POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 13 September 2008

Drowning, Dying & Damned

WHO’S LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?

By Poonam I Kaushish

Mera Bharat Mahan! Take 1: “Mumbai kisi ke baap ka nahin hai,” says Mumbai’s Joint Police Commissioner. Challenges the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena neta Raj Thackeray: “Tell him to remove his police uniform and come on to the street.” Cut. Take 2:  “Aapne to inhe maar diya,” says a horror-struck passer-by witness to a road accident in Delhi: Shoots back the car owner: “Achcha, woh mar gaya kya?” And zips away. Cut. Take 3: “Bhaiya, mujhe bhookh lagi hai, doodh chhahiye,” begs a mal-nourished two year-old baby in a remote Madhya Pradesh tribal village. Replies the food thekedar: “Beta, aaj Sunday hai, babulog chutti par hain, aaj doodh nahin milega. Cut.

Take 4: “Babuji, Pradhan Mantri aur Chief Minister ne kaha tha ki humein kuchch paisa diya jayega aur gaayn-bhains bhey. Abhi tak kuch nahin,” pleads an ill-clad farmer on the verge of suicide in Maharashtra’s Vidharbha region. Replies the local leader: “Achcha, aisa kaha tha kya! Gaayn- bhains to hum log apne paas rekhenge naa. Tum usko kaise paloge jab apne khane ke liye bhi kucch nahin hai.” Cut. Take 5: “Jabse aapne jalte huai ghar dekha hain in ankhon nai, roshni mujhe buree lagti hai,” moans a poor woman in Kandhamal, Orissa. Earning a snub from the rampaging mob: “Aur jalaon!”

Ok, fellow countrymen let lose the volley of expletives, curse all you want of how rotten the State of Denmark is. But is that going to change the reality of present day India illustrated above. Of jungle raj, gory violence, bloody deaths, heart wrenching cries of suicides and sleaze, famine and flood. Never mind that the excreta of crass casualness and heartlessness has already hit the ceiling. Indeed, what’s the big deal?

Millions of words have been written and millions more will continue to be written. But it’s like water off a duck’s back. Symptomatic of a deeper malaise in our country. Anything and everything is game. Tailor-made responses to suit every tragedy, to suit our politicians’ narrow parochial ends. Everyone goes through the stereotype motions--- appropriate noises, hollow concerns and instant remedies are bandied out only to be instantly trashed in the dustbins of political and intellectual double speak.

Sadly, all political parties seem to have perfected this art to the last full stop. All busy enlarging their respective “empires” and pointing accusing fingers at each other. But the basic question is: does anyone really care? Not at all. Everything is kaam chalao. Ki faraak painda hai! Exposing the political and administrative callousness towards human life. Even if some blood is spilled or lakhs die what difference does it make it make to our billion plus population?

Take Bihar. The Kosi rampage has affected over 25 lakh people. There is a shortage of boats, shelters, food and medicines. Yet it took the Prime Minister ten days and millions displaced to sanction monies and foodgrains. The State’s babudom fiddled while engineers warned of danger ahead. Shockingly, rescue and relief operations were launched more than a week after the first breach developed in the Kosi embankment. What to speak of a few experts air-dashing to assess the health requirements. Only to hurriedly return to their ‘sanitised’ environment.

But the heartless political nautanki doesn’t end there. Now its time for our netagan to indulge in the competition of ‘relief politics” to outdo their rivals. The RJD’s Lalu Yadav is busy ridiculing bête noire JD(U)’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as “fail hai, fail hai.” To reinforce his point he has set-up ‘Lalu bhojan shivirs’ with loudspeakers blaring: “Aaiye, aaiye, hum aapko swadisht bhojan denge aur aapko pattal bhi nahin uthana padega.”

Not to be outdone, the State Administration is doling out oodles of ghee-soaked khichdi even as the mantris go on a ribbon-cutting spree of relief camps. Another Party leader has flown in few tonnes of Maggi noodles and Heinz ketchup to feed his hungry masses and blankets to cover the bodies of the homeless. Never mind the aam aadmi considers this as a cruel joke. 

More. Even as heart wrenching cries of anguish rent the air, the Chief Minister has instituted a committee to inquire to apportion where the blame lies. It is another matter that no inquiry has ever served any purpose. Its findings never see the light of day and are only an excuse to fob off inaction and criticism.

In a  shocking indictment of our disaster management preparedness reportedly the National Commission on Flood Control - set up in the wake of the disastrous 1975 floods - has remained in a state of suspended animation after the first Chairman named for it was moved to a political office. So what if over 67.4 per cent area of the country is vulnerable to natural disasters like cyclonic winds, storms and floods.

Yet the Government’s approach is one of criminal casualness. Primarily because flood policies are based on the assumption that flood disasters result from nature's actions and are not man-made. Whereas in actual fact the damage and misery are mostly caused by human error. Mainly, poor land management and myopic flood-control strategies. Said an expert, “The only way to tackle the growing menace of floods is to control deforestation, denudation and soil erosion in the watersheds of rivers."

Sadly, few politicians see any political capital to be gained from spending money on projects which bring no visible and immediate economic benefits. Besides, the only political advantages to be derived from natural calamities are when the netas can be seen to be ‘doing something.' Read make money.

Witness how leaders in Madhya Pradesh have gone into denial mode over the shocking death of over 125 children due to severe mal-nutrition in the past five months. Instead the State Administration has attributed these to disease instead. Worse, so immune has the bureaucracy become that none are willing to admit that mal-nutrition is so widespread that it has already affected over 33,000 children according to the National Family Health Survey. The reasons are well known. Abysmally poor labourers families whose daily earnings --- when they are able to find work rarely cross Rs.50 to 70. Let them die hungry.

What should one say of the happening in Mumbai, Delhi and Orissa. All stand symptomatic of the complete lawlessness and lethargy that has gripped the country. A new cult establishing an order of hatred and rage. Wherein the wails of sorrow are drowned in the cacophony of a paralytic administration which hides behind lame excuses. Where is the Iqbal of the State that ensures respect for law and order? Scandalously, barbarism is now the rhetoric of the day.

Where do we go from here? It all depends on our netagan. Will it continue to allow India to gently weep and drift towards disaster? Or will it wipe the slate clean and start afresh? Importantly, do they have the will? It is time for our leaders to take note of an Urdu couplet: “Koi humsafar, humnasheen se nahin, hamare payr ka kanta hamse hi nikle ga”. In essence, we alone can take the thorn out of our foot, none else. --- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)