Nidhi Jamwal*
Remember Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, a comic satire, directed by Kundan Shah and produced by National Film Development Corporation, in 1983? It was a scathing commentary on corrupt politics and degenerate society. Four decades later, maybe the time is ripe for Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron 2.0. Allow me to explain why.
The country is roiling and boiling now, not entirely as a result of the vitriolic speeches of our politicians but also because of the extreme heatwave enveloping large parts of the country. In several towns/cities in northwest and east India, temperatures are touching 50 degree Celsius.
Situation is pretty grim as in the past week news of hundreds of deaths, linked to the heatwave, have poured in.
There are no official figures but news reports claim that 320 people have died in the past four days in seven states. This means, on an average, more than three people died every one hour, allegedly due to the heat stress. Postmortem and official investigations are underway.
Another news report claims 166 deaths in 24 hours in Uttar Pradesh alone. These deaths include that of poll-duty workers/officials who were on duty for the seventh and final phase of the general elections on June 1.
Deaths of poll workers have also been reported from Bihar. Situation is grim in Odisha in east India where 46 people have died in the 24 hours. More numbers to the death toll have been added from Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Delhi. And all this may just be a tip of the iceberg as not every death makes it to the local newspapers.
A question begs to be asked… Scientists and weather agencies had warned of severe heat waves likely to sweep large parts of the country during the seven-phase elections. The government had enough notice to take precautionary measures and put systems into place. There is no reason why officials put on poll duty should die of heat. Ask any disaster management expert and they will say that all heatwave deaths are preventable.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just concluded his third and final day (June 1) of ‘meditation’ at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu where he carried out ‘Surya Arghya’, or salutations to the sun.
Meanwhile, over 2,500 kilometres northwest of Kanyakumari, Home Minister Amit Shah visited the Somnath Temple on June 1 and performed the Dhwaj Puja. A day before that, on May 31, he offered prayers at Tirumala Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Of course, it is known that the Disaster Management Division falls under his ministry.
The Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya did tweet on May 29. He wisely advised citizens to drink a lot of water, stay hydrated, and remain indoors as far as possible.
But a large chunk of our population, which does manual labour for a daily wage, has to step out and work in order to put food on the table. No details are yet available about who exactly died in the heatwaves, but no doubt most of them would be from economically weaker sections of the society.
While the elected representatives are yet to take a serious note of the deaths linked to the heatwave, the Rajasthan High Court took suo motu cognisance of the deaths that occurred due to scorching heat in the state and said there was a need to declare heatwaves and cold waves as “national calamities.”
Incidentally, a number of cities and states in the country have prepared their own Heat Action Plans. Referring to the authorities’ steps and action plans regarding climate change, the high court observed that in spite of making drafts of such action plans, the welfare state does not effectively take steps to save the public at large from such extreme heatwave conditions.
Rather than acting on the deaths and taking serious note of growing heat stress among citizens, the state government and respective health agencies often try to deny any links between heatwave and human deaths.
Last summer, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar reported deaths during the heatwave. Diwakar Singh, the chief medical superintendent in the Ballia district in UP had attributed these deaths to the prevailing heat wave conditions and got his fingers burnt. He was ousted from his post on June 17, 2023, and the district magistrate wasted no time to declare that the deaths were because of reasons other than the heat wave conditions in the region.
“There are many reports mentioning that people have died due to heat wave conditions in Ballia. There is no concrete evidence to attribute the deaths to the heat wave. The chief medical superintendent has been removed from his post for issuing statements without concrete proof,” the Ravindra Kumar, district magistrate told the press (on June 19, 2023).
The impact of rising heat is not limited to health alone. It is likely to start ‘water wars’ among states over sharing of inter-state river waters. It has already begun.
As temperature inches closer to 50 degree Celsius, the Delhi government has approached the Supreme Court of India seeking additional water supply from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh for a month amid a severe shortage in the national capital.
The political blame game is loud and incessant. “Delhi is heavily dependent on water from the Yamuna river for its day-to-day demand for water. However, since the last few days, there has been a drastic dip in the water levels at the Wazirabad Barrage as Haryana is not releasing the required amount of water in the Yamuna river,” Atishi Merlena Singh, a minister in the Delhi government, wrote in a letter to Union water minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
In sharp contrast, heavy rainfall due to Cyclone Remal has led to large scale floods and landslides in the media-dark corner of northeast India. At least 40 people have reportedly been killed and another 200,000 affected in the region. Highways are closed due to landslides and railway lines are broken.
The plot is ripe for Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron 2.0. In one part of the country, citizens are dying of heat stress, whereas in another part floods are taking lives. Are our lives so cheap?
*Nidhi Jamwal is a Mumbai-based journalist who writes on environment, climate change and rural issues. Her handle on X is @JamwalNidhi
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