Let's blame somebody and move on...

Sad events aren't rare. At the national level, we get to see at least one every week.  This is about how we respond to them.

1. A stampede happened at a religious congregation and many died.  The person responsible for the congregation got the blame - rightly so or otherwise.

2. A young army officer was killed in action.  The government tried to compensate his family monetarily; some were unhappy about the compensation and blamed the officer's widow.  People took sides based on their convenience.  Very articulate personalities like Madhu Kishwar took a side and hurled abuses at people on the other side.

All such chatter in the social media and elsewhere have a lifetime of a week or until the next sad event occurs, whichever is earlier.  It is our way of coping with sad news.  We need to pin the blame on somebody before we move on to the next event.  That gives us a nice closure that we have identified the source of the mishap.

But the world isn't that simple.  For an accident or an event to occur it takes a few people and a suitable circumstance. But we choose to blame the entities based on our convenience.  If one does not like Hindu 'God men' (for want of a better word) the 'God man' gets blamed.  Or in the case of the army officer's family, because the widow was awarded by the government, those who don't like the government blame the widow.  Those who support the government would blame her in-laws.  The blame will be backed up with strong convenient reasoning.

I am not sure if this pinning the blame on an individual was part of the Indian culture.  What comes to my mind is this verse from Kamba Ramayanam.  

"நதியின் பிழையன்று நறும்புனலின்மை; அற்றே
பதியின் பிழையன்று பயந்து நமைப் புரந்தாள்
மதியின் பிழையன்று, மகன் பிழையன்று மைந்த!
விதியின் பிழை! நீ இதற்கென்னை வெகுண்டதென்றான்!"

I am not going to blame the western influence totally, but I find this attitude to be some kind of American management technique - with phrases like "one-neck-to-choke", "the buck stops with him".  Even kids in the US learn the phrase "It's all your fault!" very early.  Our childhood did have instances of complaints, but they were more matter-of-fact reporting rather than blaming somebody.

Then, what are the ideal reactions?

• If one is connected with the event in any way, find the root-cause and address it in such a way that it doesn't recur. 
• If it means to punish somebody, punish with the intention of preventing a recurrence.
• If there is no direct connection, but enough information on the event, one may contemplate on whether there is something to learn from the event to make life better and safer.
• If one isn't connected to the event in any way and has no complete information, it is better to keep quiet.  "We do not know enough to form an opinion" is a good state to be in.

Often "I don't know" is the perfect response to this very complex world.