On Wednesday night two more bodies were pulled out of the wreckage of the collapsed hoarding at Mumbai’s Ghatkopar taking the toll in the tragedy to 16 and nearly 41 others seriously injured in what was an entirely avoidable mishap that took place on Monday during a bout of inclement weather and a dust storm.
The senior couple who had stopped to refill fuel were among the last of the bodies to be recovered from the site two days after the incident took place -- throwing light on the stark unpreparedness of the authorities in dealing with a tragedy of this scale in Mumbai.
The hoarding collapse has been among the most terrible tragedies that the exceptionally resilient city of Mumbai has faced in recent times. Yet, despite it being a completely avoidable tragedy, had the authorities in charge been serious about the jobs they do, accountability seems to be completely lacking.
Similar to the Morbi bridge tragedy in Gujarat, the tragedy is a result of a series of callous missteps, that can only point to corruption, by those in charge knowing very well that it is not they or their children who will have to pay the price. It follows a string of similar tragedies of poor infrastructure, and ignored safety norms and callous regard for rules and regulations that ultimately claims the lives of innocent victims.
Let us not forget that a majority of those who were killed in the tragedy have been the poor -- the petrol pump attendants, the rickshaw and taxi drivers and other workers who were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. That the tragedy has happened is only one part of the story. The real tragedy is that the families of those who have died will be offered token compensation, but there will be very little in regard to holding those accountable for the tragedy.
Accountability only comes if there is political will, which in this case has been completely lacking as is obvious from the tokenism that has since followed the incident. The ruling government promised compensation -- a meagre Rs 5 lakh to the families of those who have died, but more importantly, seems to have absolved themselves of any culpability for the incident. Were this to be an opposition ruled state -- every member of the ruling BJP right from the grassroot level functionary right up to the Prime Minister would have been blaming the ruling government for the tragedy and accusing them of corruption. Instead, here the game of passing the buck began even before the bodies were retrieved from the site with no one willing to owe responsibility -- moral or otherwise -- for the tragedy and have instead looked the other way when the citizenry began looking for answers.
The biggest insult for those affected by the tragedy came when the Prime Minister appeared completely oblivious to the tragedy and went ahead with his celebratory roadshow nonetheless not even making a cursory reference, much less promising that the accused would be brought to book for the tragedy.
The political class immediately commenced a blame game with the BMC blaming the Railways, the Mumbai Police and others for allowing the hoarding in the first place while a witch hunt has begun for the owner of the advertising agency that has put up the hoarding in the first place. The owner is reportedly facing several cases and is reportedly on the run and has been booked for culpable homicide.
In reality, what is needed is a thorough forensic audit of who allowed the hoarding to come up, who ignored the standing violation that it was to continue without any action and who accepted how much money and favours in exchange for ignoring the violation that it was. Anything less will only mean that those running the state care only for the power that they wield and little else.
