THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES
Special Correspondent
With the elections to the state assembly round-the-corner in December, the 100-year-old cable bridge collapse which claimed as many as 137 lives in Gujarat, has kicked up an interesting political storm. The massive death toll includes 49 children and the sitting ruling BJP party MP from Rajkot, Mohan Kundaria’s 12-member family too. The Machchhu River Bridge had been closed for maintenance for seven months. The day after the Gujarati New Year, on October 26, it was reopened to the public. The bridge collapsed, causing people to fall on top of one another. While some were spotted swimming to safety, videos showed numerous people helplessly clinging to the bridge’s wreckage. Meanwhile, Rahul Tripathi, Morbi SP has confirmed the detention of a couple of people from the management for questioning and Gujarat Police has filed an FIR against the bridge maintenance agency for ‘culpable homicide’ The BJP which has ruled the state for two and half decades since 2001 of which most of it was by the present prime minister Narendra Modi, though not facing much of an anti-incumbency factor yet, still the Opposition, especially the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress, looks determined to politicize the tragedy. Though, the outcry of the Opposition as of now confined only to the TV channels, how it is likely to take a turn, is anyone’s guess. The Election Commission is yet to announce the poll dates, yet the campaigning has reached its peak, with the of Arvind Kejriwal, spending all its energies at his command to explore the possibility to grab yet another state.
Riding high with the emphatic victory in Punjab, Kejriwal sees an outside chance to snatch the state from the BJP. He is not leaving any stone unturned by luring the Gujarat people like elsewhere in the country, of all sorts of freebies. However, neither he nor the decaying Congress has any other complaints except freebies to grab power.
The Congress, which performed relatively well in the last elections, claims that it is on a comeback train in Gujarat as the people of the state are sick with the BJP rule. Its senior party leader, who is on a ‘Bharat Jodo” yatra and passing through now the state of Telangana claimed that his party’s victory is a foregone conclusion and AAP’s claims are only in the air while the ground realities are otherwise.
Added to that, some users went on to accuse the AAP of planning the conspiracy. Some shared screenshots of certain pro-AAP tweets that claimed that there would be a “dhamaka” in Gujarat on October 30. PM Modi is presently on a Gujarat visit. Despite being pained by the incident, Modi said he would continue his election campaign to follow the “path of duty”.
Against that backdrop, the Morbi tragedy appears to have come as handy for both the Opposition parties which are vying to grab power. What is more embarrassing to the BJP is that the tragedy struck when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the state to unveil a slew of infra projects.
Responding to the tragedy with uncontrollable tears rolling down his cheeks, the Prime Minister while expressing his grief to the families assured the kith and kin of those loved ones lost in the tragedy and assured all support from the government. He had assured action against those guilty too.
reports claim that the tragic incident would have been avoidable as the Orega Company, which bagged the maintenance of the cable bridge built by Britishers, would have been more responsible. The media reports allege that the Company had not taken the clearances from the local civic authorities before throwing open the cable bridge in a great hurry on the day of Gujaratis New Year.
The company which is engaged in manufacturing Wall-clocks of Ajanta brands, which managed to bag the maintenance of the 230 meters long bridge, is solely responsible for the tragedy. And, the Opposition appears justified as none from the company were booked, though the police claimed to have nabbed four people. Yet, some genuine senior citizens in several TV channels, especially Republic TV, have some concrete suggestions to make instead of politicizing as such incidents do occur in the past in almost all party-ruled states, and the precious legal remedies were taken up, except for political slugfest.
They felt Omega Company needs to be held responsible as the onus lies on them to know what sort of repair works they have carried out since they bagged the contract for the second time and why the tragedy took place claiming so many precious lives, more so of children as it happens to be a picnic spot kind. Interestingly, amid calls for accountability a video allegedly showing minutes before the accident has gone viral, apparently showing people trying to damage the bridge. The same is being used to create a narrative that the accident was sabotage. They allege perpetrators are to be blamed for creating “resonance”, which is “basic physics that if concerted vibration is applied at multiple points on any bridge such as the wavelength of those vibrations matches the wavelength of the bridge, the force magnifies (sic)”. However, such views questioned the reliability of the video, not because it was fake, but because it was an old one.
“Talking of physics is fine, but needs little common sense. His video is about 4 Tyears old (sic),” responded another unnamed social media activist. Though the rescue operations were put in full swing engaging the army, naval, and air force teams, besides disaster management teams by the state, it could only save 117 lives, which by no means is a small effort. What is more intriguing is that when the state government cannot be blamed always for the such tragedy which may keep occurring in one corner or the other, the state Chief Minister Bhupendrabahi Patel refusal to answer media persons at the spot, when he went to visit, raises many unwarranted questions. He could have simply stopped for a while and told what the police were saying and that’s ‘we are probing the entire incident and shall come up with facts once it’s completed.” If the media continue to insist that no action has been taken against the company which is responsible for maintenance, he could have as well responded in affirmative stating; “we will spare none if they are found guilty.” Had the state CM made such a brief statement, the TV channels which are bent upon TRP ratings would not have dared to further sensationalize, at least in the public glare. As a result, the Opposition is now seeking answers from the state on whether the collapse of the British-era bridge is manmade and also due to the negligence of the state administration on the company which was supposed to be held solely responsible. According to officials, the cables supporting the suspension bridge gave way, sending about 500 people, including women and children, tumbling into the river below. On the 150-year-old bridge, which is 300 kilometers from Ahmedabad, while many were celebrating Chhath puja ceremonies?
The Gujarat government has initiated an investigation into the bridge collapse. A five-person special investigation committee was also to investigate the incident, considering the British-era bridge broke days after reopening. Many a political analysts of the firm opinion such accident are quite common and will certainly have no bearing whatsoever on elections, more so in Gujarat, where the people have that state who have seen the massive turnaround of development during the last two decades would not like to turn the clock back of those ‘dark days of administration’.
