081. The Fireworks Fiasco In Kerala Temples. P. S. Remesh Chandran

081

The Fireworks Fiasco In Kerala Temples. P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

01. Article Title 1 Image & Graphics By Adobe SP.
 
THE FIREWORKS FIASCO IN KERALA TEMPLES
 

This article is the fourth part of the book ‘Is Reformation Over For Hinduism?’ by P. S. Remesh Chandran published by Amazon. The other parts are 1. The Degenerating Kerala Temples, 2. The Loudspeaker Criminality, 3. The Elephantine Injustice and 5. Is Reformation Over For Hinduism? They expose the farce going on in Kerala temples in the name of religion. The original title for this series was ‘Mad Things Happening In The Name Of Religion’. 

Firework accidents in Kerala temples began when politicians took over control of people, society and festivals.
 

Dozens of major firework accidents happened in Kerala due to human negligence during the 64 years from 1952 to 2016. Almost all of them were during temple festivals. Though newspapers have been in circulation for a hundred years prior to 1952, there has not been much news about firework accidents prior to 1952 in Kerala. Remember that Kerala was officially formed as a reorganized democratic state only in 1956 when political parties began to take over control of people, society, temples and festivals. Before that, kings were answerable; after that, no one was answerable. 

1) 1952 Sabarimala Temple- 68 dead. 2) 1978 Thrissur Pooram- 8 dead. 3) 1984 Kandassankadavu Church, Thrissur- 15 dead. 4) 1987 Sri Jagannatha Temple, Thalassery- 27 watching fireworks run over by train and dead. 5) 1988 Tripunithura temple, Kochi- 10 dead. 6) 1989 Kandassankadavu Church, Thrissur- 12 dead. 7) 1990 Duryodhana Temple, Kollam- 26 dead. 8) 1999 Chamunda temple, Aalur, Palakkad- 8 dead. 9) 2006 Production unit for Paramekkavu Temple, Thissur- 4 dead. 10) 2011 Fire-cracker unit at Athani, Thissur- 6 dead. 11) 2011 Fire cracker unit, Shoranpur- 13 dead. 12) 2013 Panniyamkurissy near Cherpalassery- 7 dead. 13) 2016 Maradu Kottaram Bhagavathy Temple, Kochi- 1 dead. 14) 2016 Paravur Devi Temple- 111 dead. 

What would have been the fierceness of competition and frequency of accidents had fireworks evolved into inter-religious competitions between Hindus and Christians?
  02. Ten Thousands Live Out Of This Dangerous Profession By Peter van der Slujis.

The use of explosives for fireworks in Kerala temples as part of Hindu religious festivals started only a few decades ago, and the Christians in Kerala soon followed suit. Firecrackers used in those times were safe as only less dangerous types of pyrotechnic materials were known to man then. Handled properly, there were no dangers from them. People engaged in fireworks in those days were well-trained and thorough in their procedures and they knew what they were doing. Therefore the history of fireworks in Kerala records no major accidents during this time. Today, newer and deadlier pyrotechnic materials with devastating effects have been discovered and put into use in fireworks. In today’s Hindu temple festivals in Kerala, competing rival teams try to win over the other through the variety, colour, sound and the height of ascension into sky of their pyrotechnic materials. Even in intra-community rivalries, competition is now fierce and accidents frequent. But what would have been the fierceness of competition and the frequency of accidents had fireworks in Kerala evolved into inter-religious competition between Hindus and Christians? 

Being festival organizer is protection for goons and thugs against police.
 

Fireworks and explosives have nothing to do with religion. Why should an all-powerful god who can sleep and arise at will need be roused from sleep through fireworks? Religions do not insist that explosives be used in temples. It is the vanity, pomp and ostentation of the newly rich in temples that introduced fireworks as a temple ritual and wish it to continue as such. They do not like to see a ban imposed. As ‘important’ citizens in an area it is they who ought to have requested a ban on fireworks and explosives in temples. We can see such nouveau riches in every temple committee, collecting and pocketing amounts people deposit with their gods and lavishly spending them on every kind of abomination considered once taboo in Hindu temples. Fireworks attract large crowds to festivals and temple committees collect huge amounts. It is trade and commerce in temples, not religion. It’s only that there is no Jesus Christ in this religion to flog greedy merchants out of temples. Except for attracting large crowds and collecting huge amounts of money there is no reason for conducting massive fireworks in temples. Some will say it clears the atmosphere but it only heavily builds up particulate matter in the air. And the noise pollution accompanying fireworks is incalculably calamitous to human beings, animals and birds. Heavy fireworks are appealing only to the mentally deranged in whose grip the temple committees are. There are always protests from nearby residents but temple committees, district administrations and police ignore them and go on with fireworks. Quite a number of festival organizers, according to police reports, were booked at least once for criminal offenses or are still in the wanted or watch lists. Goons and thugs in villages consider being a festival organizer as a protection against police. Police will look the other way when they see a wanted criminal wearing a festival organizer’s badge. 

Authorities accuse one another after firework accidents and all escape punishment.

03. Livelihood Of Many Children By Peter van der Slujis.

Debates have been going on for decades about the use of unsafe materials in fireworks in temples. We regularly read about investigations after firework accidents and findings on failure of authority. Authorities accuse one another and all escape punishments. We also regularly read about the Government of Kerala’s failure in implementing the Supreme Court order banning sound-emitting firecrackers between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The Department of Explosives of the Government of India fails to notify regulations on the chemical composition of categories of materials used for making firecrackers, their failure in notifying leading to banned substances being continuing to be widely used for fireworks to induce more light and sound. The District Administrations fail to ensure providing ample buffer zones between the assembled crowds and the sheds where explosives are ignited. Police fails to ensure that explosives are stored only in temporary thatched huts and fails to arrest people and prevent disasters where explosives stored in permanent concrete buildings ignite. It were such concrete buildings which exploded and spewed forth flying debris in all directions in the Paravur Devi Temple, killing people and police personnel even kilometers away. 

Paravur Temple firework accident in Kollam result of dereliction of duty and laxity.
 

The Paravur Puttingal Devi Temple Committee in Kollam requested the Kollam District Administration for permission to conduct a fireworks display on 10 April 2016 in connection with the temple’s annual Vishu Festival at the beginning of the Hindu calendar year. The District Administration already was in receipt of a number of complaints from local residents, alleging these fireworks were damaging their houses every year, competitive fireworks were more dangerous and so shall not be allowed, and if allowed, shifted to some lonely place where local houses will not be affected. The District Administration obtained reports from revenue, police, fire safety and environmental departments who all objected to the fireworks, pointing out that fireworks were against norms, were in violation of Supreme Court and High Court orders, were violation of Explosives Regulations and so were not permissible. A local police constable even reported in writing that if conducted, this firework needed be shifted to a more spacious and safer place. The District Administration in the person of the Deputy Collector, based on these reports, refused to grant permission for the fireworks and ordered the Superintendent of Police, Kollam to enforce the already existing ban. 

The most irresponsible political parties and district administration in the world!

It was the time of state assembly elections in Kerala and no political parties wanted to antagonize temple committees and religious communities but to please them and secure votes. None of them- the Indian National Congress, the two Communist Parties of India, Kerala Congress, Muslim League or the Bharatiya Janatha Party- demanded that only after ensuring peoples’ safety shall any fireworks be conducted. They all took the stand that if the temple committee could go on with fireworks without permission, let them. The temple committee on the day of the fireworks lied to police that permission was granted at the last minute and was on its way and the police, equipped with all gadgets of the latest technology, did not even call the District Collector to make sure if such permission was granted. When the accident happened, they stood like spectators and lost their personnel too. One of the highly explosive crackers landed on a concrete building where the firework materials of a rival group was stored and the building and the nearby building exploded leveling all buildings, huge concrete pieces and burning materials flying everywhere even to two kilometers’ distance, killing 111 people, severely injuring 350, and destroying so many houses. Human bodies were torn apart in explosions and one woman even found human remains inside her house and on her roof. In spite of Police, Fire force, District Collectorate, Explosives Safety Department and High Court and Supreme Court being there banning this very act, what native people feared about happened! 

How they make light and sound in fireworks happen.

04. Rousing All-Powerful God Through Fireworks By Manoj K.

What make firework displays possible are basic chemical reactions of oxidation and reduction. Oxidizers like nitrates and chlorates produce the oxygen for burning reducing agents like carbon and sulphur, and agitate the atoms of light-emitting compounds. The liberated oxygen combines with carbon and sulphur and produces energy for the explosion. That is how light and sound are produced; it is a simple mechanism behind fireworks. To make this light and sound grander and louder, banned chemicals and chemical combinations such as sulphur and potassium chlorates are illegally used which make the maximum sound and light. Potassium chlorate will even catch fire by friction. Why do peaceful temples need all these? 

Kerala has smaller fireworks but bigger accidents.

The Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization of India estimates that an average of 25 workers dies every year in India in accidents in the fireworks manufacturing industry. Most of these dying are child workers. The number of those who die in actual firework displays is not counted here which is higher. Fireworks grander both in scale and intensity than those conducted in Kerala temples are conducted in other parts of the world without using banned chemicals but with the help of modern technology. This many accidents do not happen there; the law enforcement agencies there are more vigilant and regulations stricter. In Kerala regulations are lax and bended and the law enforcement joins hands with thugs connected with religions. The question is, why festival organizers in Kerala are insensitive to local feelings and why temple festivals can’t go eco-friendly. Mainly it is due to VIPs that it is not so. No sooner a big temple accident happens than there is a steady flow of VIPs to the location. They come not to give solace and relief but to bury the incident and the evidence. After these VIP’s visits, officials go punished. These VIPs do take care of their religion and their cronies well. 

Public safety policies to be de-linked from religion and politics immediately.

It is clear from observations made by noted persons in the field of policing and investigation that de-linking religion and politics from public safety policies and keeping severity of adherence to standard operating procedures are essentials to maintaining temple fireworks accident-free. 

Former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation of India (CBI), Mr. R. K. Raghavan, told Hindu National Daily after the Puttingal incident that “these gory happenings are becoming a human rights violation. There is a near paralysis in the civil administration on such vital matters, attributable mainly to acute political interference. The situation is so bad these days that an organizer of a public function can go to a government official to either flaunt his religion or his proximity to the ruling party in order to browbeat the official concerned into permitting even the most objectionable event. Such tragedies will continue to occur if public safety policies are not de-linked from religion and politics, and the greed which dictates the response of many public officials, both petty and senior.” 

Former Commissioner of Mumbai Police and former Director General of Police, Maharashtra, Mr. D. Sivanandhan, told press after this incident at Kollam: “Many senior law enforcement officials continue to believe- wrongly- that throwing in a large number of policemen at a temple or a public meeting addressed by celebrities is a guarantee against chaos or disaster of the kind we saw at Kollam. Numbers deployed can help only to an extent. It is the quality of deployment, combined with the severity of adherence to the standard operating procedure which would eventually win the day.”

No life and accident insurance coverage in fireworks manufacture field.
05. Article Title 2 Image & Graphics By Adobe SP.

Most people do not know fireworks manufacturing is a field where no insurance companies have come up with life and accident coverage to workers. Thousands of poor women and children make their living out of this dangerous risky profession. When one insurance company in Kerala did come up with a proposal for insuring all fire workers in Kerala for a reasonable premium, on the logical assumption that accidents do not happen too frequently to leave insurance companies without a handsome margin, the President and General Secretary of All Kerala Fire Workers and Licensees Association, a registered organization, turned down this proposal, for they had nothing in it. So, accidents continue to happen in this field, workers regularly get killed in explosions, and licensees continue to become paupers. Temple committees, trade union leaders, religious leaders and government authorities adopt a criminally negligent attitude towards the life assurance of workers in this field. 

Government which promotes booze will promote fireworks too.
 

There is no excuse in saying fireworks display is an age-old tradition in temples. We have seen what will happen when we allow fireworks in temples for fear of wrecking the lives of thousands of people engaged in making and conducting fireworks? It’s like government promoting booze because thousands make their living making and selling it. Thousands and thousands of people are engaged in smuggling, counterfeiting and terrorism. Will we make them legal too?

When temple authorities behave like they are above Indian Law and outside Indian Territory, the message is they are ready to topple Indian Democracy.

A Parliament passes a law, Supreme Court interprets and endorses it, District Administration identifies cases where it is to be applied and the arms of law and justice which is Police ensures that it is enforced without discrimination. So finally, when it is found that a law failed to be observed in a certain instance, it is either the District Collector or the District Police Superintendent ultimately responsible for its failure, not the legislature or judiciary. Whether it is Animal Abuse Law, Noise Pollution Law or Explosives Control Law, the procedure to be followed by officials is the same. When it is found that a law was violated or neglected by a few who think they are above the law, the first step a sane government would take is to remove these officials from positions, send them home or send them to prison. First these derelicts will go to prison, and then their accessories. When a series of such incidents happen without the officials going exemplarily punished and the people who bribed or threatened these officials to make the law ineffective also accompanying them to prison, people begin to laugh at the law and take lawlessness for granted. From then onwards, a central body of government in existence will only be an abstract idea and people will begin to make laws for themselves which even officials will have to follow and governments ratify. That is how democracy dissolves. When temple authorities and politicians ridicule and violate all the three important laws mentioned here which were enacted by the Parliament of India and endorsed by the Supreme Court, and behave like they are above Indian Law and outside Indian Territory, the message is they are ready to topple Indian Democracy for Theocracy.

Such situations would only be tolerated if and when the government itself is moving towards totalitarianism and dictatorship and consider such situations as favourable and good grounds for totalitarianism and dictatorship. Even democratic governments will be tempted to go totalitarian, gauging such situations as right results of the current thoughts of people in the entire country. So it is essential that when violations of law such as these occur, the culprits within the government should be punished first for betraying their sworn duties and abandoning responsibility, and culprits outside the government who worked in cahoots with them immediately after. If India is to remain a democratic country, calculated anti-democratic moves to convert it into a totalitarian theocracy must be killed instantly. If some fat snobs think their religion allows them to use elephants, explosives and loudspeakers in temples in defiance of Indian laws, let them ask god to create an intermediary world above the earth for them to live with a coterie of elephants, explosives and loudspeakers.

VIPs enjoy state protection for toppling democracy through religious thugs!

 06. Article Title 3 Image & Graphics By Adobe SP.
 

In every city, town and village in India, there is a fleet of officials ranging from Union Cabinet Ministers and State Chief Ministers to District Revenue Collectors and District Police Superintendents who does everything in their capacity to make India a heaven for religious thugs. Most of them enjoy VIP protection for protecting religious thugs who are promulgating anti-democratic thoughts, and are waiting for the Indian democracy to be toppled by theocracy when they could have the upper hand. These luxuries-bound religious thugs they protect who will even fly to Switzerland or Germany for a bottle of fine wine loathe spirituality in fact and crave for carnal pleasures. But they sure wield spirituality as a shield to escape from punishments when they get caught in their crimes. When they get caught, these fleets of VIPs run to their rescue and organize themselves as loyal retinues to wipe out evidence and save necks from the noose of law. They see to it that these thugs are never booked even if arrested, and even if booked, their charge-sheet to have gorges-wide loopholes. Reluctance to book religious thugs after arrest is in itself evidence of their betrayal of the country and democracy. In militant states they would have been immediately hanged. Tolerating them in democracy is a weakness of Indian democracy.

Anti-democratic press + anti-national bureaucracy + degenerate theocracy!
 

These top-class government officials and the religious thugs they protect can easily be identified by going through public speeches they made during past years, published in the press. But instead the whole government machinery is misused and wasted for searching what people wrote against these rotten VIPs in their social media sites. If someone took a little time going through the back issues of press, their speeches are there in archives, proving to the world how eager they were to whitewash the crimes of religious thugs, pointing fingers to how they made religious thugs immune. Without the help of an anti-democratic press to boost them to unnatural proportions and an anti-national bureaucracy to defend them always, these religious degenerates could never have gained enough popularity to defy the laws of democracy and prepare people for theocracy. This march of theocracy and criminal insensitivity has to be stopped if democracy in India is to survive. 

Written In: February 2018
First Published: 17 July 2018
E-Book Published: 10 August 2018

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons & Adobe SP
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01 Article Title 1 Image & Graphics By Adobe SP
02 Ten Thousands Live Out Of This Dangerous Profession By Peter van der Slujis
03 Livelihood Of Many Children By Peter van der Slujis
04 Rousing An All-Powerful God Through Fireworks By Manoj K
05 Article Title 2 Image & Graphics By Adobe SP
06 Article Title 3 Image & Graphics By Adobe SP
07 Is Reformation Over Book Cover Image & Graphics: Adobe SP
08 Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran

This is the fourth part of the book ‘Is Reformation Over For Hinduism?’

07. Is Reformation Over Book Cover Image & Graphics: Adobe SP.
 
IS REFORMATION OVER FOR HINDUISM?

Politico-Religious Treatise
©P. S. Remesh Chandran
Kindle Price (US$): $2.53
Kindle Price (INR): Rs. 185.00
To buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GCQWJWT
Publishers: Amazon
Published on: August 11, 2018

Tags:
 

Decline Degeneration In Hinduism, Disintegrating Kerala Temples, Essays Articles Investigations, Fireworks Accidents In Kerala, Fireworks Fiasco, Kerala Temple Festivals, Noise Sound Pollution, P S Remesh Chandran, Religious Thugs, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, Theocracy In India, Vices In Hindu Temples, 

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:
 
08. Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran.
 

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single. 

Author of several books in English and in Malayalam, mostly poetical collections, fiction, non fiction and political treatises, including Ulsava Lahari, Darsana Deepthi, Kaalam Jaalakavaathilil, Ilakozhiyum Kaadukalil Puzhayozhukunnu, Thirike Vilikkuka, Oru Thulli Velicham, Aaspathri Jalakam, Vaidooryam, Manal, Jalaja Padma Raaji, Maavoyeppoleyaakaan Entheluppam!, The Last Bird From The Golden Age Of Ghazals, Doctors Politicians Bureaucrats People And Private Practice, E-Health Implications And Medical Data Theft, Did A Data Mining Giant Take Over India?, Will Dog Lovers Kill The World?, Is There Patience And Room For One More Reactor?, and Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book. 

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Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum,
Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

Identifier: SBT-AE-081. The Fireworks Fiasco In Kerala Temples. Essay. P. S. Remesh Chandran. Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.

Published by Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.
Editor: P S Remesh Chandran.