Wayanad, called the Kashmir of the South, turned into a nightmare for its residents and visitors on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday that cost 146 lives. Scores of people were in hospitals undergoing treatment, more than 3,000 people have been shifted to 45 camps, NDRF teams have been pressed since Tuesday morning for rescue operations, and two Air Force helicopters, an Mi-17, and an ALH, have been coordinating. However, that didn’t deter this natural calamity from being politicised.
It started with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharges’s public spat with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. Kharge urged Dhankhar to allow a Kerala MP to speak instead of speaking himself, forcing Dhankar to caution opposition MPs to avoid “scoring points”. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongly reacted when the news came in from Congress quarters that both Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, and his sister Priyanka would travel to Wayanad on Wednesday itself.
Speaking to News18, BJP leader from Kerala Anil Anthony said, “At this time, NDRF, the Air Force, SDRF are doing their job. What’s the point of the visit of someone who doesn’t have domain expertise? I wonder whether Rahul Gandhi’s visit would create any impediment in the ongoing rescue operation or not.”
By late in the evening, however, Gandhi cancelled his visit. But it wasn’t to lessen the burden on the already stressed district administration but because they informed him that he would not be able to land “due to incessant rain and adverse weather conditions.”
Anthony called it one of the biggest calamities in recent history while adding “politicisation of even such events must be avoided.”
On another front, inside the Rajya Sabha, Dhankar-Kharge’s cold vibes continued when the Vice President sensed sarcasm in the Congress president’s words, persuading Dhankar to let the MP speak instead of Dhankar himself. “Respected Leader of Opposition, I understand your sarcasm. Please maintain dignity. This is a sensitive issue,” was Dhankar’s curt message to Kharge.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawala cited a 2018 IISC Expert Report that found the likelihood of landslides and land mass slips is three times higher in areas disturbed by infrastructure creation in respect to undisturbed steep forest. Poonawala said it was a matter of time before such an incident took place but no one bothered, it seems. Both in 2018 and now, Kerala has been ruled by successive LDF governments, while Rahul Gandhi remained the Wayanad MP for the last five years.
“Can Rahul Gandhi, self-claimed messiah of the vulnerable and poor, explain why most irresponsible and uncalled actions by builders, smugglers, legal poaching etc. have been allowed to continue in Wayanad, mocking the vulnerable and the needy vote banks who kept faith in his family lineage,” asked Poonawala.
Away from all this, in Wayanad, the death toll continued to be go higher with each victim’s body being recovered from under the mud.
Wayanad, called the Kashmir of the South, turned into a nightmare for its residents and visitors on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday that cost 146 lives. Scores of people were in hospitals undergoing treatment, more than 3,000 people have been shifted to 45 camps, NDRF teams have been pressed since Tuesday morning for rescue operations, and two Air Force helicopters, an Mi-17, and an ALH, have been coordinating. However, that didn’t deter this natural calamity from being politicised.
It started with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharges’s public spat with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. Kharge urged Dhankhar to allow a Kerala MP to speak instead of speaking himself, forcing Dhankar to caution opposition MPs to avoid “scoring points”. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongly reacted when the news came in from Congress quarters that both Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, and his sister Priyanka would travel to Wayanad on Wednesday itself.
Speaking to News18, BJP leader from Kerala Anil Anthony said, “At this time, NDRF, the Air Force, SDRF are doing their job. What’s the point of the visit of someone who doesn’t have domain expertise? I wonder whether Rahul Gandhi’s visit would create any impediment in the ongoing rescue operation or not.”
By late in the evening, however, Gandhi cancelled his visit. But it wasn’t to lessen the burden on the already stressed district administration but because they informed him that he would not be able to land “due to incessant rain and adverse weather conditions.”
Anthony called it one of the biggest calamities in recent history while adding “politicisation of even such events must be avoided.”
On another front, inside the Rajya Sabha, Dhankar-Kharge’s cold vibes continued when the Vice President sensed sarcasm in the Congress president’s words, persuading Dhankar to let the MP speak instead of Dhankar himself. “Respected Leader of Opposition, I understand your sarcasm. Please maintain dignity. This is a sensitive issue,” was Dhankar’s curt message to Kharge.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawala cited a 2018 IISC Expert Report that found the likelihood of landslides and land mass slips is three times higher in areas disturbed by infrastructure creation in respect to undisturbed steep forest. Poonawala said it was a matter of time before such an incident took place but no one bothered, it seems. Both in 2018 and now, Kerala has been ruled by successive LDF governments, while Rahul Gandhi remained the Wayanad MP for the last five years.
“Can Rahul Gandhi, self-claimed messiah of the vulnerable and poor, explain why most irresponsible and uncalled actions by builders, smugglers, legal poaching etc. have been allowed to continue in Wayanad, mocking the vulnerable and the needy vote banks who kept faith in his family lineage,” asked Poonawala.
Away from all this, in Wayanad, the death toll continued to be go higher with each victim’s body being recovered from under the mud.