The Odisha Story of Solidarity

It is often during the worst of times that the best in humanity emerges. There’s a sudden surge in solidarity and even those who are uniquely disconnected and un-neighbourly, come together. Donations grow into Community Kitchens which grow into Recovery Centres which grow into a Movement.

The jaundiced walls of the Mandirs, Masjids, Gurdwaras and Churches come crumbling down as religious institutions step in to help. It’s almost like the milk of human kindness, which was waiting for a chance to emerge, is bursting at the seams.

Suddenly, we find a kind of a social Super Glue trying to unite and mend all broken hearts and homes. Even the artificial borders that could never contain the flow of flora and fauna, also graciously allow human generosity to seep in through the barriers. With a sudden explosion of cooperation, solidarity, bravery, sacrifice, and generosity, in the wake of devastation, everyone is celebrating!

The world witnessed it during Covid. Every nation experiences it during any national calamity. In Odisha, annual Super Cyclones have kept us on our toes and during the train tragedy we saw it again.

Why do we do this? What’s the psychology behind it? It certainly doesn’t seem to align with the story about a species characterised by selfishness and competition. It doesn’t even make sense with how we confine our possibilities by imposing fences and boundaries that carve into Continents, Countries and States.

Therefore, could it be that a collapse of normalcy awakens something deep within us? Something that usually doesn’t exist during our everyday grind? Perhaps these moments of exposure open up a space of fear, however brief, to imagine how we might cope in a similar situation. Thus allowing us to empathise with the victims.

Or perhaps most of us were watering our own opinionated lawns, assuming that the other person’s grass was always greener. But when calamity strikes, it also smashes all these biased, bigoted and blinkered opinions. And suddenly the idea that everything should have a price on it; that selfishness and competition are good; that division is better than unity, all these ideas just get parked elsewhere.

We realise that as a community, we have to help each other, because we are all in the same boat. And if this boat sinks, we all sink.

Yet, it is also during the worst of times that the ‘worst’ in some humans emerges. It is in small doses but enough to rock the boat. That is where the Odisha Police came out in flying colours.

The moment some misleading information started going viral on social media, about a Masjid near the accident site or how an absconding Station Master called Shareef may be responsible, the Odisha Police clarified the wrongs, urging people to desist from spreading ‘ill motivated posts’ and strictly warning that severe legal action would be taken. That was how a break was applied for those trying to give the Balasore train accident a ‘communal colour’.

It is also after the ‘shock’ of any catastrophe, that the situation becomes the perfect opportunity for powerful interests to take advantage with undue publicity. Or play with the emotions of the disoriented with the hope of turning it into a profit.

However, in such tumultuous times we all saw that these were only a part of the narrative. There was another story taking place, the Odisha Story, not the one based on selfishness, discord and discrimination, but the one based on altruism, solidarity, and social responsibility.

While the mischievous miscreants tried to apply the ‘Disaster Communalism’ formula, the mindful public chose to opt for ‘Disaster Collectivism’.

Out of the multiple questions that arise out of this totally avoidable man made calamity, the million dollar question of who is responsible should not be side tracked. Even if the media is silent, it is our duty to keep on asking until we get the answers.

Was it a human or technical error? If so, why is the focus more elsewhere and not on track upgrades and interlocking systems? Why was a CBI probe ordered before the report of the CRS (Commissioner of Railway Safety) was out? Is it because the government believes there is possible sabotage?

Why are there so many vacancies? Absence of experienced staffers, especially in safety categories is a risk railways simply cannot afford to take.

If the Army is the antibody that acts as defence against foreign mechanisms, the Railways is the heart of our country. The trains are the enormous arteries and veins that carry the common blood of our nation to and fro.

It is one amazing affordable horizontal ladder that people climb daily and head to various destinations. Railways is the vehicle of the common man, not the elite. Therefore it becomes the first and foremost duty of the government to see to its safety and security before concentrating on high speed trains and swanky stations.

Even the creator of Vande Bharat, Sudhanshu Mani feels that the ‘Kavach’ which is a great Indian development should be fast tracked and applied on every train. He also feels that more focus is required for application and maintenance of tracks. And for the interlocking and signalling safety.

He is absolutely right, because even if such mundane measures don’t have visibility, or an opportunity for photo ops, no amount of Bullet trains can run on fractured tracks and ill maintained signalling systems.

There are two types of disasters. Natural and man-made. Both have a major impact on society but the major difference is that even though some of our activities can have an indirect influence on ecological calamities, we have no absolute control over nature.

However, man- made disasters can be easily prevented, because every single act that leads to any kind of catastrophe is only our creation. We have only ourselves to blame.

But if every citizen, bureaucrat, and leader is responsible, not careless; compassionate, not callous; aware not apathetic, upright not corrupt; and if everyone did their duty out of need, not greed; then there would be no war, no crime, no arson, no terrorism, no hazardous spills, no explosions, no chemical or biological attacks. There would be no sinking Titanics. No plane crashes. And definitely no train accidents.