This is the one criminal lapse which both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United) would like everyone to forget. Though the BJP is reminded 17 years later that Nitish Kumar and Shivanand Tiwari were also involved in the fodder scam and blames the post-June 16 Janata Dal (United) government for the Bagaha police firing, Bodh Gaya blasts, Saran mid-day meal tragedy and serial blasts on Hunkar Rally day yet the saffron party is totally silent on the last year’s Chhath day tragedy which took the lives of a large number of people, almost all of them children and women.
The reason is obvious: not only BJP was in power then most of its leaders––prominently the then deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi––were in the forefront of preparation for Chhath as chief minister Nitish Kumar left for a week long tour to Pakistan after his November 4 Adhikar Rally. In fact he celebrated Diwali in that neighbouring country and arrived only on the eve of Chhath.
The tragic death of officially 20 people––though most eyewitnesses whom this correspondent had talked to contest this figure––sent shock waves throughout the country as the state administration was completely caught off guard.
It was not just the case of the collapse of the bamboo bridge or the power cut at Adalat Ghat on that fateful November 19 evening at the time of offering argya, which raised many eyebrows. What was more appalling is that there was absolutely no preparation whatsoever in PMCH and the authorities were not geared up for any emergency like situation. So when there was shortage of ambulance victims were rushed to hospital in private vehicles, rickshaws, two-wheelers and even on the laps not by personnel of any disaster response force but the local population.
It was for the first time in state history that the accident victims had to be shifted to Arvind Hospital and Magadh Hospital from PMCH as the latter was not at all ready for the situation. Though people normally do not turn violent during Chhath yet the crowd had became too restive.
Chhath is one such occasion when lakhs of people assemble and authorities are supposed to be ready for any eventuality. Those who have covered the Alliance Air crash of July 2000 near Patna airport and last year’s Chhath mishap can make out the difference. Thouth PMCH was notorious for inefficiency then too yet it appeared better prepared 12 years back than in 2012 Chhath day disaster though the first accident took place all out of sudden while for the second the civil administration was expected to make advance preparations.
Former general secretary of People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) Kishori Das––who was very much on the bank of river Ganga at the time of mishap as his wife was observing Chhath––told this correspondent that had the local people, many of them Muslim youths of Sabzibagh, not volunteered and rushed for rescue work the toll would have been higher.
Anyway as usual, chief minister Nitish Kumar did not rush to console the relatives of victims. Instead, in a Press conference that very night he tried to defend his government. The entire BJP lot stood silently behind him. In fact they were busy cooking up conspiracy theories to shift the blame on some imaginary factors.
Though the probe was ordered the citizens have not heard of it in the last one year. The media has not dared to do any follow up on this count as if nothing had happened in the state capital. Nobody raised the question as to why the victims could not be attended properly when the accident occurred so near to the biggest hospital of the state. Just imagine the fate of victims of far off place.
The state authority is yet to take any action against anyone. Nobody has heard since then how the power supply actually got snapped. Why was the hospital totally unprepared? After all who is investigating the incident?
Yes, the opposition RJD did raise the issue sometimes but in the absence of the proper media coverage the voice remained too meek. The BJP, which is getting full media support now for obvious reasons, is not raising the issue though it is busy accusing Nitish Kumar for all the ‘crimes’ he had committed since he had joined politics four decades back.
Since raising the issue of death of so many Chhath devotees do not accrue any political mileage even the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP––if not the prime ministerial nominee––does not deem it fit to open his mouth.
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