Yesterday was Onam – the biggest festival for Malayalis in Kerala and all over the world which is usually celebrated with much fun, flowers, food and festivities. This year though, the absence of all these was palpable. Kerala is just recovering from one of the worst floods it has seen in the state’s history. It will take many weeks if not months for the state to fully get back on its feet. Roads and highways need quick mending and probably re-laying in many parts. Agriculture is almost finished in the near term. Power infrastructure needs a quick fix. And above all, personal and individual properties and assets in affected areas need to be refreshed.
Understandably, not just in Kerala, but even all over, the festivities around Onam in the back of such a huge natural calamity were muted. Usually on Onam day, one’s social media time line is flooded with greetings with pictures of colourful Pookalam (Artistic arrangement of flowers), Ona Sadya (the traditional feast) and stuff like that. The Ona Sadya is an inherent part of the festival. Strictly vegetarian, even pictures of the Sadya are enough to incite one’s taste buds. So much so, one could easily mistake Onam for being just a festival of food!
However, yesterday, it was pictures of different kinds. Pookalam was mainly of the map of Kerala with a message to rebuild the state! Greetings were with the King Mahabali making aerial surveys of the flood ravaged state or moving around in boats and shedding copious tears for Kerala to spring back to normalcy soon. And almost no picture of Sadya in sight!
In Mumbai where I Iive, the Kerala Bhavan at Vashi in Navi Mumbai hosts the typical Ona Sadya on the day of Onam. Last year, I remember the waiting for a place before the banana leaf was minimum an hour! There are few other places in the city which also have the Ona Sadya! This year though all these organisations gave the festival and its Sadya a miss, understandably. There is no doubt that it was the saddest Onam in a long time!
Even as Kerala was reeling under the impact of the floods, the many fault lines that exist in the society surfaced with impeccable alacrity.
Centre Vs. State: Even as the relief work was underway, with co-ordination from multi-level agencies, the squabble between State and the Centre over funds allocation in public left a bad taste. It is understandable that in India, politics is in the centre of everything. In a federal structure, it is not always that the same party rules the Centre and the state. But as citizens what we expect in times of calamities like this is for parties to raise above their political identities, put a united face and commit to relief and rehabilitation efforts in unison. Instead of having their own channels of communication with the Centre regarding need of funds, was there a need for the CM and the state finance minister to routinely communicate through the media regarding shortage in allocation of funds? Added to this was the unnecessary confusion over the US$100mn financial aid from UAE. Was there a bickering needed in public between 2 governments (centre and state) regarding the stance to be taken? Didn’t we at the end of the day showcase ourselves as being churlish in the eyes of the world?
Ruling party Vs. Opposition: For the initial few days, it was heartening to see the leaders of the ruling left and the opposition Congress visiting affecting areas together and expressing their solidarity to the public. As we saw later, this unity was short-lived. The opposition leader of the Congress Ramesh Chennithala couldn’t resist himself from hitting out on the Chief Minister and the government for mis-handling the flood situation and for not being pro-active enough! So much for the solidarity!
One State Vs. Another State: In times like these, social media does a great job in mobilising support from people far and wide. Help poured by way of money and material from states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and others to Kerala. Even as this was happening, Kerala filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the sudden release of excess water from Mullaperiyar dam by Tamil Nadu was one of the cause for the floods. We now hear that Tamil Nadu is preparing to file a counter affidavit refuting Kerala’s claim and putting the blame on Kerala’s non-readiness to handle torrential rains of this year’s magnitude. This tu tu-main main I am sure, will continue till the cows come home!
Right Vs. Left: We all know that in India, the hegemony of the Left is being questioned left, right and centre these days (pun unintended)! The Right is trying desperately and aggressively to catch up on the lost time to dismantle established narratives. Even admitting this as par for the course in a diverse country like India, one felt that the spinning by certain quarters of the Right that the floods were caused because of the recent attempts to allow entry of women to Sabarimala was stretching a bit too far! The argument was in bad taste and not surprising that it was taken out of circulation quickly.
And there were more – North Vs. South, Kerala Vs. Others and so on.
I am not for once suggesting that these fault lines didn’t exist before and are a recent phenomenon. I do believe however that the proliferation of media in general and social media in particular has emboldened these fault lines like never before.
This is indeed unfortunate and in the times to come one hopes fervently that the same proliferation of media and social media will help to unite us a society and make us more mature in responding to situations like this. We are in a democracy and it is within our right to question and criticize our governments and for opposition to pillory the Government. However there is a time and place to do so. It could well be after the rehabilitation process is complete. And not squabbling on the full glare of media when people are struggling in relief camps with big question marks about their tomorrow. Even if governments and parties do so, the least as public we can do is to not give such squabbles traction in our day-today social media conversations (read as forwarding on WhatsApp/Facebook/Twitter)
As Onam passed by minus the traditional Sadya this time, that is some food for thought for us as a society!
Pic courtesy: Mathrubhumi English
anandkumarrs 
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