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The real Ravanas of Amritsar are its local authorities, which let the train catastrophe happen

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DailyBiteOct 22, 2018 | 18:02

The real Ravanas of Amritsar are its local authorities, which let the train catastrophe happen

Another public tragedy is turning into political opportunity. Amritsar victims deserve better.

Sixty lives is a huge price to pay for official negligence.

As various authorities in Amritsar — the municipal corporation, the police, Railways, political parties — try to make each other look more responsible for the horrific train accident on Dussehra, the only indisputable fact is that sixty people died because the system did not think their lives were worth taking precautions for.  

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And the drama playing out after the tragedy — finger-pointing, refusing to take responsibility — is unforgivable insensitivity, after criminal apathy.

At the funeral of one of the Amritsar victims.
At the funeral of one of the Amritsar victims. (Photo: Reuters)

Indeed, the Dussehra celebration at Dhobhi Ghat ground in Amritsar seems to have been set up for disaster, with every authority having a share in the blame.

An event that involved effigy-burning and firecrackers was taking place right next to the railway tracks. Hundreds of people were packed in a ground with two small gates. People spilled onto the railway tracks to watch the Ravan-vadh — and they were not stopped. In fact, an LED screen was set up facing the tracks — the organisers clearly wanted people outside the ground to enjoy the event too.

On part of the Railways, the gateman at the crossing apparently failed to notice a crowd of around a hundred people gathered on the tracks, and gave the trains the go-ahead.

The train driver claims he did not stop even after realising he had mowed people down because angry locals were throwing stones at the train, and he feared for the safety of his passengers. Residents claim the train passed them within 10-15 seconds, and there was no way they could have recovered enough from the shock of what had happened to start throwing stones.

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The person crying the most vociferously for the driver’s head now is Congress leader and state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, whose wife, Navjot Kaur, also a Congress leader, was the chief guest at the event.

Navjot Kaur, however, has a lot to answer for.

As the chief guest, she had certain responsibilities. How could she have allowed people to trespass onto railway tracks? Her defence, that she apparently “asked organisers to make announcements to clear tracks”, does not fly.

People had gathered on the tracks to watch Ravan burning and the firecrackers display.
People had gathered on the tracks to watch Ravan burning and the firecrackers display. (Photo: ANI)

In fact, according to reports, the event was scheduled to have been over before the time of the train, and was delayed only because Navjot was late to the event.

A video recently going viral shows organisers boasting to her that “people were standing on the tracks to hear her, and wouldn’t budge for 500 trains”.

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Surely, her voice carried more authority then, and she was the senior-most leader present. She should have made the announcement from the stage herself.

The organiser, who has “gone underground” with his whole family, has now released a video, in which he tearfully says he had “secured all permissions”.

But both the Amritsar Municipal Corporation and the Railways have claimed they received no information about the event.

Politicians — and this is not just for Navjot Kaur — have the moral responsibility of ensuring the events they “grace” as chief guests take all requisite permissions.

The Amritsar Municipal Corporation, too, can’t get away this easily. This is not the first time the Dussehra celebration was being held at the Dhobi Ghat ground. If the civic body was unaware of an event of this magnitude taking place, they are clearly not doing their job too well.

The police had reportedly given their nod for the event. Trespassing onto railway property is anyway a crime. Why weren’t personnel posted to barricade the tracks? It is easy to estimate the disaster potential of such an event. Why wasn’t adequate security in place?

Collective responsibility does not dilute culpability. The lives lost of the 60 people killed is now on every governing authority involved here.   

It took days for people to identify the remains of their loved ones from he tracks.
It took people days to identify the remains of their loved ones from the tracks. (Photo: PTI/file)

Yet, as often happens in India, a public tragedy has turned into political opportunity, with competitive blame games between the BJP, which governs the Centre and hence the Railways, and the Congress, which is in power in Punjab.

Amritsar is hardly an isolated incident — in 2015, 27 people had died in a stampede at the banks of the Godavari during the Pushkaram festival. A year before that, another stampede at a Dussehra event had killed 33 people in Patna.

Rules exist to prevent such tragedies — both the Supreme Court and the National Disaster Management Authority have come up with guidelines for organising religious festivals in public. Why were these guidelines not applied in the case of Amritsar this weekend?

What is also noticeably missing here is a sense of responsibility on the part of the authorities — as is evident from the evasions and accusations the Punjab authorities are shamelessly indulging in, even in the face of such a tragedy. 

The authorities failed the Amritsar victims in life.

Can we at least expect them to not insult them in death?

Last updated: November 18, 2018 | 20:09
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