M A I N   N E W S

When even atheists turn to God
By Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

AHMEDABAD, FEB 10 — Faith. You can do very little with it but you can do nothing without it. So the Gujaratis strongly believe and continue to live life on the razor’s edge despite all odds weighing heavily against them and those they hold dear.

The inability to predict earthquakes has turned them towards the only possible answer to the crisis that has befallen their lot — God, the omnipresent and the unseen.

While they firmly stand by the opinion that when goodness grows weak and evil increases, God comes to redeem humanity and they are going all out to placate Him, pamper Him and please Him.

"Catastrophe and calamities are His ways of bringing about a balance in the system. Nobody can do anything when He decides on destruction. "Aa to bhagwan ne marji chhe,’’ claims Bhanuben, a resident of Naranpura.

The terror unleashed by the quake and the aftershocks continue to rattle bones and send shivers down everybody’s spine. These have made even atheists go down on their knees and ask for forgiveness for the wrongs committed by them and others.

Besides making a beeline for mosques and temples, incidentally the rush has more than doubled since the quake and the residents have taken to lighting earthen lamps.

Taking a round of the city one tends to feel the oil of faith lights these lamps through the night. They justify the act, contending that lighting of lamps and placing them on the earth was sure to appease the disturbed "dharti mata".

"She is angry because man is becoming more and more selfish with each passing day. The tremors are an expression of her anger. This will bring back our peace and satisfy her,’’ they say.

The residents have religiously begun buying coconuts and breaking them at their doorstep to ensure their safety. The coconut water is collected and sprinkled in the house. Though they can offer no reason for doing so and are relying on hearsay, they claim it is making a difference not to the aftershocks but to building up their morale and boosting their courage.

They say it is working and faith is believed to have moved mountains. These are mountains which will move. Faith in God lives on and he who has faith is never alone, they sum up.

Kutch residents seek removal of CM
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 10 — The Kutch Disaster Hit Residents Welfare Association has urged the BJP-led NDA government to accept the “genuine humanitarian demand” of 16 lakh inhabitants of the worst affected Kutch region to replace the Gujarat Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel. Holding Mr Patel accountable for the death of 1,00,000 inhabitants of Kutch, the association has stated that the act of negligence on part of the Chief Minister in sending rescue teams to Kutch is not pardonable. While seeking the removal of the Chief Minister, the association has imposed the condition that no other Minister of the State be made the Chief Minister. “The people of Kutch have lost faith in the state government,” the letter reads.

In an unsparing attack on the BJP government, the association has said that the governments both in the state and the Centre remained a mute spectator on the first six days of the nation’s biggest calamity.

In a five-page letter addressed to the BJP President and alliance partners of the BJP, the association president, Satyanarayan Bansal has said that the Prime Minister should accept the demands of the 16 lakh inhabitants of the Kutch region to set up a Kutch development board under the control of the Centre. The association has sought concessions as Income Tax holiday for 10 years, availability of soft loans from all banks and financial institutions at very low rate with three-year moratorium, construction of 1,00,000 houses for people living below the poverty line and availability of building material at subsidised rates on deferred payment for low and middle class people.

The association has warned that if the government does not concede to their demands by Wednesday, they will be compelled to bring all these facts to the notice of all the citizens. “We, the residents of the district of Kutch will be forced to travel to all 543 constituencies of India without being attached to any political party and will advice the people not to vote for the BJP.”

Mr Bansal told TNS that he met the BJP President, Mr Bangaru Laxman, Acharya Giriraj Kishore of the VHP, people in the PMO and the RSS to apprise them of the situation. “Mr Bangaru Laxman and Giriraj Kishore have assured us that they would convey our grievances to the PM.”

The letter has also criticised the initiative taken by the Prime Minister to set up a disaster management committee comprising 35 members of all political parties. “Prime Minister is again playing a political game. We want to rebuild our Kutch without any political interference in a very transparent manner.”

A Gandhidham-based businessman, Mr Bansal said that association was set up only eight days back to ensure that the process of rehabilitation is expedited through proper channel. “When the BJP cannot handle one district, how can they handle the entire country?”