Polls outweigh public safety as Pooram resumes

It will be business-as-usual at the April 17 Thrissur Pooram, Kerala’s biggest temple festival known for its massive fireworks display, though it comes just one week after the Paravur temple fireworks accident that killed 113 people.

Status quo The State government has, considering the ‘social, cultural and religious significance of the Pooram for Thrissur residents’, allowed the festival to be held as usual.

Following the April 10 Paravur tragedy, there had been strong demands that the pyrotechnics at Thrissur Pooram be banned. However, the Oommen Chandy government, facing the crucial Assembly election next month, chose not to say ‘no’ to the Pooram festivities.

“The Pooram will be conducted as smoothly as before in accordance with the norms laid down by the high court and taking all safety precautions,”

Chandy told the media after his meeting with temple authorities, festival committees, politicians and local bigwigs, at Thrissur, on Friday. “The government will give all support to the festival committees to make the Pooram as grand as before.” Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala who also attended the meeting said: “We have decided to conduct the Pooram as grand as last year’s.”

Two-century old event The two-century-old Pooram, centred on the Vadakkunnathan Temple, has been an important annual event for Thrissur and a fabulous visual treat for the lakhs of spectators who show up to enjoy the fireworks.

However, the mega show which involves scores of elephants and tonnes of gun powder and other explosive chemicals have lately caused serious concern about public safety. The safety precautions under the Explosives Rules 2008 are invariably flouted.

“Politics has won over public-safety concerns,” Sarath Cheloor, who led a fast by artists and cultural activists at Thrissur on Wednesday seeking to ban the ‘abuse’ of fireworks and elephants during the Pooram, said wryly.

“The government has totally surrendered to the pressures of the vested interests who control the Pooram,” Sarath told BusinessLine . “No responsible government would allow this in hardly a week after the Paravur disaster.”

All parties on one side The Chandy government probably had calculated that if it banned the fireworks and reduced the grandeur of the Pooram, it would badly affect the winning chances of the UDF candidates in a few Assembly constituencies around Thrissur. Former Chief Minister and Congress strongman K Karunakaran’s daughter Padmaja Venugopal is the UDF candidate in the Thrissur constituency.

Sensing the Pooram’s likely impact on the electoral outcome, all the three candidates of the UDF, LDF and NDA staged fasts at Thrissur on Thursday to press for the ‘normal conduct’ of the Thrissur Pooram, with fireworks, elephant parades and all.

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