Orissa8217;s agony

There are moments in the life of a nation when every citizen is enjoined to stand up and be counted. Three months ago, it was the Kargil ...

There are moments in the life of a nation when every citizen is enjoined to stand up and be counted. Three months ago, it was the Kargil war that demanded this. The threat to the country8217;s borders united the nation as never before and witnessed a rare display of public concern and generosity. The unprecedented calamity that visited Orissa last week demands just such a response, it demands just such concern, just such generosity. Today this state, which even in more tranquil times houses some of the country8217;s poorest and most marginalised communities, is caught in a swirl of despair.

Two cyclones in quick succession the last rated as the worst ever to have hit the region in the entire century have made the lives of at least 15 million people a nightmare and the number of dead is expected to be in the thousands. Cuttack district alone has reported over 5,000 deaths. The tragedy raises images of mass destruction that recall the killer wave that lashed the Andhra Pradesh coast in 1977, and the Uttarakhandand Latur earthquakes of 1991 and 1993, images that have now been seared into the consciousness of the nation.

The Armed Forces have chosen to codename their rescue operations in the state as Operation Sahayta8217; and have rushed over 30 columns to the troubled state. But Operation Sahayta must not be just the Army8217;s alone, it must come to define the national response. What was particularly tragic was the fact that the state practically fell off the national map, with every modern communication having failed it in its hour of crisis. This meant that even though the second cyclone was anticipated, and presumably planned for, when it did hit, Orissa was left completely bereft of succour and its people left to battle the elements with no power, no water, no food supply, no telecommunications to aid them.

It would be easy to blame the state and Central governments for this abject failure. But for the immediate present, at least, there is no scope for indulging in the blame game. Since state elections are just afew months away, politicians 8212; always anxious to fish in troubled waters 8212; may be tempted to extract some mileage for themselves out of this tragedy. They should be swiftly and firmly discouraged from doing so. Here the immediate and spontaneous response from the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Orissa8217;s neighbouring states, should serve as a worthy example. M. Karunanidhi was among the first to offer monetary support to his beleaguered counterpart and Chandrababu Naidu has made available food, medicines and a special task force for rescue operations. Having faced such tragic developments in the fairly recent past, these leaders are obviously much more sensitive to the human devastation they portend. It is precisely such an attitude that is called for at this juncture. The energies of politicians, administrators, as indeed that of the people at large, must be directed in a single-minded manner to the task at hand. The task of rescuing and rebuilding, the task of bringing a modicum ofnormalcy to the affected people in the immediate present and some lasting security to their lives in the future. While the Prime Minister stopped short of declaring the Orissa disaster as a national calamity, presumably awaiting a fuller report on it, his government should now waste no more time in doing so, given the evidence at hand.