With much anguish

Friday's fire in TN is another wake up call to the millions who depend upon a callous administrative system for our very safety and survival. Those who do not enforce the law are as guilty as those who break it. What's the point of having rules,regulations and safety standards for buildings, roads and every @*#&$^*@& aspect of our life when a blind eye is turned every single time. Apparently, our babu's are good only for greasing their palms, lives be damned.

The sheer apathy towards the loss of human life in recent times is evident everywhere - from the token sound bytes towards the farmers suicides, the floods in NE India, to the teachers abandoning their charges in TN, escaping while the kids burnt alive. The Maharashtra govt announced a one lakh relief to every farmers family who committed suicide if it could be proved that the death was due to debt, no-show of the rains etc. What I fail to understand is why we have to be so dependent on the monsoons for survival? With some of the best technological minds on the planet, why is it so difficult to build a system where water can be harvested and used when necessary? It's been done in other places, but in our country, we still look to the sky for deliverance in some places, whereas in others they pray for No Rain, because they've had enough.

Even 57 years after independence, we still don't have
accountability in a system thats increasingly growing shallow and only mouths sugar coated words of comfort. Looking at the pictures and stories of the floods in Bihar one can only wonder at the nine helicopters (out of which two are not functioning now) that are being used to rescue the thousands of floating people. Just nine copters. And the defence budget for this year will feed an entire state for a year. Just nine...

Relief always comes only after the tragedy. The policy of prevention,unfortunately, is not an Indian reality. Our politicians, administrators and government services can't afford to lose the publicity they get during such times. For all of them, tragedies are indeed the best public relations opportunities.

And another 57 years will go by.
And Vidharba will still dry up.
And Assam, Bihar and Orrisa will still flood.
And Farmers in AP will still kill themselves over their withering crops.
And soldiers will die needlessly everyday.
And Parliament security will continue to get even more hi-tech, protecting those who don't contribute anything to the nation, but the nation puts them back there.Everytime.
Another 57 years.
And we'll still feel like it's today.

With much anguish,
MW