The tragedy of the death of school children in the Government of India’s Midday Meal programme is a national shame. It makes a mockery of the intents to nurture millions of children in schools to become upright citizens and eventually lead the entire nation to a better tomorrow. The casual attitude to such lofty aims lies exposed in the manner in which the children instead became victims of mismanagement and dereliction of duty by their wards,the teachers. How could the Principal of Govt. Upper Primary School in Dharamsati, Saran District of Bihar force the poor kids to consume the midday on that fateful tragic day of July 16 despite protest according to reports because even children can scent or taste good or bad food.Twenty three children dying of food poisoning because the supervisors or monitoring authorities were not only negligent but heartless in their attitude as adults. The Principal of the school surrendered to the police only after she was served official notice that her large property would be attached by the Court.
Politicians have viewed the tragedy as an opportunity to attack Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Government and also the tragedy. Many of them trying to gain political mileage out of the incident and adding “fuel to fire”. However, the question is whether Nitish Kumar is at fault. By all logical interpretations, this is unlikely. What is common sense is that no Chief Minister anywhere in India or even the world would like to face the spectre of 23 young and (possibly) promising children aged between 8-12 years lose their lives because of the negligence, greed or dereliction of some employee of the State Govt.
In this context, no one, no matter how powerful, or influential, his or her Party may be, has any moral right to take undue advantage when a tragedy adversely affects the entire nation as a whole. It only exposes their shortcomings and would, no doubt, detract from their vote banks in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls scheduled for May 2014.
To compound the issue, 78 students of Govt. Upper Primary School, Mai Mohalla in Bhilwara District of Rajasthan, had complained of stomach, cramps and vomiting after consuming midday meals served to them on July 30. What is even more puzzling, or unaccountable, is that the State’s concerned authorities have not taken any appropriate action as required except to arrest the Principal of the Dharamsati Govt. Primary School. If we go by past experience, the High court, and if necessary the Supreme Court, will take their own sweet time to pass a verdict …by then all the brouhaha will have settled down and the incident kept in the back burner like so many previous incidents involving the deaths of school children in the “school”.What has become of the instances of children who were killed by a “duster”being thrown at them in the class, those who were punished and made to stand in the hot sun outside the classroom, those who died when the school building caught fire and there was no escape route (2004,Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu). The shortcoming of our legal system is the time it takes for a verdict to be announced …even several years are not enough.
The Supreme Court has been desperately trying to assert its authority by announcing various breaches of criminal laws by even presently serving Members in the Lok Sabha. All that is fine; in theory at least. Howeever, does the Supreme Court ever pause to consider that its backlogs compounded by the those in the variouss State High Courts also need a thorough shake-up of all pending case as lot of which have been kept pending while the complainants, or accused, have been languishing in the jails for years and years. Closer home the four non- Naga rapists who raped a Naga woman in Burma, Camp, Dimapur, in front of her husband were served sentences of life imprisonment a few days ago—after 18 months! This cannot be called real Justice. At best it can be said “better late than never.’
Sure, no one is perfect, not even the premier judge of the Supreme Court. What the whole of India wants, and desires, is quick dispensation or justice as a deterrent of punitive measure. No one is above the law no matter what the person(s) accused may think they are. The Judiciacry has the reputation of being upright, so far, despite hurdles in disposing pending cases.
May it do even better.
