India’s current government is led by the Bharatiya Janta Party or the BJP. It is also the country’s largest national party. It was formed in 1980, though its origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951. The Jana Sangh was closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization that continues to play a significant role in shaping the BJP’s ideology.
The party first came to power at the center in 1996, but its government lasted only 13 days. It returned to power in 1998, forming a coalition under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister. His tenure saw India conducting nuclear tests in 1998, economic reforms, and a focus on infrastructure development. However, the BJP lost power in 2004 to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
The BJP made a historic comeback in 2014 by securing 282 seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha, with Narendra Modi as India’s prime minister. Major policy changes include the revocation of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 that criminalized triple talaq in India.
The government’s handling of several protests and crises has faced widespread scrutiny. The 2020–2021 farmer protests, which were sparked by the controversial farm laws that were later repealed, drew significant public attention, with criticism directed at the use of force and the management of the situation. Similarly, the government’s response to the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests raised concerns over its handling of dissent, particularly the use of force. The BJP’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic also attracted criticism, especially regarding the lack of transparency around the death toll, shortages of medical resources like oxygen cylinders, and inadequate preparedness during the second wave.
Additionally, the ongoing inter-tribe conflict in Manipur, which erupted in 2023, has faced criticism for the government’s perceived failure to take adequate action, with accusations of poor crisis management and insufficient intervention in addressing the escalating violence.
I extracted this information from a website:
Rain (in mm) in 24 hr period on 21st June 2014: Panamkutty – 343, Neeriyamangalam – 277, Pookot – 164, Lower Sholayar – 154, Idukki – 140
Nilambur – 136, Kuttiyady – 134, Kollengode – 131, Vazhathope – 130
But no disaster. Why? Maybe because the dams happened not to be full to the brim then!
So this 650 mm rain per week is not a black swan event and should have been planned for by the reservoir managers. So all this talk of nature’s uncontrollabe fury does not seem to be based on facts.
By the way, the approximately 650 mm rain received in Idukki in the week prior to the disaster is fairly huge not unprecedented.
In fact, there have been instances of more than 650 mm rain IN A SINGLE DAY in many places in India. These historical high figures should have been factored in before deciding what safe water level to maintain in Idukki and Sabarigiri dams and of course other dams so that huge sudden releases that completely inundate downstream areas need not be resorted to.
There is a very simple way to prevent floods – done daily across the world as a matter of course – rational and methodical reservoir management for dams. If Idukki and Sabarigiri reservoirs were managed properly in the last 3 months the huge spillage from these dams during Aug 14 -18 which caused most of the flooding could have been avoided.
Why was water not released in manageable quantities all through July.? Forget that, even if water was released from the first week of August itself the floods could have been avoided or hugely mitigated.
It is almost as if the bureaucracy and politicians in Kerala forgot that dams are for flood control also and focussed on storing the maximum possible amount of water for power generation and allowed these massive reservoirs to be filled to the brim even when a strong monsoon had not run through its course. Flirting with disaster and then disaster happened. No point blaming nature…….
There ought to be a way to control nstures fury next time without depending on centre. Sone measures need to be way to reduce rampant deforestation and massive population.
1. Heavy rains (and let us not forget, lack of preparedness to face fury of nature) has unfortunately become a routine occurrence in our country. We have experienced huge loss of human life and property in Mumbai in July 2015, in Chennai in December 2015 and now we are facing a similar unprecedented flood situation in Kerala in August 2018. 2 Question is this: why do we find ourselves in such situations? If floods are on account of heavy rains, why do we often fail to predict the possible impact of heavy rains? 3. From news reports it is clear that flood situation in Kerala is pretty serious. Many citizens like me think that any natural calamity like floods should be treated as such. Hence, first priority should be to provide relief to thousands who have been stranded or displaced. Right now it is NOT the time to blame the Central government for inadequate assistance. Floods in Kerala cannot be seen as an opportunity to politicise issue of Central government assistance. 4. What is a ‘national emergency’? If the situation in Kerala today is to be declared as a national emergency, why is it that Kerala State government has to demand it? 5. I feel that natural hazards have to be regarded as a recurring risk. Every State government must make a provision for this risk in its yearly Budget. Unutilised provision must be carried forward as a reserve to met cost arising out of future natural calamities. This kind of measure of fiscal prudence has become a necessity in today’s uncertain times.
Ashamed as a Malayalee by the ingratitude, arrogance and totally irresponsible comments of James Wilson, who is a Kerala State Govt employee and part of disaster response team. His toxic comments try to peddle some artificial divide of Keralites vs Northern States, State vs. Centre, Kerala vs. Tamil Nadu etc..
First, as an ordinary Malayalee let me express my gratitude to the NDRF, Army, Navy, Airforce and other officials from all parts of the country who have undertaken massive and effective relief operations, particularly in light of the very inadequate disaster planning and operations of the Kerala Government.
Special thanks to many of our brothers from Tamil Nadu who have chosen to ignore the bile against Tamil Nadu by the likes of James Wilson and donate and physically deliver relief aid to Kerala. Thanks to the Chief Minister of Karnataka who at the first instance donated Rs. 10 crores to Kerala even though many parts of Karnataka itself are under severe flooding. Ditto the Chief Minister of Orrisa.
The public in Kerala did pitch in with a lot of effort and material. They had no choice – the efforts of State Govt were ineffective. So it is the central forces aided by the common man that saved the day. By the way 100 crores by the Centre is in addition to all the services provided by Central agencies. Even the Rs. 100 crores is an interim figure and likely to go up. So his crib that the rest of the country/ central govt did not help is totally baseless. and attempt to divert attention from the real story.
Now the elephant in the room, the real story – the floods in Kerala went totally out of control because all reservoirs were filled to the brim or close to the brim by Kerala State Agencies, a very risky move given that the monsoons are going on. As a result the dams became totally ineffective in flood control. If controlled releases were made from these reservoirs in advance there would have been enough headroom in these dams to store sudden heavy rainfall and prevent or mitigate flooding. Example – the huge discharge of about 2500 cumecs from Edamalayar and Idukki dams on 14/15 August flooded many towns along Periyar.
In short – Inefficient reservoir management, inadequate disaster preparation and operations by state govt created a mess but the public along with Central forces massively supplemented the feeble State govt efforts and saved the day. Nothing more, nothing less.
Very true . This loose cannon who goesby the name of James Wilson and his twitter rants inciting people of two states should be immediately censured by CM. If it was any other state government or central government employee he would have been hounded out by now the media. This guy needs to be shown the door for his his venom against fellow Indians at time of national crisis.