-Ravi Prakash
Hello,
I am not here today to have a conversation. I am here to demand accountability.
Seeing this article… every citizen born in this country, every common man who pays tax on every single item despite living hand-to-mouth, must question the government and the systems. Because…? In the nation’s capital, Delhi… 21 people were burnt alive! Yes… what you are hearing is true! 21 lives vanished into thin air in a furnace of fire! Is this an accident? Is it a murder committed by the system? Or is it the negligence of rulers who threw rules to the wind?
If anyone comes—if any official holds a press meet and preaches morals saying, “Alas, this is an unfortunate accident”—it is nothing but insulting the innocent people who were sacrificed due to negligence! An accident is something that happens unexpectedly. But what happened in Delhi is a disaster that was predicted well in advance! This is the handiwork of a blind system that has eyes but refuses to see; this is a meticulously planned murder by the sharks of corruption!
Ultimately, what is the value of a common man’s life in this country? Tell me… what price do you put on it? Because… looking at the way our system is running, a common man can die anywhere, can die anyhow… but there is no one to care or question! If you are traveling on a flyover, it might collapse and you could die! If you board a train, it might derail and you could die! If you go to a hospital, you might die due to lack of oxygen! If you go to a coaching center, you might drown in the basement and die! If you enter a building, you might fall from a structure built without rules and die!
What happens after that? The same scene as always… the same script! A condolence message… an ex-gratia cheque… a press conference… an inquiry committee… four days of headlines in the media… and after that, everything is closed! The country goes on its way. Have you ever noticed even once? Have VVIPs or powerful leaders ever died in these horrific tragedies? No! The ones who die are always the middle class… the lower-middle class… the laborers who live hand-to-mouth, students, tourists, and innocent people!
We Don’t Want Sympathy
Today I want answers! Today we don’t want sympathy… we don’t want political tweets… and we absolutely do not want photoshoots. We only want an answer… who is the killer who murdered these 21 people?
Now, coming to the real story… this is not some shady business that happened in a remote area or a forest. This is a horrific tragedy that took place right in the heart of the nation’s capital, in a building right in front of government offices. What do the reports actually say? How did a license taken for just a 6-room Bed & Breakfast turn into a whopping 26-room hotel? That’s my question! How? How is it possible? Not one room, not two rooms… a total of twenty-six rooms! A 6-room building doesn’t suddenly become 26 rooms overnight, does it? It requires construction… it takes time… customers must come… business must take place… while all this was happening, what were the Delhi municipal officials and inspectors doing? Were they blindfolded? Or were they intoxicated by bundles of currency notes?
A system that reaches your doorstep if a common man fails to pay a traffic challan… officials who issue notices if there is a discrepancy of even a single rupee in IT returns… why did they stare blankly with wide-open eyes even though this massive building had no No-Objection Certificate and followed no safety rules? Does the system, which shows its might on the common man, fail to see the violations of such big shots?
We have been watching the visuals of the Delhi fire accident for the last few hours… people jumping from windows to save their lives… with fire behind them and a concrete road below! What saved them there was not the government machinery, but the ordinary people who spread mattresses by the roadside! Shameful! Can there be a greater humiliation for a system than this? Is our last line of defense a common man’s mattress?
Exactly five months ago, this very Delhi High Court warned them. It issued orders to conduct fire safety inspections and check certificates. Even though the court warned them so heavily and issued orders, why weren’t they implemented? Because here, committees exist… orders exist… but implementation is absolutely zero!
Delhi’s “Memory Problem”
Now I must share a truth that pains me even more… none of this is new to Delhi; this is not the first fire accident. In the nation’s capital, Delhi, such accidents have become a shameful tradition. An accident occurs… the victimized families weep for a few days… then leaders make promises… and gradually, the issue slowly disappears into the womb of time! Let’s go into the flashback once…
Uphaar Cinema: 59 innocent people died, locked inside the theater. The whole country was shocked then. They said, “We won’t let this happen again.”
Anaj Mandi: More than 40 laborers were burnt to ashes in a factory located in narrow lanes. Again, the same dialogues… they said safety audit.
Mundka Incident: 27 people died in a commercial building. Again they talked about an investigation, they talked about strict action.
If so many lessons were learned from the past, why did 21 people become corpses today? What we understand from this is…
Delhi doesn’t have a fire problem; it has a ‘memory problem’! Here, every tragedy is remembered only until the next news cycle arrives. As soon as new breaking news comes, the smell of old corpses is forgotten. Why does an investigation always begin only after the funeral procession ends? Why is enforcement remembered only after lives are lost? Either nobody knows… or everybody knows and nobody acted. Whichever of these two is true, it is a death warrant for the citizens.
The Blame Game and Normalized Failure
There is a wonderful magic trick in India. 21 people die… but nobody commits a mistake! Nobody holds responsibility! No one in the world knows how to throw responsibility into the wind better than our system. Now watch what happens… the building owner says, “I followed all rules”… one department says, “This doesn’t come under our jurisdiction”… another department says, “That permission was given by someone else”… the new government blames the old one, the old government blames the new one… throwing files at each other, they ultimately reduce the concept of responsibility to ashes.
On behalf of the victims, I ask only one thing… I don’t want theories. Tell me just one designation… just one office… just one name. Whose responsibility was it to stop that 6-room hotel from becoming 26 rooms? Responsibility always flows downward to the lower level, but the seat of the top official never shakes. Only the ordinary citizen, the taxpayer, and the small businessman must bear responsibility here… but there is no punishment whatsoever for the big shots who are supposed to enforce the rules. Let’s speak the truth… if that building hadn’t caught fire yesterday, business would have run happily there today as well… customers would have come… money would have changed hands from under the table to the top. This means our system is not stopping accidents… it is waiting for an accident to happen!
Finally… do you know what scares me more than anything else? It is not that fire… it is not that number 21 at all… it is the dead conscience within us! It is the fact that we don’t get shocked by anything anymore! As soon as the news breaks, we already know the script. People will die… leaders will come… compensation will be announced… and we too have decided that everything will go back to normal again. We have normalized failure!
But put your hand on your heart and think for a moment… if among those 21 dead people, your father, your mother, your wife, your husband… or your children were present… would you be sitting and watching TV peacefully like this today? This is not a TV debate… it is a lamp that has been extinguished in someone’s home. The media cameras will leave… the politicians’ tweets will stop… a new trend will arrive on social media… but the fire in the hearts of those families will never be extinguished.
The job of governments is not to put a price tag on corpses and hand over checks after people die… it is to see that people do not die in the first place! Enough is enough! Stop treating the common man’s blood so cheaply. As long as we do not raise questions, as long as we do not stand the corrupt official on the middle of the road and hold them accountable… this fire accident will not be the last one… it will just be another piece of fresh news!