Bridge collapse tragedy looms over electoral battle in Morbi
MORBI: The river Machchu reveals little, its placid waters hiding most remnants of tragedy. It is the banks that carry the scars. On the side that abuts Morbi city, stone steps lead to a small landing, moored to which is a blue rescue raft, one of the many that spent five days hunting for bodies, and finding them. On the opposite end, where a dirt path leads downwards to the edge of the water, are piles and piles of marigold garlands. Some are withered by time, laid over three weeks ago when the banks were full of rescue teams, politicians, and administrators. Others, laid by the families of those who died, are fresh, their bright orange a reminder of the pain that refuses to subside. The kin come to the banks quietly early every morning, flowers in their hands, staring out into the depths of the water before receding into their broken lives.
Above them is Morbi’s sorrow, the 145-year-old 233-metre suspension bridge that broke in the middle, plunging 135 men, women and children to their deaths on October 31, five days after it was opened after being “renovated”.
In shiny golden Gujarati letters are the words “Jhulto Pul” (hanging bridge). Operated and maintained by Oreva Group, the board proudly says. It’s a group whose managing director, Jaysukhbhai Patel, is yet to be questioned or even named in police records.
There is living memory, too.
Five hundred metres away, Mohammad Anas sits forlorn in his paan stall, telling a story he has told many times before in the last three weeks. For five days before October 31, he was pleased beyond measure as business was brisk. It was just after Navratri, and Morbi was in a celebratory mood, with people turning up in hundreds to a bridge that had opened just in time for the festivity. At 6.40pm, as the sun dipped and the sky turned orange, he heard an almighty crash, and then screams. The screams of those who were hanging on to the rusted wires of the bridge, trying in vain to hold on; the screams of those who thrashed around in the river; and the screams of those who watched from the banks. “All of us rushed to try and save people. But there was so much chaos, even we were afraid. I jumped in, must have saved six people. But there were so many that I couldn’t,” Anas said. Somewhere in between the words of anger and the “act of God” lies the future of voting day in Morbi on December 1.
The anger
It is lunchtime at Lakhdhirpur, and workers from the factories and shops in the area have descended on a dhaba. Saurabh Patel, a 28-year-old factory worker, is talking loudly to a group of colleagues. “What is more evidence of corruption? For 145 years, the bridge stood the test of time. Then they closed it for renovation for six months, did a shoddy job, opened it before time, allowed thousands of people on it, and even after that, have only arrested the small fry. How can we not hold the government responsible?” Patel asks.
Over the past three weeks, Patel has read and watched increasingly incredulous accounts of undeniable laxity. “They have arrested nine people, but not one person from the municipality has been arrested. Nor has Jaysukhbhai Patel, who opened the bridge on October 26,” Patel says.
Not everyone at the table agrees though. “Of course there were lapses. But how long can we look at the past? Tragedies like this happen all over the world. What is important is what party will take care of Morbi in the future. We will be fools if we forego a party that takes care of our future like the BJP,” says Suraj Chainani.
The politics
It’s clear that the politics in and around Morbi at the moment revolves around the bridge collapse. On November 21, in Rajkot, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue and asked why no action had been taken against the people responsible. Across Gujarat, almost every BJP poster has Prime Minister Narendra Modi front and centre, with Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Bhupendra Patel and CR Paatil flanking him, and, if there is any space, the local MLA standing for election. The signs in Morbi, however, from every poster that smiles down on people, is the face of Kantilal Amrutiya, the former MLA of the region who is now the Morbi candidate, replacing sitting legislator and minister of state for labour and employment Brijesh Merja.
A senior BJP leader in charge of Morbi said, “It is clear that we have to engage with the issue at hand. We cannot say development when a bridge has come crashing down. But the government has been quick to give compensation to every single family quickly, and Amrutiya has a good image because of his bravery.”
Larger regional politics
In terms of the broader politics around Morbi, the seat is part of Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, which gave the Congress campaign a fillip in 2017, forcing the BJP to its lowest tally of 99 seats since 1998. In Saurashtra’s 56 seats, the Congress tally rose sharply, from 16 in 2012 to 30 in 2017. Morbi district has three seats – Morbi, Tankara and Wankaner – and all three were won by the Congress. In 2020, however, Brijesh Merja, who fought the 2017 elections on a Congress ticket, resigned and fought the bypoll on a BJP ticket, and won.
That’s perhaps because the 2017 elections were fought in a different time, and in the middle of a different campaign. The Patidar agitation for reservations had galvanised the influential community, and industrial Morbi was reeling under the after-effects of the double whammy of demonetisation and GST. Pravin Vyas, a senior journalist and commentator based in Morbi, however, said the loss of lives will not be easily forgotten.