Indore-Patna Express tragedy must be politicised
We stand with the hapless victims of the horrendous Indore-Patna Express train tragedy near Kanpur. Precious lives have been lost. Ninety-six in the last count. Over 200 are injured, many of them seriously.
Speculations are rife as to what caused this tragedy. It is difficult to be sure of the specifics at this time. We are not experts. Only experts know. But there is something that the experts do not know. Or, pretend not to know.
Our seminal tragedy is that human life has no value. VIPs and VVIPs have value. But equate that not with the value of life. It only means that labels, not life, have value. If tomorrow one of the VVIPs becomes a pauper, he would travel in one of the generically imperiled “S” coaches with predictable results.
It is because the value of life as life is not respected that:
Accidents that cause avoidable devastation of human life are only of fleeting interest and do not lead to remedial measures of lasting value.
Welfare measures that could have brought relief to the common man - in health, education, personal security, assurance of the full scope of Article 19, grievance redressal, and respect for the rights and dignity of all citizens - do not take effect on the ground.
Proper living conditions - safe drinking water and means of livelihood - are not available to fellow citizens languishing in thousands of our deprived villages, even as we stand in queues for NSG membership and the label of an economic superpower.
Citizens can be killed in cold blood under this pretext or that, and the law-enforcing agencies will look the other way.
Tens and thousands of tribals and adivasis are uprooted and left to fend for themselves in the name of development.
The list, you know, can be miles longer...
Dinesh Trivedi, the former railway minister, attributes this tragedy to the poor maintenance of tracks and our reluctance to bring about a “generational change” in the paradigm of our railway locomotion. He goes on, further, to attribute this failure to cash crunch.
I am afraid that is simply not the case. Even if we today, in the wake of the demonetisation drive, commit a few lakh crores to the modernisation and safety upgrade of our railways, it will not change the ground realities in a proportionate manner, so long as our mindset does not change.
That money, by itself, will save, is the superstition of those who have plenty of it. And that, despite the fact that wealth continues to be a snare for them, their children and grandchildren; rather than serve as a means of relief, much less of salvation.
It is dishonest and willfully misleading to project resource-crunch as the sole reason for our tragedies and accidents. Resources are only means. Means will be utilised only as per priorities. Priorities are shaped by our value system.
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| An officer holds up the list of casualties. (Photo: PTI) |
I see a direct link between the present mammoth tragedy - and all such avoidable tragedies - and the worry of Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Democracy in India, he warned, could be a "failed experiment" for the sole reason that equality - which is the bedrock of democracy - is an alien value to us. The creed of democracy is one-man-one-vote. In other words, it is irreducible equality. Equality is a myth, if equality of worth and equality of opportunity are not given effect on the ground.
A country where citizens are killed over the pretext of gau raksha, and the mayhem will stop only when the PM denounces it (for which all right-minded citizens must thank him), woefully lacks the democratic culture and value system.
Why is it, let us ask, that every railway accident we know of, including man-made calamities like the Godhra carnage (in which S5, S6 compartments were gutted), takes the life ONLY of the poor and common folks.
Why are AC compartments mysteriously spared? You think the tracks have some metallic enmity to the poor?
Why is it that Rajdhanis and Shatabdis are rarely involved in accidents? (I am not insinuating that they should be, but pointing to a symptom).
From where, in relation to the engine - the “S” coaches (or common man’s bogies) are attached, to how they are maintained, there is an anti-democratic, anti-poor, mindset at work.
Our mindset needs to be repaired before the tracks can be. Without that, money tends to do the vanishing act!
How come setting up elevators on platforms is a greater priority than passenger safety? Elevators are a cultural signature. They paintbrush progress. And smell of modernity. Life, in contrast, is pretty ancient!
Let us have elevators, by all means. There is no merit in staying stuck in antiquity. But elevators are useful only if passengers arrive in safety!
Rail minister Suresh Prabhu needs to tell the nation what the allocation for this single item is. It would be interesting and instructive to turn this into a case study. It will corroborate what I argue here.
Now think of this. Help desks have been set up, say, at Patna railway station. If the media reports are anything to go by, those manning these desks have no clue about what is going on at the accident site. They are seeking help (!) from the media. The media is, in turn, seeking help, from the survivors of the accident! So, why can’t the help desks seek help - one wonders in a state of pained stupidity - directly from the victims?
The next step could well be that police protection is provided to help desks!
I know I will be accused of, and damned, for politicising a tragedy. This word – this most dreadful expletive "politicisation" - has become an epithet of intimidation to browbeat inconvenient voices into silence.
It is my conviction that issues must be politicised. The problem is not that issues are politicised; it is that politics is misunderstood. Whatever concerns the life and welfare of citizens is in the ambit of politics.
And they – whenever infringed or neglected - need to be politicised. My sides split with laughter when politicians, in knee-jerks, disclaim to be politicising matters. What else - won’t you tell us - are you supposed to do?
Please politicise this issue. But don’t insult the life of the deceased by sounding sanctimonious about it for a day or two. Keep it politicised till a change for the better happens. If you don’t, you are not politicising but playing with issues. To politicise, please insist, is to humanise.
Please do!