Opinion December 6, 1980, Forty Years Ago: Qutub Tragedy

What happened at the Qutub on December 4 beggars description. The tragic deaths, of children in particular, have been mourned by the nation. Forty-five people, most of them children, had been killed in a stampede of panic stricken people when a power failure turned the historic monument into a tower of fear. Even as a one-man committee visited Qutub Minar on December 5, an element of mystery was added to the tragedy with the Delhi Municipal Corporation claiming that there was no power breakdown in the area during the time of the tragedy. A municipal corporation press release did admit that a truck collided with an electric pole leading to a power breakdown in the Katwaria Sarai area. But it said this happened two hours before the tragedy. Some of the visitors did say that the lights had been deliberately switched off by hoodlums.

Grief in Pali

There was not a single smiling face in Pali village in Haryana’s Faridabad district. The women sat crying in sympathy with those who were in bereavement. The men sat in stony silence. The streets were deserted. At the village crematorium there were 26 tiny smouldering heaps — of children who had been taken by their school for an excursion to Delhi. A visit to the Qutub Minar, Birla Mandir and the zoo. It turned out to be a death trap.

Advertisement

Wheat imports

India is importing one million tonnes of wheat from Australia in addition to the 1.5 million tonnes from the US. The consignment of wheat from the US has already begun to arrive. The decision to import wheat from the two countries was taken simultaneously. But no quantity was fixed because the government wanted to verify the quantity of wheat reserves in the country.