Let me give you a hypothetical situation to beat home my point. Your neighbour’s house is devastated by a natural calamity which spares yours. There is loss of life as well as property. Now, for some reason, you cannot help them physically but choose to provide them financial assistance. How much will you offer them? Of course, it will depend on what income bracket you belong to. In that case, what percentage of your monthly income? Ten, five, two, one, or point-five, point two five? Or even less, or even lesser, or minuscule, or even more negligible?

That’s the surprising trend coming out of the financial assistances being offered by different states to the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.

In a country where states offer crores to medal-winning sportspersons (Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra got a total of Rs 3.5 crore from various states), states have put up the worst show of solidarity to the hill state which has lost hundreds of lives while close to a lakh are still stranded, not to count the immeasurable loss of property.

Uttar Pradesh, of which Uttarakhand used to be the power-generating greener part until only 13 years ago, has offered a shocking Rs 25 crore to the hill state. The state’s budget for 2013-14 was Rs 2,21,201.19 crore.

While Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra have offered Rs 10 crore each to the state, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have offered Rs 5 crore each.

Gujarat, whose chief minister’s development model is subject of political clamour in the country and management study in the universities abroad, has come up with a Rs 2-crore aid for the hill state. This much money does not buy a decent house even in a semi-tony colony in Ahmedabad.

While Karnataka has sent a three-member team to help rescue its own people stuck in the hills, Punjab has hired a private chopper to help its people stuck at Hemkunt Sahib.

The sad amounts of money being offered in the help point to a perceptible lack of empathy among the states. If this is how neighbouring states cohabit in our federal structure, then our housing societies are much better. At least we know how to help each other.