Kollam Temple Tragedy: Justice for victims

by Rajeev Chandrasekhar Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Accountability breeds response-ability - Stephen Covey
What we saw on Television the last few days happening at the Puttingal Devi Temple at Paravur, Kollam, was not a tragedy. It was a crime. A crime of negligence by various people and organizations that have left 111 people dead, and many more injured and fighting for their lives.

I visited the scene of the tragic deaths and injuries at the Puttingal Devi temple on Sunday, and signs of visible negligence and criminal lapses were clearly evident. No barriers to protect the thousands who gathered to watch the fireworks, no safety norms for storing the fireworks, overcrowding and countless others. All pointing to serious and criminal lapses on the part of the organisers, and importantly, the local administration officers and the police, who were mute spectators to the events that led to the unfortunate and unprecedented loss of lives and suffering to so many.

Accountability is Justice for Victims

Even as people are coming to terms with the horrendous tragedy – reasons and fixing responsibility on those responsible for this crime - there are attempts being made to move the debate and focus to an array of other issues, including ban on fireworks and religion. Bans are a lazy approach to the problem and ducks the whole issue of role and responsibility of Government in enforcing laws and safety guidelines. This alacrity of the Kerala government to start a discussion on fireworks is an obvious attempt to move the spotlight away from where it should be – that of negligence, responsibility and criminal lapse of the local administration. There are games being played and alibis being created to get the local officials off the hook! Therefore, it is no surprise that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy too suggested a ban on crackers in the frantic hope that no one talks about local administration failures.

Fireworks are not some unique Indian thing, and in fact, world over – be it in Singapore, Dubai or New York – spectacular fireworks are conducted with all safety norms in place. Also, the suggestions by some to ban fireworks as a lesson learnt from the Kollam fire tragedy is like saying the Flyover collapse in Kolkata should result in the ban of flyovers. Just like the flyover collapse in Kolkota represents a failure of Government agencies, so does the Kollam tragedy because of lack of enforcement/regulation of safety norms and laws.

There are also attempts to escape accountability with Government officials leaking documents that claim to have prohibited the fireworks display. But a closer examination of this "Order" exposes its ambiguous wording - prohibiting only "competitive" fireworks, and not fireworks. The role of local police officials and politicians who allegedly allowed this to occur also needs examination. The Paravur Police station was only a 100 meters or so from the scene of the fireworks, and therefore, the role of the Police in this tragedy also needs to be investigated.

Deter future Negligence and create a culture of law enforcement

Notwithstanding every attempt to spin this as a violation by the Organizers (and it may be well be that), the role and responsibility of Local administration to deliver on safety, law & order and compliance with law is absolute and cannot be escaped from. Similarly, the why’s and how’s of non-compliance with the law need to be examined closely. And this remains the crux of the issue - i.e., the role and responsibility of the Government in such criminal negligence. Accountability and responsibility of the safety of citizens lies with the administration, and if there has been an open defiance of laws and zero compliance towards norms of public safety, something is seriously amiss and must be fixed.

The irony is this tragedy is not the first in Kerala; in fact, more than 450 have been killed in the past even as thousands have been injured in the last three years, in similar incidents involving improper safety precautions and breaching of safety norms during fireworks displays in temples. Weak or ineffective compliance of laws by Local administration continues to create potential risks in every function of this kind.

If we are serious about justice to the victims at Puttingal, we must ensure that this crime is impartially investigated - and a crime is what it is when hundreds of innocent victims lose life and limbs due to no fault of theirs, except that of following their faith. This investigation must be impartial and expose the roles of the Local administration, Police and the Organizers. All are culpable, but more so, the Government agencies, who have a solemn responsibility towards the people and law.

The victims at Puttingal Devi temple died celebrating their faith. In their memories, we must ensure that those responsible are held to account – to deter future incidents like this. Let’s create a culture of accountability and law enforcement, and not an elitist, silly dialogue about banning fireworks!