From the Debris
Everyone knows that troubles come in the life of every individual. But one will wonder to know that regions too undergo trouble. When trouble befalls on an individual, he attributes it to his past folly, his miscalculation or bad luck but whom to blame when a particular region is seized by trouble i.e. natural calamity. Do we have no answer to this question.?
If we study the loss and damage that the recent natural calamity has incurred on our fellow brethren, many soul-stirring facts have come before us. Many men, women and children were swept away by the horrible plague in Surat and a rich area, along with millions of property, was interred by the recent quake in Gujarat.
The story begins from Ayodhya. The deed of demolition was done. Those who had participated in the demolition campaign, some may not believe it, felt excruciating pain in their eyes and finally these KARSEVAKS were brought to Patna to be checked by eye specialists. They were treated but what ensued was that their pain had gone but the eye power was yet to be retrieved. It was a mystery for the doctors. The book ‘Babri Masjid‘ published the names of the following people who hailed from the Chapra district of Bihar and whose vision had refused to function.
1. Karya Shankar, 2. Anant Prashad, 3. Shushil Prashad, 4. Rajendra Geeta, 5. Mithilesh Kumar, 6. Jitendra Kumar, 7. Subhash Singh, 8. Ajit Kumar, 9. Shubh Ram Sharma, 10. Krishn Kant Ojha, 11. Deo Kumar Ojha, 12. Janardan Tiwari, 13. Kirpa Ram, 14. Ajay Pandey, 15. Kailash Pandey, 16. Gopal Pandey
In the opening paragraph, I have said that region also comes under trouble. Ayodhya too experienced cataclysm. But how this cataclysm started? Here fact and fiction blend and only a very discerning eye can get to the reality. We are living in a land where every problem, be it biological or psychological, is unravelled through religion so if we go to Ramayan, a sacred book of Hindu religion, we can distinguish between the fact and fiction.
This book has a complete biography of Ram but it gives no hint at all as to where Ram was born. Tuzk-e-Babri, by Babar himelf, has also no record of his ever having visited Ayodhya. But Hindu extremists say that Babar had demolished a temple in 1558 which was the birthplace of Ram; a point wherewith Ramayan does not agree. The real struggle for Ayodhya was started on 23 December, 1949 when some people said that the idols of Ram and Sita had emerged from the ground and demanded that the mosque be handed over to them. Muslims were prevented from offering Salah, a Hindu religious leader was appointed to look after it. Subsequently, K. K. Nair, a local district magistrate confessed his hand behind the issue and resigned; the Muslims appealed to the then P. M. Jawahar Lal Nehru but to no avail. Hindus filed a case in court and the Muslims challenged it in High Court. High Court demanded the report from Uttar Pradesh Government which was furnished in 1951 by J. N. Ogra, the Deputy Commissioner of Faizabad and explicitly said that the mosque was under the full control of Muslims and they were offering Salah in it and that Hindus never used it as temple.
Maharashtra, which was badly hit in 1993’s quake has a more pathetic tale to tell, and it would be like covering the facts if we jump to the other aspect of the matter without writing what had happened there.
Panic-stricken people ran out to save themselves from the quake but another tragedy was waiting to happen. They gathered on the road where an oil tanker happened to pass. Unfortunately it exploded and the conflagration, within no loss of time, consumed hundreds of people and reduced them to ashes.
Surat has a different saga. A man helps another in a difficult situation but the plague in Surat, a town of Gujarat, has revealed that human beings can go to any extent for their own security. In the year 1994, when epidemic broke out in this town, many people fled to escape death but they were killed because they had brought contagious virus with them.
Gujarat, which is called the Manchester of the East for its trade and industry was badly ravaged by the recent quake and when one looks into its debris one finds that the defence and religious places have also suffered heavy damage. Bhuj Airbase was heavily hit and around one hundred jawan and officers of Indian Air Force died and an atomic centre was also damaged. Some 5000 thousand temples fell to the ground. According to Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of Broadcasting and Information, total loss has crossed two billions.
Human relationship knows no boundary. Thousands of people died and a lot sustained injuries. They needed blood. Their critical condition aroused feelings and some local Muslims donated their blood for the quake victims. On the other hand, where every family was mourning and entire state was in utter grief, message of fanaticism was coming from certain makeshifts. People were forced to say Jai Shree Ram for receiving food-packets.
