The combination of casualness and cruelty is not pleasant. But Indians have developed the art of existing with it as part of everyday ambience, experience and expectation. Casualness permeates everything: it does not seem dangerous for people watching the burning of Ravana during Dussehra celebrations to back on to railway tracks when the crackers start popping. How could it when this has been the practice for years at that particular spot in Amritsar’s Dhobi Ghat? Nothing ever happened before the tragedy last Friday when a passing train ran over standing crowds and killed at least 61 people. The district administration or the municipal corporation, whichever is responsible, had never complained that the organizers of the event, year after year, had reportedly not bothered to take permission to hold the celebration next to the tracks with no safety precautions in place. The most basic civic discipline had been casually ignored, with the organizers reminding railway guards to give enough warning before the trains passed and with frequent announcements on loudspeakers to clear the tracks before the trains were supposed to run. Such lip-service to safety failed last Friday — perhaps the larger than usual crowd did not hear either the warnings or the train’s honking.

All that is now tragically irrelevant. The administrative casualness — did authorities not know what had been going on for years? — together with that of the organizers is cruel in its disregard for responsibility and human safety. That cruelty becomes most obvious after a tragedy, when all everyone wants is to wash their hands of the event. The driver has been giving contradictory statements, including the charge that the people pelted stones at the train so he could not stop. His position is the most unenviable. The railways has quickly claimed innocence, with a few rather convoluted explanations. The cruelty lies in its quick shrugging off with no communication of regret. But the greatest casual cruelty comes from politicians. All that the Opposition, Shiromani Akali Dal, can think of is to go after Navjot Singh Sidhu, the minister whose wife was the chief guest at the event. Mr Sidhu has been unsparing in his attacks on the Badals, leaders of the SAD, and, presumably for the SAD, the accident is just an opportunity to sting back. People have died because no one in charge acted responsibly. Is there no politician who is decent enough to remember that?