Elphinstone Stampede: Forgotten cries of aggrieved Mumbaikars who lost their loved ones
This is an account of the stampede that took place on September 29, 2017, on the footbridge of the Elphinstone Road station (now named Prabhadevi) in Mumbai, Maharashtra (India).
A devastating disaster hit Mumbai on an otherwise normal Friday morning on the bridge interlinking the Parel and Elphinstone station in Mumbai. The brutal stampede, claiming 22 lives and injuring 33 more who are struggling with their lives at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Parel, rattled Mumbai with a direct blow at its weakest spot- the local trains and stations.
The local trains in Mumbai are common to over 8 million people who jostle their way through stations, overbridges and train compartments to reach their workplaces.
Elphinstone and Parel which connect the two key stations in the Central and the Western line is one of the busiest for the 9–5 white collar and blue collar job goers alike as the area is dotted with huge corporate giants, media houses, construction sites and other offices. While panic prevailed for about two hours after the incident, there still remains a lurking ambiguity about what happened which resulted in the unfortunate disaster.
Police deployed near the Parel station spoke about an alleged short circuit which might have caused some confusion among the commuters. But before he could tell more, he turned to tackle the panicked people amidst the scene dotted with ambulances and police vehicles.
The ambiguity took a more serious turn in the KEM hospital where family and friends dwelled in uncertainty as to what exactly injured their loved ones or took away their lives. Ministers and police chiefs incessantly gave bytes to the media, not missing an opportunity to shift blames to their rival parties. Journalists equipped with cameras and microphones were constantly engaged in an endeavour to overpower the others in the run to get a byte of political biggies who paid their visits to the hospital. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal , Shiv Sena chief Udhhav Thackeray, Lok Sabha MP from Shiv Sena Arvind Sawant, Maharashtra BJP MLA Vinod Tawde were all present at the scene.
In the midst of the chaos, Madhavi Surve, an employee of the Maharashtra Labour Welfare Board was gasping with helplessness, knowing not what to do. She said with bated breath that a lot of her colleagues and relatives commute along the route around the same time and she had no way of finding out about their well-being. In fact, she spoke of a lucky escape.
“I didn’t use the bridge today as my husband called me for some work,” she said.
As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered their condolences on Twitter, Madhavi’s irritation was apparent in her tone.
“All these ministers speak a lot but don’t do anything. If you really feel so bad, instead of paying such visits, please build another bridge there.”
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant took a direct dig at Modi’s bullet train project and his bonhomie with Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe when the existing infrastructure of local trains suffer in the country. Sawant also claimed that he received no response to his consistent pleas to the Railway Minister about the need for a new bridge. Commotion reached a high note when alleged Shiv Sainiks started protesting to drive the media out of the hospital campus.
KEM Hospital in Parel became more of a battleground with several co-existing power battles accompanied with undying noise which trampled the cries of the relatives of the ones who lay on the hospital beds.
