News reaches us that the inquiry into the deadly Air India crash is to be delayed. Officials bleat about 'complex evidence.' One can almost hear the rustle of paper, the grinding of bureaucratic gears. It is a tale as old as the decline of the Roman Empire: the state, once efficient in its response to catastrophe, now mired in procedural languor. We have become a nation that prefers the comfort of delay to the rigour of resolution.
What is this 'complex evidence'? Flight data recorders, black boxes, wreckage analysis. These are the standard tools of any air crash investigation. Yet now they are draped in the language of complexity as if we were deciphering Linear B. The reality is simpler: the machinery of inquiry has grown fat on legal fees, political sensitivities, and the fear of liability.
Compare this to the Victorian era, that age of industry and empire. When a train crashed at Tay Bridge in 1879, the inquiry was swift and brutal. The engineer was held accountable; the design flaws were exposed. There was no talk of 'complex evidence.' There was a demand for answers. Today, we have the inquiry as a form of ritual appeasement, a way to manage public anger rather than to uncover truth.
We must ask: whose interest is served by this delay? The families of the victims, denied closure? The public, deprived of lessons to improve safety? Or the lawyers, the consultants, the officials who draw salaries from the prolongation of pain? This is the decadence of a society that has lost its nerve. We no longer believe that truth can be found; we only believe in process.
Let us not forget the broader context: the decline of national competence. Once, India built the IITs and the space programme. Now we build inquiries that turn into endless sequels. The Air India crash is a tragedy. The delay is an insult, a second wound inflicted by a system that values its own preservation above all else. Until we demand accountability with the same ferocity that we demand speed in disaster, we will continue to be a nation of stalled inquiries and unresolved sorrows.
