Intimidation and bullying of the government officials by the ruling politicians was once a rare thing, mostly restricted to Lalu’s Bihar and the Communist Bengal, but now it seems to have become a national phenomenon.
Politicians belonging to the ruling parties across the country assume themselves to be immune to any legal action. Unfortunately, this happens and nobody can do anything about it. Although the blame partially lies on the officials also, most of whom turn partisan for petty benefits, that does not exonerate the political class of its grave sin.
Recently, the district president of the ruling party from Kishtwar in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir issued a signed circular on the official letterhead of the party saying, “all official(s) of NC Kishtwar are informed that without the consent (of the) District President NC Kishtwar no one is authorised to ‘harass’ any Government Employees of District Kishtwar without any proof. Hope all officials will adhere to the circular”.
This prompted a cryptic and sarcastic response from the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is also the senior vice president of the party, on his ‘X’ handle, saying, “Who says we are an undisciplined party? We ensure our party rank and file don’t ‘harass government employees’ without permission from our senior office bearers.”
The ‘poor’ district president ended up putting on record what almost all political parties and their leaders across the country take pride in doing. Everybody seems to be sailing in the same boat, as they say in Urdu, “Iss hamam mein saare nange hain”.
Take some recent examples:
Jagannath Pradhan, a BJP leader from Odisha, mercilessly manhandled the Additional Commissioner of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The visuals of the video went viral. This led to widespread outrage and protests by the government employees. Pradhan was arrested and later released on bail.
A few months ago, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane publicly misbehaved with a senior doctor Rudresh Kuttikar. He did not stop there. The minister ordered the suspension of the doctor. Goa Chief Minister later overruled the suspension. The minister also apologised to the doctor.
Recently, a Shiv Sena MLA in Maharashtra Sanjay Gaikwad assaulted a canteen staffer, whom he accused of serving stale food. The video of the assault went viral. While the MLA got away with the assault, the license of the caterer of the canteen was suspended for violating the norms.
There are umpteen examples from the previous years. The infamous assault on the then Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by the Aam Aadmi Party MLAs at the residence of the then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is too well known.
An AAP minister, Chetan Singh Jauramajra, who was the health minister then, forced the Vice Chancellor of the Baba Farid University, Faridkot, to lie down on a bed, which the minister found dirty during an inspection. The insulted VC resigned in protest.
A Congress Corporator of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in Telangana, CN Reddy, abused and tried to physically assault the Assistant Municipal Commissioner, A Balaraj. No action was taken in that case.
In Punjab, an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police was shot dead for objecting to the stalking and harassment of his daughter by an Akali Dal leader in Amritsar. The party was in power that time in the state. The accused was later arrested and jailed.
In most of the cases, the offenders get away mildly like spending a few days in jail and then getting bailed out. Sadly, such people are glorified on the pretext of “standing by party workers” and “taking up the cause of the people”, while actually the intent is criminal and must be dealt with like crimes only. Even while remaining in jail, such “leaders”, as they belong to the ruling party, get the proverbial “VIP” treatment and when they come out on bail, they come out to a hero’s welcome.
Such incidents of intimidation by the members of ruling parties anywhere in the country, whether of the government officials or the common people, need to be dealt with as serious non-bailable offences. These leaders do not restrict their intimidation to officials only; they get emboldened and audacious, harassing and intimidating common people and particularly their political opponents as they get patronage from their government.
As long as the political parties do not get “penalised” for patronising such leaders, there will be no remedy for such a disease. Leave aside penalising, such leaders are normally glorified and glamourised as “heroes” of the people.
The blame also lies on the officials who take all this intimidation lying down for the obvious reason of petty benefits. Rather they allow themselves to be used in return for rewards like important postings.
And that is how the system has been made to work across India.
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