Make in India fire: Stop the mockery, be grateful no one has died

What is there to mock in an accidental fire? If the Make in India venue on Mumbai’s Girgaum beach was engulfed in flames, thank the lord no one died. There is nothing to laugh about nor is there any irony and it ill behoves us to find dark humour in this unfortunate tragedy. [caption id=“attachment_2626822” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The fire at Girgaum beach during a Make in India event. AFP[/caption] Yes, it is globally embarrassing and there are enough adversaries in the world who would dredge and find great globs of glee in this situation but for fellow Indians to look upon it as a ‘ha ha Mr Modi, so much for your 2014 slogan’ is so churlish and inappropriate that we might as well shoot ourselves in the foot. What the hell has it got to do with Modi? The connection is laughable. Sometimes you get the feeling we have this masochistic need to hurt ourselves and lampoon what is ours. The Make in India idea is a good one. It does not get derailed because of a fire. Indeed, if anything, all the more reason to go full speed ahead. And yet, you have newspapers like The Hindu saying Chief Minister Fadnavis had egg on his face. Why would he? He didn’t light the fire, which was mutually exclusive from the event itself. Of course, the Congress party, which now has this fetish about fetching up at every negative scenario like they were professional mourners and doing this chest bashing thing, did as predicted and have demanded to know why Make in India has gone up in flames. They might as well turn into whirling dervishes and do a gig. Another daily writes that chaos reigned as 25,000 people were evacuated. If chaos reigned we would have had a stampede and a death toll. Why not see the evacuation as a well-conducted exercise. In the Indian Express there is this comment: “This indicates how much skill and management investment India needs. It bares open the necessity and asking for greater investment of man money and material. No running away from what is required. In a disaster a true entrepreneur see an opportunity where as a loser see it only as disaster — that’s the difference.” It is a short circuit and in the outdoors with a high wind a spark is enough to start an inferno. Certainly, start an investigation and check if safety norms were maintained. And give credit where it is due. The 11 fire engines and their crew brought things under control. The men  took risks, swallowed smoke and safely evacuated 25,000 people…all of them Made in India. Think about it…there was a time not so long ago when a VIP event would have been targeting saving only the 100 top peeps and letting the 24,900 burn in hell. That many people and they all got out and no one is setting that to music…incredible.