Tragedies have a hierarchy too

The four digits 26 11 are no longer digits in Indian current affairs lingo.

They are an identity. They speak of a tragedy that got its brand name for its scale, the kind of people who got killed, the iconic hotspots of a big Indian city that got affected, and also the industrial big name associated with it.

On December 3 last year, thousands went on the first of its kind unorganised marches, to the Gateway, after the terror attack. The figure of deaths: 172. Compensation track record: dismal, pathetic. Conviction: lone terrorist Kasab is under trial in the super publicised event that we love to want to remember.

Interesting that the same industrial house that runs the Taj Palace would not mind influencing a government's `going easy' on Union Carbide plant that killed 10,000 people.

Compensation track record: the biggest joke.

The year it happened: 1984. Twenty five years.

The two events had a primary difference. One was about blatantly criminal negligence by a chemical plant. Another was about terrorists from an enemy country going on rampage in the heart of Mumbai.

Twenty five years. Not a long time. For millions born after the tragedy, life is everyday death.

Yet, our public consciousness has wiped the Bhopal Gas tragedy away, while we make every effort to preserve the terror-victim identity through branding, diplomatic hob-nobbing and political dialogue.

Read this piece by Sunil Jain:

One only wonders if we deserve the governments that rule us:

Carbide refuses to accept any kind of responsibility or show any remorse, other than: “The 1984 gas leak in Bhopal was a terrible tragedy that understandably continues to evoke strong emotions even 25 years later.”

He continues his argument against the blatant human rights violation in his piece further.

Various government reports, however, have given Carbide a clean chit. A report by the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) at Gwalior said the site’s waste had less toxicity than table salt. Another, by the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, acknowledged a four times higher rate of sickness among residents of areas closer to the Bhopal factory, even in those born after the accident, but said “there was no evidence to suggest that any toxic substance present in the Union Carbide factory so far has reached the ground water and then to the human body”.

So Kasab is the all important hero who we need to nail to balm our bruised national consciousness, while Union Carbide, the foreign plant that refuses responsibility, gets bailed out blatantly over the years, in spite of an entire new generation born with deformities.

We have our favourites with terrorism, tragedy and numbers don't we?

A national shame

Words that are so so familiar. National Shame. For a country that worships only cricket, it does not prick anyone's conscience one bit when its international paralympic event turns a sham.

But for those words `Bangalore, it's just not done' in the headline, it would have skipped my eye too.

Read this:

The report speaks of how international sports persons faced humiliation, got a taste of India's complete lack of disorganisation, political apathy, and openly said they would carry the story back home.

In fact, so poor was the planning of the hosting organisation Paralympics Committee of India (PCI) that the wheelchair-bound deputy president of IWAS couldn't ascend to the VIP dais because there was no ramp. He had to be lifted up the stairs by a few people. A furious Maura Strange, IWAS executive director, who was a shocked witness to the spectacle, commented tersely: "This is ridiculous. He is the deputy president!"

For God's sake, a paralympic athlete needs a ramp! All those cricket lovers out there, agreed you love cricket, but paralympic athletes are bigger heroes. They win, despite humiliation, and in spite of getting confined to wheel-chairs. Spare a thought. Protest. Protest why a politician should chair a body that must have sportspersons heading it.

It's time we hung our heads in shame.

Are we such cowards?

As candle light vigils and hero-victim stories inundate newspapers and magazines, a chilling revelation by the Mumbai top cop who got shunted out after his mismanagement on that terror night hits us where it hurts hard.

In The Week, Hasan Gafoor has opened up about how some of his colleagues locked themselves up in safe zones instead of fighting for their city.

A section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so, they chose to ignore the need of the hour.  Nothing more.

 He goes on to say further:

I told you there were a handful. For example, K.L. Prasad refused to come to the Trident and then decided against hitting the roads. Deven Bharti, K. Venkatesham and Parambir Singh did not appear keen on responding to the situation as it kept dawning on us...

..On November 28, I attended a meeting with the DGP and home minister. I was told to withdraw the NSG and instead use the Mumbai Police for the ongoing operations. The DGP told me that the entire world was watching us and so we should put an immediate end to the siege and help defuse the crisis.  This sounded ridiculous, as the NSG is an elite force that can tackle such crisis situations. I said it was preposterous to even think of taking off the NSG. I told the DGP that he could have a word with NSG chief J.K. Dutt, who was then camping in the city.

Imagine what was going on behind the scenes when we all watched the Taj dome go up in flames, when the country froze in front of TV sets, when those beasts of men went about pumping bullets into everyone, when the world was watching Mumbai!

True Mumbai police came under severe flak post 26/11, just as the Home Minister and Chief Minister were shown the door. Only, the details were not so stark. Today, the then Home Minister is back. As Home Minister. What a reward for not protecting his city then! As for the those who did not act, have we heard of anything in the name of punishment for those who evaded duty that night?

If there were cops like Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar, not to forget Tukaram Ombale hit the streets, and died on duty, their own colleagues stayed holed up in dens, refusing to answer their phones!

And just a year after 26/11, Mumbai's Police Commissioner Sivanandan `admits' to procedural lapses on 26/11. He has apologised. What exactly does that mean? That an enquiry will bring an important piece of evidence back from somewhere in the air?

Are we such cowards that we allow our colleagues to die out there while we stay cozy in our dens? Are we such cowards that we let an evidence vanish into thin air and smugly apologise for it later?

All the screaming by India in the world arena becomes meaningless when her own men act so selfish, and turn the system to their advantage.

It's only a year on. Do not be surprised if these were cops get plum promotions on some other pretext in future.

Slog at work, get beaten at home

The Women's reservation bill is a joke. Men in power (read Parliament) oppose it time and again. What I write further is not about the reservation bill though. Read on and you will know.

When a woman worker approaches the National Commission for Women saying a pilot molested her mid-air during a scuffle, NCW goes ahead and gives a `clean chit' saying she was only manhandled.

Am yet to understand the difference between manhandled and molested in legalese. In our society that takes makes even women's safety from lecherous men the responsibility of women, those women who work at Call Centres are looked at with suspicion. If a woman worker after putting together a story in all dedication at a late night hour rides back home only to get killed, her state's chief minister passes a casual remark implying she shouldn't have dared to ride alone on Delhi roads at that hour.

Women who do public transport commute wear lipstick and other cosmetics that enhance their personality. But a top party functionary had the cheek to call women protestors after last year's 26/11, `some women wearing lipstick and powder', as if, women who wear cosmetics have no right to speak up, and as if wearing cosmetics is limited to classes.

The debate around working women and their travails, their low pay at work, is a different dimension to the problem altogether. The core issue is that income from woman in a household is not considered, `the bread-winner' income, but `contribution' to the family needs, unlike a man's `head of family' tag that is presumed irrespective of whether he earns, or not.

Insecurity among the men in a family, or at workplace, is a given, and considered, `normal'. It's why pressure on women mounts soon after their maternity leave to opt out of the job. It's why late hours at work translate the language to `irresponsible bahu' among unsupportive families. After all, her `primary duty' is to cook and feed the family, not `enjoy' at office!

A two weeks old report published in The Hindu dulls the remnants of hope for Indian women who work their hours away at work and at home.

Here goes:

The study carried out between 2005 and 2006 on 750 married women aged between 16 and 25 in Bangalore, found that those who became employed during that time had an 80 per cent higher chance of being abused by their husbands than women who remained unemployed.

The report goes on to say further:

Social disapproval, a sense of inadequacy and frustration and related stressors associated with living in poverty may increase the likelihood of men perpetrating domestic violence,” she reasoned.

Fifty-seven per cent of women participating in the study reported having experienced domestic violence prior to joining the study.

What on earth is `empowerment' if women have to die on duty and get blamed for it, and return home too, to face the lash of their insecure men?

Reddy Riddle: Muddy Trouble

Internal strife in the BJP has been a norm more than news in the past year. It is something die-hard Congress supporters rejoice in. And those who hate communal politics secretly celebrate.

At the moment, one of the lone survival flagships of BJP, the Karnataka government is in deep trouble. Its core issue has been the obvious and ancient rivalry between the Lingayat chief minister Yeddyurappa and the Reddy clan members who rule Bellary district with their mining clout, backing his bitter rival within the party - Jagadish Shettar.

The backbone of Reddy power in the state is mining millions, rather trillions. So, it all boils down to a bunch of mining lords who turned billionaires and rode on another country's demand for iron ore, holding an entire state to ransom in the name of party politics. It also boils down to another country's high stakes in holding a sporting event of global multitude, nurturing political power that turned the fortunes of BJP.

And now it is the turn of these very mining rich who turned Bellary into a dust-town, to lead a coup against the chief minister. I am no supporter of the chief minister.

BJP's communal politics are something I would rather do without too. The issue however, is that factionalism of this sort coupled with the mindless politicking between Congress, the BJP and Gowda's JD (S) wiped out anything in the name of governance in Karnataka for the last six years.

Yet, a bunch of people like the Reddys and Yeddyurappa get away with all the politicking.

Do read: Letter from Bangalore by V S Karnic, IANS
Also: Reddy brothers, Kingmakers by Sanjana, Tehelka

Who is important? PM or him?

The Prime Minister goes hospital visiting, does some ribbon cutting and makes a speech probably and is due to make another speech at a convocation. The place: Chandigarh.

Who gets to die in the bargain? A kidney patient who probably came for dialysis or some medical emergency to the same hospital. Why? Because the all-important Prime Minister's security guards decided the kidney patient was a threat of some sort to their very important prime minister.

Official placating of this incident has been about `ordering a probe' - words that tire me. Every time they stare out of newsprint, don't we know how `long' it takes, and if there is that rarest of rare possibilities of the victim getting justice!

If newspapers decide to follow it up at all in the coming weeks, blame will fall on someone, probably lead to a transfer, and the matter will be dismissed. Will the man who lost his life to high-handedness of some zealous uniformed guys return to life? Did he deserve to die because his country's prime minister was visiting the hospital he paid to get treated at?

We have no answers, do we? I doubt if the prime minister has. As for the news report, it was a 230 worder with two lines that led the piece, in Hindustan Times. I expect no follow up folks.