Illusory truth, Bandi’s anti-government propaganda strategy

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar apparently believes in the illusory truth effect, which says repeating statements which are not true might finally have someone believing those statements.

And that is perhaps why he has repeatedly been saying that the State government was not making arrangements for immersion of Ganesh idols and that the government was ‘causing obstructions’ for a smooth immersion process. The statements also saw Bandi Sanjay Kumar giving calls for protests across Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy, with different right-leaning organizations already following up with dharnas and other forms of protest.

The BJP State chief also alleged that for the last three days, there were no arrangements being made when immersions had begun in some places and the main immersion date was nearing.

First things first. What arrangements are made?

A drive around the Hussain Sagar, or any of the water bodies where immersions are done on a large scale, will reveal the truth, where, contrary to the ‘no arrangements for last three days’ statement, one can see that all arrangements were made much in advance by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and other departments concerned, including the police.

Immersion points at Tank Bund and around the Necklace Road and at the other water bodies wherever immersion is usually done have already been demarcated. Cranes for huge idols are mostly in place, with every crane that has been booked in advance either already at the spot or being positioned. Police bandobust is already in place, with Thursday to see more personnel drawn from different police wings being deployed as the main immersion day is Friday.

What are the arrangements: There are a staggering 280 cranes that are being pressed into service at different locations. Hussain Sagar alone has 35 cranes. All these have their own operators and people who help devotees load the idols onto the immersion platform. There are GHMC staffers also deployed at each and every immersion point to assist devotees in this.

To maintain sanitation, to retrieve the idols from the water and to shift them to waiting vehicles that will take them to disposal areas like garbage dump yards, the GHMC has deployed over 10,000 personnel, who are working around the clock in three shifts.

For safety, apart from the police force, in case of any untoward incident, possible emergencies and rescue operations, 100 expert swimmers have been roped in.

And then, the ponds

With orders from the Supreme Court and High Court and guidelines from the Central Pollution Control Board prohibiting immersion of Plaster of Paris idols, the GHMC has over the last one month, and not in the last three days, made available 74 artificial ponds. These include baby ponds dug up near main water bodies, portable artificial ponds that can be shifted to different locations depending on requirement, and even mobile artificial ponds which will reach the devotee’s door step based on request.

There are police personnel and GHMC staff apart from various department officials who are already moving around guiding devotees to these ponds and helping them in the process.

That is not all. All immersion points have illumination in place. There are medical camps and healthcare professionals on duty at all major points. These are apart from arrangements including mobile toilets and also drinking water stalls that are being installed.