#dnaEdit: Crushed to death

Then the rest of the country was making merry on Dussehra, at least 33 lives were lost in a stampede at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Friday evening. The deceased, mostly women and children, were part of a mammoth gathering of five-lakh people who had assembled to watch Ravan Vadh, an annual ritual on the last day of Durga Puja. Bihar’s Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi was at the venue and soon after he and other VIPs had left, a rumour about a live electrical wire — some say a loud noise caused by the snapping of an electric pole — triggered panic. Since the police had been pressed into the service of the CM and the dignitaries, they could do little to restore order or ensure a safe passage to the people. It was a dimly-lit ground where most electric bulbs were not working. For a crowd desperate to get out, the passage to the nearest exit, which had become narrow because of the construction work of an overbridge, only made matters worse.

The toll could have been much higher, but the lessons from the tragedy will soon be forgotten. In India, public safety has never been a concern for the administration — evident from the fact that stampedes occur at regular intervals

The maidan, located in the heart of the state capital, had earlier witnessed bomb blasts during Narendra Modi’s election rally last October. It could have been the reason for fear this time. But, the fact that every year such a congregation takes place for the Dussehra spectacle should have made the state government aware of the importance of crowd control. Clearly, the number of policemen at the venue wasn’t enough for such an event. It took no less than a tragic incident to highlight that the roads around the maidan get extremely congested during the evening, and that such a popular venue lacks proper lighting facilities. Ironically, not long ago former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar used to be credited for turning Bihar into a success story. Today, most of the claims of the state’s spectacular turnaround lie shattered. Two years ago when 22 people died in the Adalat Ghat stampede on the Ganga, it should have been an eye-opener for the state government.

It’s hardly surprising that in the land of many faiths and denominations, religious occasions sometimes turn into nightmares. In the past few years over a thousand people have been crushed to death. The stampede on October 13 last year on a bridge near a temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district had claimed over 90 lives. More than 1,50,000 devotees had come to celebrate Dussehra at the temple.

Two of the worst stampedes in recent times happened in 2005 and 2008. In the former 350 people were killed at a religious fair at Mandher Devi temple in Maharashtra’s Satara district. The Naina Devi Temple tragedy in Himachal Pradesh in 2008 led to 160 deaths. In Mumbai’s Malabar Hill, 18 people had died due to suffocation when a sea of humanity had gathered to pay respect at the funeral ceremony of Dawoodi Bohra spiritual leader Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin, this year.

Narendra Modi and Manjhi must know that an ex gratia of Rs2 lakh from the Centre and another Rs3 lakh from the state government for the next of kin of the deceased is mere tokenism. A stampede is a third-world phenomenon when fear overtakes order and discipline. Unless, there are adequate police personnel and volunteers to manage crowds, innocents will continue to die under the heels of fellow human beings.