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Devendra Gautam devendra.raj.gautam@gmail.com

Jul 4, 2024, 9:50 AM (7 days ago)
to People's

May the secular deities protect us all

Devendra Gautam

The recent collapse of a portion of a roof at the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s terminal 1, which is used for domestic operations, reminded this scribe of his stopover at New Delhi en route to Bangalore in the first week of April. 

Reading about the June 28 incident that caused the death of an individual and injuries to around eight others came as a shock months after a brief stop that offered passing glimpses of modern infrastructure at a sprawling airport. While writing this piece amid yet another change of guard in the offing, heart-rending scenes from our very own Tribhuvan International Airport played out, in particular scenes from the chock-a-block smoking chamber where migrant workers bound for different countries make their last calls from their home turf to their near and dear ones amid a thick cloud of cigarette smoke. 

While our Neros continue to play the flute even as Nepal burns, our utmost duty is to not seek to douse the fast-spreading fire but leave the motherland, the fatherland and the ancestral land once and for all if possible, for greener pastures, right? At this rate, our ‘patriotism’ will surely find space in the annals of history, don’t you think? 


What kind of a demographic shift will this exodus of a restless people always looking for the proverbial land of milk and honey bring to a country caught in the Great Himalayan Game, with its open borders exposing it further to serious risks from a restive neighborhood? Seated uncomfortably in a region that has become a black hole for weaker sovereign territories, how will this country, made weaker and weaker over decades as part of sinister designs, survive a deepening crisis?


Back to the alien corn that is witnessing partial collapse of its infrastructure, old and new.  

India’s premier TV channel, NDTV, reports under the byline of Tanishq Punjabi from New Delhi (see: www.ndtv.com/india-news/potholes-on-roads-leakage-at-ram-temple-concerns-over-ayodhyas): Six months after the grand opening of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the first round of showers has caused heavy waterlogging in the temple town raising questions over its swift and massive infrastructure overhaul. 

Per the report, the newly built Ram Path road in Ayodhya — which leads to the Ram Temple — has suffered several cave-ins since seasonal rain hit the temple town. After potholes came up on the 14-km stretch, authorities said they immediately got the road repaired to avoid any inconvenience for the devotees, goes the report, adding that the Yogi Adityanath government had suspended six civic officials over "gross negligence".


Reports in the Indian media also indicate that India’s mountain states like Uttarakhand, which have been witnessing infrastructure development frenzy over the years, are at high risk. 


Per the reports, land subsidence resulting from infra development works in the town of Joshimath may have caused the collapse of several structures, including houses and a temple in Joshimath in the midnight hours of January 2-3, 2023. 


The Joshimath collapse is perhaps another reminder from Mother Nature and Father Sky to the whole of humanity to live in harmony with them instead of seeking to lord over them in the name of development. A major reminder came to Uttarakhand on June 16, 2013, when a cloudburst caused floods and landslides that destroyed several rural and urban settlements, and swept away thousands of people.

With an estimated GDP of $3.7 trillion notwithstanding a considerable rich-poor divide, the world’s fifth largest economy equipped with robust state organs, including powerful defence-security apparatuses, and diverse human resources is far more well-prepared to deal with natural and manmade disasters than us. 

Amid the rains, landslides, lightening and looming threats of glacial lake outburst floods, amid deaths, destruction, injuries and missing reports marking what is a 'normal monsoon' for our officialdom, the political and bureaucratic leadership of this country, considered highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, is seeking to build on top of fragile mountains reservoir-based export-oriented multipurpose projects with water, energy and irrigation components without taking into account the catastrophe such projects may bring to a people of an ill-prepared, ill-governed and instability-plagued country. Apparently in this rigged system, the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. 


May Lord Pashupatinath and secular deities protect us all from supernatural, natural and manmade disasters.

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