Kuwait fire reduces to ashes many a dream – Times of India

NEW DELHI/JAIPUR: Senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar on Thursday said BJP got stranded at the 240-mark and failed to get a majority in the Lok Sabha because of its arrogance even as he termed the opposition “anti-Ram”.

“See ‘vidhan’ (working) of Ram rajya in democracy. The party which did bhakti (of Lord Ram) but gradually turned arrogant was stopped at 240 but emerged as the biggest party,” Kumar said. “Those who had no faith in Ram, they together were stopped at 234,”

His remarks at the ‘Ramrath Ayodhya Yatra Darshan Poojan Samaroh’ at Kanota near Jaipur fanned speculation sparked by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment earlier in the week about the need for public servants to shed arrogance. The Sangh leadership distanced the organisation from Kumar’s observations. They also denied Bhagwat’s advice to “sevaks” to get rid of their ego was aimed at BJP.

Some were there to put food on the table for loved ones back in India, some to clear piling family debts, while some others had just started earning and hoped to start a family. All those hopes and dreams met with a fiery, premature end in the Kuwait building inferno in which 46 Indians perished on June 12.

Fate struck Gorakhpur’s Rita Gupta with unnerving cruelty. Just last week, she had got a call from husband Angad (46) saying he had landed a new mall job. Days later, she got another call – about his death. “Since the job was new, Angad had told Rita that he would come only after a year. Now we are awaiting his body,” said Angad’s younger brother Pankaj. Angad, the only earning member of his family, leaves behind three children. The family plans to seek help from UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Pankaj said.

Lokanadham Tamada (31) had spent the past month with his family in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam before returning to his life as a welder in Kuwait on June 11. Hours later, he was caught in the inferno. Lokanadham had come home to attend a festival and to find himself a bride. Although he did not find one, he had set himself a deadline of Jan 2025 to get married.

In Jharkhand’s Ranchi, the relatives of Mohammad Adil Hussain were struggling to make sense of it all. The 26-year-old commerce graduate had left for Kuwait just over a fortnight ago on May 27 after landing a job. Adil’s body is expected to reach Ranchi late Fri – three days before Bakri-Id.

“We had no clue he had bagged a job until he broke the news to us a week before his departure. We were against it and wanted him to finish studies. But he insisted he could prepare for his exams while working and come back to Ranchi to take tests,” Adil’s father Mubarak Hussain said. Adil had been preparing for an accountant course.

Sreehari from Kerala’s Kottayam had followed in the footsteps of his father. The 27-year-old joined on June 5 as a salesman in NBTC Group – one of Kuwait’s largest – where his father works. Sreehari perished before drawing his first salary. His father, an electrical supervisor who lived in a nearby apartment, identified Sreehari’s body.

Kerala’s Stephin Abraham Sabu, 29, an engineer with NBTC, was to arrive home next month on leave and the family had also planned his marriage during his vacation. He had left for Kuwait to rustle up money to complete the construction of his house.

Lukose Vadakottu Oonnunni (48) had told his family back home that he had purchased a mobile phone as a gift for his daughter who scored well in her recent Plus-two exams. He planned to come home to Kerala’s Kollam next month. That was not to be. A supervisor with NBTC for 18 years, Lukose is survived by wife Shiny, 42, two children, and aged parents .