Rattling Revelations

Tectonic shifts are a godsend for political pundits bored by quotidian quarrels, especially since they have the potential to be magnified into events of earth-shattering potential. There is no doubt that the birthday rattling of the political landscape with his ‘fast for peace and harmony’ by Narendra Modi has set off a series of tremors along the well-known faultlines of the NDA and the main opposition party, with several scarps and ruptures already becoming visible. Add to that the fact that Gujarat has been the epicentre of many geological and political upheavals that have been felt across the subcontinent, and the aftershocks of the one last week could be far-reaching. Psephologists examining the changes in stress levels along the prominent rifts have probably come to the conclusion that more powerful shake-ups with pan-Indian reverberations are probable, if not inevitable.

Apprehensions will only escalate, once more people realise that India is now vulnerable to new kinds of seismic effects, caused by lateral shifts of the tectonic plate, and not just northsouth collisions of the traditional kind. Indeed, the tremblor that devastated Bhuj in 2001 and provided newly-installed chief minister Narendra Modi a chance to prove his mettle was caused by the movement of the subcontinental plate in a new lateral direction. If, as experts say, this phenomenon could see any future shifts — in Gujarat and along new faultlines that have emerged in the past decade — causing far more widespread repercussions, will the Centre’s disaster managers take any pre-emptive or preventive measures? Literal disasters are tough enough to manage, leave alone anticipate. Can it be any simpler when disasters are of the political kind?