The daily lives of ordinary people in India today have clearly become not only uncertain and insecure but unsafe. Does this tell us anything about the two words we hear so often - development and governance? We have a paradigm of development where maintenance and safety are among the lowest of priorities. No prize for guessing the topmost priorities - corruption, propaganda and ostentation. And we have a template of governance where any notion of accountability is conspicuously missing. Take the example of the Ahmedabad plane crash - the most shocking air disaster of its kind, reportedly the first mishap with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane. The airport is in the hands of the Adani group, while Air India has recently been handed over to the Tatas. The Modi government is left with only regulatory responsibility, yet the DGCA, the regulatory authority remains badly understaffed, with a reported vacancy of more than 53 percent (879 vacancies out of a total of 1,633 sanctioned posts). This speaks volumes about how safety standards are treated in the field of civil aviation.
The response of the government even after such a shocking accident on an international flight involving passengers of different nationalities reflects the continuing lack of seriousness on the question of safety. An accident that should serve as a wake-up call demanded immediate fixing of accountability. Resignation of concerned ministers used to be the primary expression of accountability in the wake of a major disaster. But the Modi government showcases a model where concerned ministers only visit the sites to make Instagram reels - the template followed by Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after railway accidents now came in handy for civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu. For Narendra Modi a visit to the crash site marked another occasion for a photoshoot. After the Kumbh stampede, we were told that the stampede victims would have a guaranteed place in heaven, and now after the Ahmedabad air crash we have this fatalistic philosophical gem from Union Home Minister Amit Shah: nobody can prevent an accident!
Is this invocation of fatalism meant to prepare the people to accept the accident as a disaster 'ordained by destiny' and not demand any accountability from the government? Is there also an attempt to control the inquiry into the accident? As part of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has already commenced an independent inquiry into the causes and circumstances of the accident, yet the Modi government has announced another high level committee under the stewardship of the Home Secretary, the official who reports to Amit Shah, giving rise to serious doubts about the government's approach to the inquiry and its implications. Regardless of the immediate cause of the Ahmedabad air crash, it is widely documented that the Ahmedabad airport has serious structural issues, from the limited size of the runway to the densely populated surroundings. There are reports by the DGCA and Airports Authority of India regarding specific hazards of the Ahmedabad airport that have been ignored by successive state governments. There are growing safety concerns about the Boeing Dreamliner model itself indicated by various whistleblower reports and the multiple problems already reported in various Air India flights since the Ahmedabad crash. Let the inquiries not be reduced to cover-up exercises to protect the people and practices responsible for the lapses and find scapegoats for such a massive human tragedy.
It is quite revealing that the crash has happened in Ahmedabad, the headquarters of Narendra Modi's much trumpeted 'Gujarat Model'. In fact, Modi's prime ministerial projection was powered by the corporate clamour emanating from the 'Vibrant Gujarat' investment summits. In many ways, Ahmedabad is now treated as India's second or parallel capital, complete with fancy symbols of grandeur like the Sabarmati Riverfront and the Narendra Modi Stadium. Yet the airport in the city, handed over to the Adani group like several other airports in the country, suffers from crucial infrastructural deficiencies. If a city like Ahmedabad, so central to the BJP's model of ‘smart cities', is found wanting in basic parameters of urban development and governance, we should see the Ahmedabad plane crash not just as a wake-up call in the field of civil aviation but as a reality check for the entire Modi model of 'Viksit Bharat'. Let this be a turning point in India's battle for safe and sustainable development and governance with transparency and accountability.
