A Dossier on Kerala Rescue Operations to Be Released

Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research will be releasing a dossier on October 9 that will shed light on not just the story of the floods, but also the struggle by the left-led government and by Kerala’s population to overcome the havoc wreaked by the marauding torrents.

The southernmost Indian state of Kerala witnessed this year what can be termed as one of India’s worst natural calamity. The state was ravaged by heavy rains, and the subsequent flooding adversely affected over 5.4 million people.

“It is worthwhile to compare the rescue, relief and rehabilitation in Kerala to the ongoing challenges faced by the United States government in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and destruction in Puerto Rico in 2017. That a well-organised socialist state can so swiftly mobilise human resources, while a wealthy capitalist state sits on its hands speaks for itself,” said Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

The dossier by the research institute will focus on “capacity of local rescue and reconstruction efforts”.

Here are some of the excerpts from the dossier:

Historic Rescue Operation

Following the floods, amidst chaos and the urgent need of evacuating millions, the state government led by the Left Democratic Front (LDF), found itself tangled in a political battle, with the right-wing federal government refusing to provide support and spreading false information to interfere with the LDF-led relief efforts. Despite the severity of flooding and the ensuing political roadblocks, the state government led what is recognised as one of the most successful rescue and reconstruction efforts in the country’s history, supported by the community networks that had been built over years and the heroic actions of everyday people.

The state received 41% higher rainfall than the normal. Between August 1 and August 19, the state received 758.6 mm of rainfall – 164% higher than the norm. Between August 9-15, Kerala received 257% excess rain. As flood waters inundated roads, homes and buildings, and villages across the state, more than a million people had to be evacuated. Kerala has a high population density of 860 persons per square kilometre – more than double the national average – which compounded the gravity of the problem. The resoluteness and efficiency displayed by the Kerala government, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], has come in for widespread praise.

Every instrument of the state came into play on behalf of the people, who themselves drew upon their resources to care for each other. Efforts of the people including the fishermen, and crowdsourced campaigns captured people’s hearts, It is estimated that more than 70,000 people were rescued by fishermen who joined the rescue mission with more than 4,500 boats fishing boats.

Collective Efforts of People Capture Hearts across Country

The left-wing mass organisations of Kerala and the communist-led government they brought to power have achieved the best human development indicators in the country, and developed an ethos of self-reliance and mutual aid over decades through literacy campaigns, cooperatives, local social organisations, and trade and peasant unions. The very same mass organisations mobilised their members and supporters to organise relief missions. Thousands of Keralites – both within Kerala and across the globe – used the internet and phone networks to collect information and GPS coordinates about people stranded in different places and passed on this information to the control rooms and rescue teams throughout the state.

Out of an estimated 371,203 flooded houses, 194,805 were already cleaned by August 26, less than a week after the rescue operations were completed. Nearly 600 tonnes of waste had been removed from the worst-hit regions in seven districts by that time. About 60,000 volunteers – more than 10,000 from the Communist Party of India- Marxist [CPI(M)] alone – participated in the collective clean-up effort (Operation Rehabilitation).

Central Government’s Hindrance in the Rehabilitation Process

The battle of rescuing and rehabilitation was an uphill task, adding to this the vicious campaign and the lack of support from the right-led government particularly hindered the process. The LDF-led state government asked the BJP-led government at the centre for 5,000 soldiers, 100 helicopters and 650 motor boats for the rescue operations. By the morning of August 18, at the peak of the rescue operations, the centre had allotted just 400 soldiers, 20 helicopters and 30 boats. Additionally, blatant hostility of the right-wing RSS-BJP government was exposed.

Not only did the BJP-led government in New Delhi refuse to send sufficient number of central forces for the rescue operations, it was also reluctant to allot funds for relief and rebuilding. The centre also sanctioned a meagre amount of ₹6 billion as aid to Kerala, while the losses are estimated to be more than ₹250 billion. The central government also put up roadblocks to prevent financial assistance from coming in from other countries. The government of the United Arab Emirates – a country with a large number of expatriate Keralites – offered a sum of ₹7 billion as aid to Kerala. But the central government refused permission for the amount to be transferred, citing unsubstantiated claims about ‘existing policy’ that allowed meeting requirements for relief and rehabilitation through domestic efforts alone.

Beyond this, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - went on an extensive campaign to scuttle the relief efforts by spreading fake news and vicious campaigns to curb the support pouring in for the state from across the country and even abroad.

As the state still recovers, it is important to remember that despite the active hostility of India’s central government – led by the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not manage to dampen the enthusiasm of the state government and of the people to reduce the scale of the disaster.