True Horror:
Hell On Earth

Rescue and Relief:
Picking up the Pieces

Gujarat Government:
Is Keshubhai
Up To It

First Person Account:
Dateline Fearscape

Quake-Resistant Building: Preventing Collapse

Insurance:
Leave It To God

Economic Impact:
What Goes Down...

Looking Back:
Latur: Still Shaken

Good Samaritans:
State-of-The-Heart

Care Today:
Rebuilding Gujarat: Hope For Survivors

DEATHQUAKE; POLITICS OF PERIL

Grim Reapers

Party politics goes on, unshaken by the magnitude of the tragedy.

A distressed prime minister offers solace

BJP & NDA
Medicine Men

LET'S LOOK BUSY: For the BJP the earthquake presented an opportunity to mend the image of the Keshubhai Patel Government in Gujarat. It realised that if it was tardy in response, the next election was as good as gone. So Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee paid a highly emotional visit (above) to the state, immediately granting Rs 500 crore and promising more when necessary. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani virtually moved to Gandhinagar, his parliamentary constituency. In Delhi party President Bangaru Laxman set up a four-member Gujarat Earthquake Central Relief Cell to collect Rs 25 crore by February 12. The BJP has been aided by its siblings in the Sangh Parivar, with RSS cadre fanning out all over Gujarat and Sadhvi Rithambara and Praveen Togadia of the VHP offering to mass adopt orphans. Political allies in the NDA have chipped in too.

"I have never seen a natural disaster of such fury. The whole nation must share the burden."
Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee

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