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ordid politics over the devastating train acci- Delhi, the CM visited the accident site and various
dent on Dussehra near Jaura Fatak in Krishna hospitals. He set up three-member crisis manage-
Nagar area of Amritsar, which officially left ment panel headed by the senior most Minister,
S 59 dead and 137 injured, is showing no sign of Brahm Mohindra, to initiate and monitor relief and
stopping. Since the ill-fated evening on October 19, wild rehabilitation measures. Besides magisterial probe
allegations by political rivals, especially targeting the and 5 lakh compensation to the kin of the deceased and
Congress Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, in whose Amrit- 50,000 to those injured, he ordered the state and dis-
sar East Assembly constituency the tragedy struck, have trict administration to focus first on providing relief to
made the politics being played over the incident dirtier the victims including compensation cheques, free medi-
with every passing day. cal treatment and helping in identification of the bodies
Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who was the chief and their proper cremation.
guest at the Dussehra function, is being hauled over the Yet, all this was not enough in the eyes of the
coals as part of the political tirade unleashed against the opposition parties who seemed hell bent on trashing
Sidhu couple. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the main the government, the Sidhus, administration, the rail-
rival of the ruling Congress in the state, has gone to the ways authorities to score political points instead of
extent of publicly declaring the incident as the doing of lending a helping hand in dealing with tragic incident
the Sidhu couple and claimed that it was no accident but collectively. As they were busy in political bashing
a “massacre”. So, Sidhu, the Minister should be imme- on the fateful night, those present claimed slogans of
diately dropped from the Cabinet and cases registered RSS zindabad were heard on the premises of the Guru
against the couple and event’s organisers who are well Nanak Hospital attached with the Government Medical
known supporters of Sidhu. College (GMC), Amritsar, the volunteers of the NGOs were
What makes this politically motivated campaign all helping the government staff and the police in remov-
the more murkier is the fact that nobody in rival ranks ing the bodies and carrying the the injured to various
has the patience to wait for the conclusion of the probe, hospitals in the city. Even the doctors from neighbouring
ordered by the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh districts of Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur rushed in to attend
to be completed in a few weeks. The Railways too have the victims.
initiated a separate probe. The Congress is alleging that Charanjit Singh Teja, an Amritsar-based staff reporter
the rivals spearheaded by the SAD-BJP, have not contrib- of The Tribune, who was among the first journalists to
uted anything worthwhile to provide relief to the victims reach the spot said, “My initial estimate on seeing the
even as the NGOs and individuals voluntarily thronged situation was that not less than 50 persons might have
the accident site as well as hospitals immediately after been dead and over 30 could succumb to injuries given
the mishap offering help on humanitarian basis. their condition yet the death toll was restricted thanks to
The brazen politicking that defies every sense of timely and speedy medical care. I must say this is a new
rationality amidst human tragedy of this scale, the experience in my career as a journalist to see so effec-
political rivals of the ruling Congress, or to be more precise, tive and dedicated care by the government organized
of Sidhu and his wife, who represented this constitu- relief efforts. Within the first half hour of the accident,
ency before her husband, seem to be in no mood to only three very critically injured died after being brought
relent. To further escalate the political offensive, they to the GMC.”
organised Akhand Path in the memory of the deceased in It was a measure of such a massive and spontane-
the Gurudwara of the area where the tragedy happened. ous humanitarian public response that no dearth
Though the SAD-BJP leaders alleged the preachers of of medicines, ambulances, blood units, free food,
the Gurudwara were pressurised by the ruling Congress tea snacks and help to guide victims and their kin in
not to conduct the Akhand Path, but the area residents getting treatment and identification was reported.
alleged the preachers’ refused they did not want any In the initial stage, the sudden huge rush of patients
political motive stick to them. It was finally held with exhausted the stocks of basic medicines like teta-
the help of the religious preachers organised by nus injections and betadine solution for washing
the SAD leaders. wounds. Reportedly, the antibiotics too were not
On being asked by the media persons about these available. Denying any shortage of medicines, Civ-
allegations against Sidhu and the government during his il Surgeon, Amritsar, Dr Hardeep Singh Ghai said
visit after the mishap, the CM said it was no time for “tu tu they had enough stock of medicines. “Since peo-
mein mein”. He asked all to exercise restraint in this hour ple also donated medicines as a humanitarian ges-
of collective grief and wait for the outcome of the magis- ture, we could not stop them,” he said adding the
terial probe ordered by him. He was to fly to Israel on an authorities also purchased medicines from the market
official visit but deferred it on hearing about the incident on need basis.
and rushed to Amritsar. While the social media was buzzing with reports spec-
Immediately after arriving at Amritsar from ulating possible causes of the accident besides reporting

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