Seething with anger at the monumental lapses by officialdom in handling public events and tragedies that occur in India, with reference to the tragedy on tracks in Amritsar, the author says that perhaps Ravan has rattled us from our deep slumber. If we are still asleep, then life will come full circle with a similar incident somewhere else and the blame games will be played all over again.

The globally-reported and increasingly unfolding Amritsar train tragedy at the Ravan- burning public event (‘Dussehra’) held on 19 October 2018, involving the gruesome deaths of 60 or so persons; once more proves to be a vivid exposure of the utter fiasco and chaos that characterises most such public happenings in India.

The tragedy involved unidentified babies as survivors, being found lying on their own after the train deaths occurred, on or around the Joda Phatak area of the Amritsar city train-track, as their next of kin appeared to have been killed in the crushing slaughter of the high-speed train racing through densely packed crowds stood on and around the train-track.

The location of this open air public event was in proximity to a major rail-track. It first and foremostly, begs the question WHY?

This public event was an open affair, with no crowd control, no health and safety checks in advance nor any on the spot health and safety monitoring. Why was it being held in such close proximity to a high-speed train-track?  Are such horrendous omissions and lapses, the norm in Indian public functions?

In true Indian custom and practise, it was meant to be a fun, frolic of burning an effigy, lots of fireworks, noise, celebration and fanfare.  Why was there no technical strictures of tight controls, health and safety inspectors or monitors, policing?

The tragedy has brought into focus the role of the police, local authorities, Indian politicians, the event organisers, chief guests like the wife of Navjot Sidhu MP, etc. On top of this, you have multiple unanswered questions and naturally angry and frustrated individuals who have lost loved ones in this tragedy of disorder, chaos and diverting the blame.

“The location of this open air public event was in proximity to a major rail-track. It first and foremostly, begs the question WHY?”

Much can be extrapolated directly from the extensive array of media reports from within India and abroad. The prime question that agonises and pierces me is, “Do the people themselves and the Indian government value human life?”. Is this how the Indian mind-set, officialdom and society itself conduct their public life and gatherings?

The small triangular ground, cheek-by-jowl with the tracks left little room for escape in case of an accident. Though the organisers did warn the people to stay away from the tracks, the very nature of the place was like a disaster waiting to happen. With no surveillance system of tracks –manual or electronic, the descent on to the tracks, legally speaking was trespassing and the Railway authorities were not “responsible” in any way.

Passing the buck is an established, enduring Indian social and political game. From mud-houses to company boardrooms to the corridors of power, nobody wants to be held responsible. The whole structure of authority and delegation is so devised that you keep going around, moving in circles and ultimately either people forget or either the executive or the judiciary punishes some scapegoats.Thus, the problem continues to pester, to recur once again, may be somewhere else, after a few days, weeks, months or years; with no lessons learnt whatsoever.

Throughout the customary shifting and exchange of blame between politicians, the local authorities, the government; some very basic questions appear to be deliberately or stupidly ignored. The most basic and fundamental of which is why was this massive scale, noisy public event being held in such dangerous proximity to a major railway track, with a high-speed train imminent? This is surely a glaring basic level lapse, exposing the attendees to imminent risk of danger. The lapse is draconian!

The fact that the event organisers and those that gave them supposed permission had chosen to override this very obvious fault-line, and proceed with such a major event, late into the evening, with loud noise, fireworks and burning of a grandiose constructed effigy of Ravan, speeches from special guests like Navjot Kaur Sidhu (maverick leader Navjot Sidhu’s wife); reveals a moronic and callous level of disdain for any kind of health and safety and people welfare.

Unfortunately, modern India is a place which continues to shock us all the time with such monumental lapses and tragedies. Such agonising and devastating maladministration and lapse of public level safe governance, contrasts enormously with the ordinary goodness, kindness and affability of the ordinary Indian peoples, their hospitality, the diverse mesmerizing physical beauty of the Indian continent. Such good and beauty sits side-by-side with such human and governmental failure.

“Such agonising and devastating maladministration and lapse of public level safe governance, contrasts enormously with the ordinary goodness, kindness and affability of the ordinary Indian peoples, their hospitality, the diverse mesmerizing physical beauty of the Indian continent.”

Indeed, the sheer attitudinal failure and contempt shown by the organisers, is epitomised in the recorded comments of one of the key event organisers. When addressing the event itself. The chief organiser, is heard on published recordings,  proudly and brashly telling Dr Kaur (the guest speaker) that 5,000 people are standing on the tracks. “They are not bothered about the trains – not even if 500 trains cross the tracks.”

This kind of monumentally perverse attitude is an attitude which governs, administers and dominates the Indian state: its public service delivery, its policing, its governance, its law and order, and its downtrodden, powerless society of 1.5 billion.

The scale of the 360 degree Indian mess, the total absence of health and safety, maladministration, carelessness and dehumanisation characterises the booming, expanding, militarily mammoth modern India.

India may have the 4th largest army and maybe it is the single biggest arms purchaser in the world. The present right wingers want us to believe that it has a “booming economy.”

This is all paper and official India. The real, grass-roots India is dying and suffering in the real mess that remains the core of 70-year underdeveloped India. Lack of housing, jobs, cleanliness, roads, schools, medication, education, law and order, human rights remain the core realities of the ordinary Indian.

Hopefully, when the blame game over the Amritsar train tragedy, has run out of excuses and obfuscations; the Indian politicians and government will not turn to blaming Pakistan for a tragedy that is entirely of its own making.

Amidst this horrifying reminder of the rot that pervades public life in India; is the heroism of Dalbir Singh. He was present at the public event, playing the notorious Ravan in the enactment of Ramayana. Paradoxically, this maligned Ravan of the day, saved 8 lives before he too was killed by the speeding train. It appears that the spirit and soul of the maligned Ravan, who has been monumentally burnt for centuries, has sent out a striking message to whole Indian establishment and directly to the people that the entire fiasco and charade that you are living with is going to turn on you.

The outpour of grief, frustration and anger of the surviving victims of the Amritsar train tragedy, is visible and entirely understandable. Hopefully, that grief and anger can be directed into a positive energy for wake up and change against an entrenched, putrefying overbearing Indian establishment.