the state government had heeded the warnings and shifted vulnerable communities, people would not have lost their lives in the landslides in Wayanad.

On the other hand, several Kerala MPs said in the discussion that their state does not have an adequate early warning system, even though it has been asking for one since 2013.

“Do we have a warning system? Do we have an alert system? Do we have a system of coordinated efforts? We do not have a warning system. We are living in an age of NASA, IPCC report, AI, etc … When such heavy rains happen, the mud will become weak, do we have a system? … We have not learnt from [Cyclone] Ockhi, [the 2004] tsunami [and the 2018] floods,” MP Jebi Mether Hisham, who represents Kerala in the Rajya Sabha, said during the discussion.

Shah lashed out at these allegations that there is no early warning system in place.

“Don’t scream ‘Please listen [to] us, please listen [to] us’, please read it: what warning we have sent, please read it,” Shah said.

He also claimed that there are several state governments that have paid heed to these warnings and managed disasters in such a way that there were zero casualties.

“In Odisha, we gave a four-day warning before the cyclone … only one person died, that too accidentally. For the Gujarat government too, we gave a cyclone alert three days before, and not a single animal died,” he claimed.

“But I want to humbly say that the same old words that you’re taking here and demanding [for an early warning system] – we do have an early warning system,” Shah said. “The Indian government spent Rs 2,000 crore on an early warning system after 2014. All regions are given warnings seven days prior. This is accessible for all people on the website. There are early warning systems for rains, heatwaves, storms, cyclones, even for lightning … But no one is heeding these.”

What do these discussions indicate?

Very clearly, “it is kursi ka khel”, from one govt to another, one party to another, one leader to another, — why pay heed, “ham to nahi karenge, hum to dusri (opposition) party ka nahi sunege”; who cares what the repercussions might be “tubh dekh lenge”.

This is what regional politics looks like in our country!

Now, are these just bad weather events?

Undoubtedly, they are nature’s fury for not adequately understanding the ills of climate change.

Adding further to this is India’s race for infrastructure development, but at what cost?

Unplanned projects at the cost of cutting trees leading to deforestation, soil erosion of epic proportions leading to landslides, the building of four-laned highways in Himachal Pradesh and other hilly regions that cannot take, sustain the massive weight, which may lead to entire hills collapsing!

Add to this mix the administrative apathy that we have already spoken about—is it surprising then as to where we are headed?

We as citizens know what needs to be done, the municipals know what steps to take, the state governments understand what needs to be done, and the central government knows what needs to be done.

However, no one wants to do it, and thus, the blame game starts—citizens blame the government. The government blames each other, and then we ask the gods, why God, why?