The safe exit of the workers is a wonderful miracle of God’s power.

41 workers from eight states, trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel near Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state, have been rescued safely after 17 days. This dangerous accident and the way Operation Zindagi was carried out to bring out the workers safely is an act of amazing courage. Not only India but the entire world was watching the campaign being run to get the workers out of the tunnel. Ultimately, the prayers of 140 crore people of India and the labor and tireless efforts of experts, workers and leadership got positive results and after 17 days, lamps of happiness were lit in the homes of all the workers. This incident of rescuing 41 laborers trapped in the tunnel is very important and deserves study.

An important aspect of this incident was that where even foreign machines had left and made the situation more challenging, from indigenous Hummers to IAF cargo aircraft Hercules were used. The contribution of the indigenous Rat Miners team in this rescue operation was incomparable, whose six members removed the biggest obstacle in the rescue operation within just 30 hours. Today, if the whole of India is raising slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram, then there are six members of the team of rat miners behind them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was constantly taking updates on this campaign and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was fully prepared to save the workers no matter what. Various departments and agencies of the Center and Uttarakhand remained engaged wholeheartedly in this very complex mega campaign. A total of more than 20 agencies and more than 10,000 relief and security personnel contributed. Immediate decisions were taken to monitor the NDA campaign, call experts and ensure availability of necessary materials and equipment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership ability and his role in this mega campaign were once again commendable. He watched the live telecast of the rescue operation along with his Cabinet colleagues and interacted with the members of the rescue and relief operation and the workers who came out and appreciated their indomitable courage.

Narendra Modi takes equal care of the interests of the workers. Whenever he goes to lay the foundation stone, inspect or inaugurate any construction work, he communicates with the workers. He honored the workers in the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament House and Bharat Mandapam. During the Covid period, when the construction work of duty path and new Parliament building was going on, he used to go to meet the workers and talk to them and encourage them. The work of rescuing the workers trapped in the tunnel has once again established the leadership abilities of Prime Minister Modi. Today the labor community is saying that “if Modi is there then it is possible.” In this incident, the leadership of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has also come to the fore.

experienced divine power

For the success of this campaign, prayers were being offered across the country. The thread of faith did not let the faith waver. Worship started in the Boukhnag Devta temple located near the tunnel. Public representatives, officers, all the members of the rescue team, relatives of the workers and local villagers performed rituals there. International tunnel expert Arnold Dix also offered prayers here and took blessings of Baba Boukhnag. To make the campaign successful, on November 18, construction company Navyug Engineering and NHIDCL established a small temple of Boukhnag deity on the right side of the tunnel gate and then started worshiping there regularly.

Local people believed that the reason behind the accident on the day of Diwali could be the displeasure of the Boukhnag deity. These people said that before the start of the tunnel project, the construction company management removed the temple from there. The company had started building the tunnel in 2019 but had not yet kept the promise of building the temple. Only after seeing the unwavering faith of the villagers towards Baukhnag, the priest was called, the puja was done, Prasad was made and it was resolved that as soon as the operation is successful, a temple of the Baukhnag deity would be built. The positive results of the worship done in the temple of Boukhnag deity have become visible to everyone and Operation Zindagi has been successfully completed. Now all the workers are completely healthy and efficient.

The Silkyara project is an important project for Uttarakhand as it is part of the Chardham project which aims to ease transportation between Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. At present, many construction works are being carried out to speed up development, in which construction work of big and small tunnels is also going on. Taking a lesson from the accident, the government has now decided to thoroughly review the construction work of all complex projects and tunnels and review the safety of workers, which is a commendable initiative.

This incident is once again proving that no matter what obstacles are coming in the way, one should never lose courage. On the path of duty, one must keep working with vigor and determination to fulfill one’s resolve, one will surely achieve success. One thing is also being proved from the incident that now we have to speed up the development works with the spirit of Swadeshi and self-reliance because we all saw how the auger machine failed when the rescue operation was going on and our faith and values ​​were violated. Only miners were useful. It has also been proved that one should never play with divine power and should not challenge their existence.

During this entire incident, the opposition kept doing their politics but now that this operation has been successful, the opposition has nothing much left to say except hearing the slogan “Modi hai to mumkin hai”.

-Mrityunjay Dixit