Balasore Rail Tragedy: Combating Toxicity in Social Media Amidst Signalling Error Investigation

As distressing as was the horrific rail accident in Odisha’s Balasore district that claimed over 275 lives and injured nearly 900, more appalling was the attempt to give the tragedy a communal colour. When social media users spun out a story that the accident was orchestrated at a mosque nearby, the toxicity of the medium hit a new low. It took the efforts of responsible fact checkers to reveal that the building in question was in fact an Iskcon temple. What prompts these perverted minds to dream up such outrageous scenarios that are so far from the truth?

The railways themselves have acknowledged that a signalling error was the likely cause of the century’s worst train accident in India. In the last decade or so the poison of these purveyors of false Whatsapp forwards and viral videos has taken on a life of its own. Is it too late to expect some level of sanity in our discourse or have the toxic fumes of hate completely overtaken our lives? It is something to ponder on seriously. The train accident was also witness to the selfless accts of local residents who turned up in large numbers to provide succour to the survivors and helped the first responders in their arduous task of extricating bodies and rushing the injured to hospitals. The residents of Bahanaga near where the trains derailed queued up to donate blood, ferried survivors to hospitals and provided them with food and water. They escorted the victims’ distraught relatives to nearby schools where the bodies had been kept for identification. It is this welcome aspect of India that has always come to the fore during natural calamities, disasters and such horrific mishaps. It is that face of humankind that must be encouraged if the country is to thrive and become a true Vishwaguru.