Tragic
Hypocrisy
The
Dussehra or Vijay Dashmi celebrations on October 19 turned out to be an
avoidable tragedy in Amritsar in which more than 60 people were killed and more
than 100 seriously injured on the rail tracks by a speeding train. The
unfortunate, mostly poor migrant workers, crowd watching the burning of the
effigies of Ravana and his associates or the Ravan Dahan near the rail tracks
got involved in the tragic accident. Such incidents are repeated reminders and
wake-up calls to both the administrators and the society that we are
still to
go a long way to become a sensitive and a civilized society. There is no point
in bragging about our claims of a glorious past unless we transform our present
to at least a dignified and sustainable standard. We are yet to pay due
attention to these realities of life.
An
immediate provocation to write on the subject is the demonstrated and visible
hypocrisy by the elite in the administration, concerned outfits, politicians
and the media. The law and order authorities and the civil administration have
no time and mind to think and plan the public events to ensure public safety
and security. They remain busy in catering to the VIP led requirements. The
agencies which provide public utilities and services, railways, electricity,
public transport, fire control, first aid among others, are awfully negligent
and dismissive of public concern. It seems we have mastered the art of
blame-game to wash our hands. Politicians are self centered to the extent that
they are alive only to their limited agenda of vote banks. The media, both ‘the
Sarkari and the Durbari’ i.e. the government controlled and the pliant ones, is
totally lacking commitment to public concerns and interests. Unfortunately,
with every passing day, things are getting worse. It is a matter of deep
concern and worry. We cannot afford to be oblivious to these ground realities,
if we want to see our polity and society to stand up and face the challenges of
development and progress.
I
don’t feel like closing this without mentioning a very disturbing element which
has surfaced, of late, in the functioning of our media, particularly the
mushrooming TV channels. It was dismaying to watch the Amritsar incidents of
yesterday on some of the TV channels, the Bhagat or the Durbari channels. The
worthy anchors, while pronouncing that these incidents should be above
political considerations, they themselves were busy in politicizing the matter
by naming and blaming Navjot Kaur Sidhu wife of a Punjab Minister Navjot Singh
Sidhu of the Congress party for the incident. The surprising element was that
the script of their presentation was identical as if it was handed over to them
by some other vested agency. Who that agency could be, it is anybody’s guess.
It is a matter of shame and is the bane of our democratic system. The so called
fourth pillar of our polity has failed us.
There
is no point in blaming the innocent crowd who went to see and join the
festivities of Dussehra. They need to be educated and informed by the concerned
authorities of the “Does and Don’ts” of such gatherings. The administrators and
politicians should be caring and sensitive. The media should be vigilant and
not pliant to the power centers. But unfortunately they crawl where they are asked
to bend and still they pat themselves to be called free and fair. We are to go
a long way.
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