Avoidable tragedies in India are even worse than fateful accidents one can do little about. Monday’s train carnage in Bihar is a case study on how not to go about ensuring safety: the fecklessness shown by everyone, including local authorities, the Indian Railways and the devotees, making up a classic Indian disaster formula.
The railway authorities blame the Bihar government for not warning it about the religious congregation at Dharmara Ghat on the last Monday of Shravan month. A state that hasn’t used any funds, its own or the Centre’s, to lay an access road to such a popular destination would have no logical defence to the charge of extreme carelessness.
It’s another matter that the average Indian is more prone than most others to take a shortcut from point A to point B uncaring of the risks involved, be it walking into a train running at express speed, mowing down trespassers on the tracks, or travelling atop trains and buses. Any loss of life in this manner is a human tragedy and, just as significantly, a national loss. Early estimates of the damage caused to the Raj Rani Express and another train come to around `90 crore, not to speak of the grievous injuries sustained by the engine driver attacked by an irate mob. Minuscule aforethought could have helped avert such loss of life, but the greater tragedy is that little will be done between now and the time another such terrible event takes place. This, sadly, is the Indian way.