Shiban Khaibri
Horrifying and spine chilling just to think about how it took just eight seconds to cause a dance of the most agonizing death recently in Puttingal temple at Kollam Kerala as a result of host of the factors starting from a misconceived notion of faith, celebrating for which there was a competition of displaying of fireworks, along with or facilitated by total failure in discharging of duties by administrative, intelligence, Police and environmental authorities. 112 people were roasted alive and 383 were injured, many of them with serious burn injuries, many struggling with life and agonizing death while many have had to get their limbs amputated to resolve infectious gangrene. In other words, those who died and those who became physically handicapped for the entire life, added to them the struggling wounded present a ghastly picture and to quote the Prime Minister, “Let none in this world die like this.” Almost all of us know the extent of this tragedy which has caused so much of human loss but could it not have been averted and whether those who were responsible to cause death and destruction of such a magnitude could be very harshly punished.
We are told to “wait” for as many as six months in order to “know” as to what really happened is just like a patient needing immediate surgery is asked to wait for a few months, even years, till a prospective surgeon could be trained to conduct the required surgery. The fate of such patient could be visualized as after six months who would remember , at least with the same anguish and indignation , as to how 112 precious human lives got perished within minutes and hundreds maimed due to severe burns and injuries. We call it in layman’s parlance “Let the dust settle”. It seems ludicrous that 180 days are lavishly granted to a commission of enquiry to “find out” how the fire broke out. Moreover, could we have a faint idea, even regarding anyone having been punished for being directly or indirectly responsible, whether singly or collectively, for causing accidents in temples or religious fairs and on occasions of taking holy dips in rivers? Going through some of the most heart rending incidents, one is bound to draw such inferences as
On Jan 26, 2005 – More than 350 devotees were killed at Mandher Devi temple religious fair in Satara, Maharashtra and over 200 were injured. On August 3, 2006 in Naina Devi temple, Himachal Pradesh, 150 Bhaktas were killed and 410 injured. Again on Sept 30, 2008 in Jodhpur Rajasthan, 150 devotees were killed and 200 injured during Navratra festival. In 2010 – at Ram Janki Temple, Pratapgarh Uttar Pradesh 63 devotees were killed and scores injured. Jan14, 2011 saw 106 pilgrims killed and as many injured in Sabarimala temple, Kerala; and on Nov.8, same year, 22 pilgrims were killed in Har Ki Podhi Ghat in Ganga at Haridwar. On Nov 19, 2012, in Patna 20 pilgrims were killed; and in February and Oct 2013 as many as 36 pilgrims were killed and many injured in UP and 89 killed and 100 injured in Madhya Pradesh respectively. In 2014 and 2015, we lost as many as 72 pilgrims and nearly 100 injured in Mumbai, Patna and Andhra Pradesh combined. Nothing is known about “enquiries” and “probes” and more importantly how many responsible were speedily prosecuted and punished. Saving of hide by each suspected of dereliction of duty in averting tragedies having all along been managed, puts question marks on the prospects of the findings of the enquiry commission in the current horrifying tragedy as to how the findings could lead to and translate in punishing the ones responsible for this human disaster. Equally, how it could serve as a deterrent for future and motivate the concerned in the Police, administration, environment areas and managerial committees in institutions to be increasingly on the qui vive.
Since there is the coalition government and Assembly elections are on the anvil in Kerala, the leading coalition partner, the Congress took on the defensive line harping on “the temple management ignored the government order” and almost all spokespersons parroted the same line on all TV Channels, thus trying to defending the administration right from the CM down to the DC and the concerned Police authorities. The competitive fire works and of very high potency were there for hours together, did not the administrative machinery observe that the “advisory” was being flouted, and was not its duty to implement the advisory in letter and spirit, and the Police to swing into action to book the violators of the “advisory” as also was it not the duty of the environment authorities to contact Police as clouds of deadly thick smoke emanating from these fireworks were polluting the atmosphere besides the deafening noise creating huge noise pollution?
It is beyond imagination that these fireworks are mistakenly rather ignorantly considered something to having connections with the religious celebrations of this temple. Very pertinent questions arise as to how come displaying of fireworks and that too of high potency, could be a matter of faith? At least nowhere, in any spiritual scriptures, anywhere is this nonsense permitted, even remotely. Traditions too cannot allow using combustible and highly inflammable substances in narrower spaces, where people live in close proximity and where no distance is maintained as a precautionary safety measure, between the converged crowds in thousands and playing of the massive fireworks. Religious places are visited for gaining solace, calm, peace and tranquility and not for accentuating huge bouts of intolerable decibels in terms of loudspeaker noises, even during dead of the night and worst bursting (rather exploding) of such high powered crackers where initial investigations do not rule out smuggling in the premises, of many dynamite sticks. Turning solemn prayers and worships into competitive carnivals risking the lives of the devotees, is both a sin as well as a brazen illegal act.
It is learnt that the notice from the District collector having “not allowed” using of fireworks was sent to the temple management just as a paper work, to cover appendix for obvious reasons and many members on the managing committee of the temple, having political connections with a prominent political party, as per chilling witness account, were seen boasting of having “got it” which means implicit “go ahead” by the authorities. The other version of the story is that the Police authorities were not in acquiesce of the “ban advisory” and it was duly conveyed to the District administrative office. It is a pity, a stratagem, an avoidable sheer wastage of money and resources that nearly Rs. 8000 crore are “burnt” (read mercilessly wasted) annually in Kerala on these fireworks as a routine celebrations of festivals and rituals in temples. These all need to be banned very strictly which means no violation of any religious beliefs, nor does it amount to anything, not even remotely to any blasphemy. Moreover, as most of the temples are reportedly under the management and control of the state government, it should not be any difficult to impose total ban on crackers and firework. Some apologists have termed the gruesome roasting alive of innocent devotees as an “act of God” just like crumbling of Kolkota flyover was termed as “an act of God”. There cannot be any further “insult” to God than attributing human blunders committed willfully and for a sport, to the “will of God”. It should weigh heavy on the conscience of the perpetrators of this crime as the act is more than a culpable homicide (not) amounting to murder (IPC section 304) and the guilty need to be booked under other sections of the IPC like (120 A) for criminal conspiracy because entire families have perished or the bread earners in the family have lost their lives and many stand incapacitated physically for the rest of their life.
The argument is not confined to this bitter truth as to why such tragedies and accidents take place in respect of temples, almost at regular intervals with impunity but the governments, both at the states and at the centre, hardly learn any lessons and come up with innovative ways to regulate, if not control in the strict sense, such “festivities” related to “conventions, traditions and beliefs” so that innocent devotees do not get trapped, injured and perished in fires, stampedes, at bathing Ghats , railway stations or at Holy shrines ( like the Badrinath temple tragedy in 2013). The system of checks and balances, crowd management, traffic management and then, how much is our Disaster Management getting readied hurriedly, all is full of flaws and where responsibilities are passed on to one another and it is nowhere in sight that the ailing system is on the mending hand or improving in a major way. The issues under reference being an acid test for all concerned, let us wait even for six months.
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