Another day, another tragedy in the capital of the world's largest democracy. At least 21 souls, including foreign nationals, have been consumed by a blaze in Delhi, and the predictable chorus of condolences and promises has begun. But let us not pretend this is a surprise. This is not an accident. This is a systemic failure dressed up in the rags of inevitability.
We are told that the fire broke out in a commercial building, likely a factory or warehouse, where safety norms are routinely ignored. The dead include two Nepali citizens and a Syrian national. The foreign presence merely adds a diplomatic spice to the tragedy; it should not distract us from the underlying rot. Delhi's building safety is a Victorian-era catastrophe in a modern metropolis. The city's fire department, understaffed and ill-equipped, fights a losing battle against the greed of landlords and the negligence of regulators.
Recall, if you will, the Great Fire of London in 1666, which consumed a city of wooden houses and narrow streets. That fire led to the first building regulations. Here, in the 21st century, we have regulations aplenty on paper, but they are treated as suggestions. The disconnect between law and enforcement is reminiscent of the late Roman Empire: grand edicts from the capital, ignored by provincial governors. We now have local officials who see safety inspections as a revenue stream, not a moral duty.
The foreign casualties are a cruel irony. India, which prides itself on its 'soft power' and 'civilisational ethos', cannot protect the most basic right: the right to not be burnt alive in a workplace. The government's response, as always, is to promise compensation and a probe. But what of the families? What of the structural reforms? We will get a few arrests, a suspension or two, and then the dust settles until the next fire. This is the cyclical decadence of a state that has lost the will to govern.
Intellectual decadence, too, plays its part. We debate cultural appropriation and caste politics, but we ignore the crumbling infrastructure that kills our citizens. The intelligentsia, myself included, write columns and analyses, but we do so from our air-conditioned studies, safe from the shantytowns and illegal factories. We are the new Roman senators, debating philosophy while the Gauls gather at the gates. But the Gauls have arrived: they are the flames, and they spare no one.
The solution is not more committees. It is a ruthless enforcement of the law, the dismantling of the mafia that builds these death traps, and a cultural shift towards valuing human life over profit. But we will not do that. Instead, we will mourn, we will point fingers, and we will wait for the next fire to remind us of our collective failure.
Foreign nationals died here. Perhaps that will embarrass the government into action. But I doubt it. The fires will continue, and so will our comfortable excuses.
