The Uphaar tragedy continues to make news only because the families of the victims are determined to get justice for their kin. It remains to be seen how long they can hold their positions, though. The system, equally determined to tire them out, is running them ragged with a game of passing the buck, which it is rather proficient at. If the circumstances were not patently tragic, the situation would be ridiculously comic. It is particularly comic that the system does not seem to realise that a precedent will be set by this case. It can either show that our government is truly responsive, or that it is completely irresponsible. If the latter is the case, then there are painful implications. If the State does not honour the unwritten contract with its citizens, why should they bother to keep up the charade? Why should they pay taxes, for instance? If the representatives of the State are not willing to take responsibility, why should the public foot the bill for their pay, perks and pensions?At the risk of belabouring an obvious point, this case will set a precedent because it happened in the Capital, and because the people affected are, by and large, among the most empowered in the land. They are educated, reasonably affluent and largely well-connected. They are conscious of their rights and have the wherewithal to secure them - in theory, at least. They have access to the highest levels of the administration - again, in theory.They are asking for accountability on loss of life. Yet the administration is reacting precisely as it does when it is called to account on trifles like non-existent tubewells, or land encroachment, or dysfunctional phone lines. If the administration can trifle thus with the people in Delhi, in the very heart of the administrative system, it bodes ill for the rest of India. The office of the Lieutenant Governor was created precisely for situations like this, when there is a breakdown of the system. He is invested with the right to take on moral responsibility and to force the administration to perform its duty. He is the only man empowered to cut through the bureaucratic bilge that the State has been serving up. It is a pity that the present Lieutenant Governor, for reasons of his own, has chosen not to exercise this right. Fixing blame should not be difficult in this case. The most obviously blameworthy have made themselves conspicuous by leaving the country in an unseemly hurry within hours of the tragedy. There are other obvious culprits in the agencies which allowed the cinema hall to operate while it was patently unsafe. The administration as a whole must take collective responsibility for having achieved precious little on fire safety more than half a decade after the Fire Department declared hundreds of Delhi's public and commercial buildings unsafe. Now, the ball is in the Lieutenant Governor's court. He has to choose what sort of precedent he wants to set whether he wants to lay the foundation for an accountable State, or whether it will be every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.
