Uttarakhand Floods- People’s Tragedy, Politician’s Opportunity

                 A country like India which is seventh largest in terms of land mass and is home to over 1.2 billion Indians, is bound to face tragedies in one or more parts at any given time, especially when both the geography and the culture are so diverse. But what is also expected is that the lessons are learned from the prior disasters by government agencies. Alas, that seldom happens. Uttarakhand tragedy is the most recent example.

                We can’t stop natural calamities from occurring (well, according to environmentalist and geologist we can but that’s still debatable), but we can improve our response time, our coordination efforts and especially our communication systems. Consider the Uttarakhand tragedy, it’s been over a week since cloudbursts and flash-floods have left so many people dead and many more stranded, but none of the agencies have any clue as to how many people are dead or are stranded. Estimates range from one thousand to twenty thousand. It’s always the army that has to come to the rescue for domestic operations and coordinate the efforts.

                A calamity for the affected people is always life threating but for our political leaders it can be (political) life changing, for they are attracted to the calamities like bees to honey. Even though it may cut short their quarterly European retreats, the photo opportunity in local and national media outlets is too imperative to miss. This is always the case with India and its rotten political class. But there are exceptions. Some might see Gujarat chief minister’s presence in Dehradun as a political move but his actions to bring home stranded Guajarati’s in Uttarakhand was a sign of a true leader.

                Not surprisingly the chief minister of Uttarakhand in one of his rare press conferences post calamity announced a creation of an agency to see that this kind of tragedy doesn’t reprise. This has become a typical move by a political leader. This disaster might become one of the deadliest in India’s long list of disasters. But rest assured, natural or manmade, tragedy will repeat, bridges will be destroyed, buildings will collapse, people will be trapped for days, lives will be lost, children’s will become orphans, political blame game will start, aerial tours for politicians will begin, charity events will be organized, center will allocate funds of which pennies will reach the affected, and lastly the creation of a new agency will be announced!!

                A news article in one of the western dailies describing the Uttarakhand tragedy said, “Waking up when it's too late is a defining feature as far as Indians as a people are concerned”*. I was a little taken aback, but it seems so true.

* Daily Mail of UK