March.06 : Sixty-five people, including 37 children and 26 women — were trampled to death, and about 200 seriously injured, at an annual religious ritual at the Mangadh ashram at Kunda, in UP’s Pratapgarh district, on Thursday. They were the poorest of the poor gathered from neighbouring areas. The promise of a free meal and the distribution of utensils and clothes typically attracts milling crowds of poverty-stricken people to such venues. The organisers temporarily shut the iron gate at the premises to restore order.
The impatient, fearing they might get left out, pushed and the gate gave way and collapsed, leading to the stampede. The lesson from the tragedy is plain enough — that governments and local administrations learn nothing from the past. Apart from killer stampedes caused by crushes of disorganised people, there are countless episodes in the country of train accidents, building collapses, roads caving in, and bridges giving way that could have been averted if due precautions had been taken by local organisers and the administration, and the “bandobast” been right. Much of this can be said to be a matter of routine anticipation, especially when large crowds are expected; none of it is rocket science. It is common knowledge that maintaining existing systems — mechanical or administrative — and following basic procedures are no longer accorded the priority they deserve. Possibly this is because the victims are usually needy people. Contrast this state of affairs with how governments go about preparing when a VIP visit is to take place.
In August 2008, 150 people had lost their lives in a stampede at the famous Naina Devi shrine in Himachal Pradesh when the rumour of a landslide caused people to rush down a stairway nearly a kilometre high. The administration had been found wanting. There were too few policemen to manage the surging crowds that were expected. Worse, the law and order men began to cane-charge the throngs trying to get out of harm’s way. This had been an exact repeat of a 1978 stampede at Naina Devi. On that occasion 65 devotees had been killed.
Wonder what the official inquiry came up with then. There would certainly have been recommendations about relevant arrangements that ought to have been made but weren’t. Eyewitness accounts suggest there weren’t adequate medical units with basic medicines to deal with crowds that would number tens of thousands, that there were no rescue units of the police to deal with a natural or man-made accident, and that there weren’t even enough vehicles to transport dead bodies and rush the injured on an emergency basis to properly functioning hospitals in the area. The story of official lethargy encountered in Himachal Pradesh can be substituted for Uttar Pradesh without changing the basic storyline. Chief minister Mayawati has ordered an inquiry, but eventually this would hardly matter. In such situations inquiries are usually conducted to ascertain casualty figures for purposes of arranging official compensation. The poorer the people who die, the less is the compensation usually. Blame is rarely apportioned to the local administration.
The kind of accident we have seen at Pratapgarh and Naina Devi is symptomatic of underdevelopment. It is a painful reminder that for all the bright city lights of which the elite make so much, the ordinary people may expect little more than disregard from governments they elect. The administration isn’t up to scratch even in the matter of crowd control. Given the extensive and acute poverty in the country, it is a given that very large numbers of people would gather if they expect a free meal or a small gift. In Lucknow some years ago, a senior BJP leader decided to gift away sarees to poor women on the eve of an election. Not unexpectedly a stampede occurred and a tragedy followed. It is a shame that the political class and the administrators who serve them can’t get the basics right in spite of years of accumulated experience.
