Sunday, September 21, 2008

Bihar floods

Bihar today stands ravaged by floods. i was trying to do my bit and that kept me away from my blog. But the experience was bitter. People in Delhi don't care for Bihar. It is a distant state with no human lives. Only if the flood had taken place in Kashmir, Punjab, Maharashtra or Tamil Nadu that they would move. The plight of Bihar did not move them. Most were not concerned and most were not moved enough. The usual refrain was that the death toll was so low! If only 10,000 people had died! And politicians made politically correct noise about donations and put posters strategically to impress the Bihari population in Delhi to attract votes!
When came to donating even they dithered. i have come to know when in offices people resisted any suggestion about donation of money. They did not agree to one day salary. may be for them the tragedy was too distant and affected poorest of us. Not enough to move them!
Most did a show. And all this while the living in Bihar suffered, for they were not dead. Naturally they were not entitled to death money and relief was far away. I have not heard of corporate world moving earth to do some thing. would they have done the same of Rajasthan or Gujarat was effected? I guess not. For Bihar is not a market, not lucrative one. So human lives got weighed against their buying capacities. shame!

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