"Man-made disaster": Tejasvi targets Rahul over Kerala landslides; Tharoor hits back with "unnecessarily politicises humanity"

New Delhi [India], July 31 : BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday in a scathing attack on Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Congress leader who was the former MP from Wayanad had neglected critical issues of the region that witnessed devastating landslides in the early hours of July 30.
"In the last 1,800 days since Rahul Gandhi was the MP from Wayanad, he has not raised the issue of landslides and floods even once in the Assembly and in the Parliament," said Surya speaking in Lok Sabha today.
"In 2020, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority advised relocating 4,000 families from landslide-prone areas in Wayanad. Till today no action was taken and the MP representing Wayanad did not even raise this issue till today. Kerala's Forest Minister in the Assembly admits that they are unable to remove illegal encroachment because they had pressure from various religious organizations," the BJP MP from Bangalore South said.
The MP alleged that the Wayanad landslides "are a man-made disaster and accountability should be fixed."
"What has happened in Wayanad is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster. I am not saying this, ecological experts from Kerala are saying this. In the last five-six years, out of all the landslides that have happened in the country, 60 per cent of them are happening only in Kerala," Surya said while speaking to ANI.
"In 2020, the Disaster Management Authority of Kerala told the Kerala government to remove 4,000 families from all the illegal settlements on the Eastern Slope of the Western Ghats of Wayanad. Rahul Gandhi never raised any questions about it. Commercialization activities are going on continuously in the entire Western Ghats in Kerala. It is shaking the very foundations of the hills of Western Ghats, Surya said.
"Why evacuation has not been done till now is because of the vote bank politics there. The Forest Minister of today's LDF government had said in the Kerala Assembly in 2021 that we are not able to evacuate the illegal encroachments because of political pressure and pressure from religious groups and Rahul Gandhi being an MP from there for five years, neither in the Parliament nor outside, he has never raised his voice to clear this illegal encroachment," Surya said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that it was "very unfortunate" that someone speaking in Parliament unnecessarily politicises humanity in times of crisis.
"It is feared that by the time the rescue operation is over we will have lost more than 200 lives. Not everything in our country is politics," Tharoor said.
Congress MP KC Venugopal said, "I am sad about the speech made by a member from the Treasury benches...The Home Minister could have controlled him because this was the saddest moment for the entire country, especially Kerala...We need actions, we need results. We cannot bring back the lives but we have to show the country that we are together..."
Speaking in Rajya Sabha today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah condoled the loss of lives in the Wayanad landslides while stating that the Kerala government could have minimized the losses in Wayanad if they had become alert after the Central government's warning about potential landslides and the risk of people's lives.
"My condolences to the bereaved families... I want to clarify something for the country... They kept on talking about early warning. I want to clarify that on July 23, the government of India gave an early warning to the government of Kerala, which was 7 days before the incident, and then on July 24 and 25 too early warning was given. On July 26, a warning was given that there was a chance of heavy rainfall of more than 20 cm, and there were chances of landslides, there could be mudflow and people could lose lives in this. Questions are being raised about the early warning system of the government... The government has spent Rs. 2000 crores after 2014 for the early warning system..." Shah said in Rajya Sabha.
"Under this early warning system, on July 23, at my direction, 9 NDRF teams were sent to Kerala considering that there could be landslides. What did the Kerala government do? Were the people shifted? And if they were shifted then how did they die? The project of early warning started in 2016 and by 2023, India had the most modern early warning system. There are only four countries to predict seven days in advance and India is one amongst them," Shah said.
Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan countered Shah's statement saying that "it was not a time for blame games."
"This is not the time to blame each other. However, reports from the Rajya Sabha indicate that the Union Home Minister claimed they had issued a warning, and Kerala did not respond appropriately," the Kerala Chief Minister said.
Vijayan stated that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had only issued an orange alert for the district prior to the landslides. However, Wayanad experienced over 500 millimetres of rainfall, far exceeding the IMD's predictions.