Uttarakhand’s leadership is to blame for tragedy, not Narendra Modi: Sandhya Jain. The unseemly controversy over assistance rendered and offered by a State Chief Minister to flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, particularly the peevish behaviour of the Union Home Minister in trying to obstruct his visit on grounds that it could hinder relief efforts, deserves careful scrutiny on several counts. What is relevant here is a phenomenon veterans call ‘two stories for none’. This entails writing a sensational story to grab eyeballs and a byline on page one, only to have to write another story the next day retracting the first one! In modern parlance, we call it ‘plant’ journalism. To begin with, well after news of unprecedented floods reached the capital, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, far from rustling up rescue and relief measures on a war footing, continued to believe that it would be business as usual after a few days, and did not cancel his scheduled visit to Switzerland. This led a bemused Ministry of External Affairs, as per protocol, to issue the routine information regarding the Chief Minister’s proposed trip, along with his wife and some officials. The purpose of the visit remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that it took public outrage and a belated understanding of the dimensions of the unfolding tragedy for Vijay Bahuguna to finally call off his summer holiday. Then, as inclement weather frequently impeded the rescue mission by the Air Force and Army jawans, and doubtless played a role in the crash of two helicopters and death of all 20 crew and passengers in one, the issue of VIP visits during crises bears close scrutiny. On June 19, 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi took a two-hour aerial survey of the flood-affected region. This would have disrupted air rescue efforts by a minimum of four hours, as no other aircraft is allowed to fly for a minimum of one hour before and after a heavy duty VIP tour, and certainly not while the aerial survey is on (standard operating procedure). As there was exceptionally clear weather that day, and heavy rains on subsequent days compounded the misery and suffering of the stranded victims, and would have impacted on the death toll, the VIP visit in the ‘golden hour’ period when maximum effort could save maximum lives, calls for serious explanation. It compounds public anger that Sonia Gandhi travelled – not in an ordinary Army helicopter – but in a super luxurious Embry, and was vain enough not to skip her obsessive addiction for a photo opportunity. So we have a well-posed photograph of the lady, dressed primly in a black and white sari, looking out of the window, as a bouquet of flowers and a plate of plump grapes adorn a table in the ornately appointed chopper. After all, what’s a working visit without some refreshments? The Prime Minister wisely abstained from depicting himself amidst such opulence. Cut to June 22, when the Gujarat Chief Minister, despite being told he was ‘most unwanted’, nevertheless visited a relief camp at Haridwar. He reportedly brought along a medical team and some relief supplies to help the victims as they reached the plains district. The very next day, however, a major national daily carried a ‘detailed report’ of his visit, explaining how Modi had managed in just two days in the devastated State to rile the regime by simultaneously conducting rescue operations at Kedarnath, Badrinath and Uttarkashi, and bring 15,000 stranded Gujarati pilgrims back home. The report dubbed this a Rambo-style operation. It is pertinent that nowhere in the Gujarat Government’s or Chief Minister’s official website was such a claim made. No BJP leader was cited as the source. It is true that the party was lethargic in rebutting the story and possibly failed to realise that it was not a ‘free’ build-up of the Gujarat strongman, but a prelude to a serious ambush. Three days later, the same newspaper hosted a lead opinion piece lambasting this claim as “a barefaced, cynical lie”. To his credit, the writer had learnt his mathematics lessons in school, and did elaborate sums to prove that even with a fleet of 80 Innovas (figure in the original story / plant), Narendra Modi could not have managed to reach Kedarnath and other places to rescue 15,000 persons in one day, and then pack them off to Gujarat. To protect himself against a possible defamation charge, the writer attributed the ‘rescue’ story to an American public relations company, and launched into a vituperative drive against the Chief Minister. It is an advance warning about the kind of tirades to expect in coming weeks and months, and that is a true value of the article. We now come to June 24. Nine days after the floods hit Uttarakhand, Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, the glitterati’s favourite choice as next Prime Minister, returned from a holiday in Sweden after the national clamour about his whereabouts became too loud to ignore. He flagged off some trucks containing relief supplies for the flood victims, the dispatch of which was held up for days to await his return – and the photo-opportunity it provided him and his mother. The BJP simply collected and packed off its relief supplies, saying flagging off ceremonies were disrespectful of the victims. On June 25, Rahul Gandhi flew off to Uttarakhand to see the calamity for himself, prompting Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to ‘withdraw’ his ban on VIP visits. There were the usual barefaced lies (remember his impromptu journey in a conveniently empty suburban train in Mumbai?) regarding the ‘private’ visit without even informing the chief minister, the chief secretary, or anyone in the administration so that no one was disturbed in any way, and so on. The truth, it turned out, was the officers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police had to vacate their quarters to accommodate Rahul Gandhi and his security personnel (no, they weren’t travelling incognito after all). Yet, Congress continued to claim that the belated visit in no way hampered relief work nor diverted State resources at a critical time for the victims! Diasaster management Rahul Gandhi style Analysing the disaster, Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retd), notes that the authorities failed to take heed from previous similar calamities in Uttarakhand, even after the CAG warned that the State was poorly geared for disaster relief and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is inadequately organised or equipped. He expressed disapproval at Vijay Bahugana, Sushil Shinde and Harish Rawat camping at Dehradun and “doing little beyond concentrating in asking donations.” The trio never once thought of collecting pre-cooked food packets, plastic sheets, or blankets, and having them air dropped / air landed for stranded victims. The Army did what it could on its own, with no support from the civil administration. Katoch asked the Centre to inform the nation about the National Plan for Environmental Security, if one exists, or to at least admit that there is none. In the words of a famous television anchor, the nation demands an answer.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:26:21 +0000
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