Another MP has brought shame to the institution he was elected to. By throwing his weight (literally) at the officials of a private airline after flouting its check-in rules and damaging pubic property.
What is more shocking is that the whole biradari of the privileged ‘ruling elite’ has closed ranks in his defence. The wiser ones are advising us to wait and let the investigation into the ‘alleged’ incident be complete before we level charges oblivious of the evidence captured by CCTV cameras and available in public domain.
Others, drunk on power and suffering delusions of unlimited entitlement, have decided to launch a brazen counterattack. They have put forward a long list of demands for high-flying members of the Parliament who should be accorded valet/butler/escort services before they step on the red carpet spread for them. Automatic upgrades and flight crew grovelling perhaps make them smile. Let the full fair passengers be damned. Most disgusting has been the behaviour of the civil aviation minister—fellow party member of the rowdy MP who helped him board the flight, and shrugged commenting: “Individual cases aren’t the concern of a Union Minister!”
Response of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was no less disturbing. While he admitted that this kind of behaviour can’t be supported, he added that people offended by such incidents ‘should have faith in the collective wisdom of the government’. No one in his senses is willing to believe that law is allowed to take its course when the accused is a VIP. FIRs are registered, investigation is deliberately sloppy to facilitate acquittals, and witnesses are under tremendous pressure to turn hostile.
What the PM and the top leadership of the BJP must realise is that there is always a day of reckoning.
NDA-1 had suffered a shock defeat basking in the glow of the India Shining campaign due to smugness. NDA-2 sure can do without habitual hooliganism of allies and vigilantes—self-styled saffron-donning supporters who roam the streets.
Time is fast running out.
Jammu and Kashmir is perpetually on the boil. Different strategies to cope with the breakdown of law and order have failed. The failure of the BJP-PDP government is glaring. The BJP should have had the courage to resign from the government and expose the duplicity of Ms Mehbooba Mufti. What good are the raids against the Hurriyat leaders if there is no swift follow-up action? All those who complain about the annihilation of the fundamental rights of expression, appear deaf to the abuse spewed against the Indian army or calls to sessionism. Enough time has been lost chasing the mirage of ‘conciliatory talks with all stakeholders’ to restore peace in the Valley. Priority is to crush the terrorist challenge to India’s sovereignty. Unity and integrity can’t be safeguarded if sovereignty is eroded. All the constitutional hairsplitting about accession and merger can wait.
Unfortunately, mishandling the farmers’ agitation in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra has complicated the task of focusing on militant insurgency in J&K. It was Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh who opened the floodgates by writing off farmers’ loans. Then Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis started to hem and haw. Finally, Shivraj Singh Chouhan blew it all in a blink. The chickens are coming home to roost after decades of neglect of the agrarian sector. This is not the time to blame predecessors for the mess. Families of farmers forced to commit suicide are looking for succour from this government. It’s not enough to say that farmer is the annadata (provider of food), and the nation hails and honours him as much as it does its soldiers. The sad fact is that the government seems to have failed both the soldiers and the farmers.
The main cause for this seems to be disastrous distractions caused by distorted priorities. Banning beef has expanded to condemning all kinds of meat-eating, and Gau Sevaks/Rakshaks have assumed the tyrannical role of prescribing and prohibiting what is our culture. There is never a dull moment with scissors-happy Pahlaj Nihalani at the Central Board of Film Certification. From same-sex love to mensuration, some or the other blundering Big Brother is itching to take charge of our lives.
Alas, more time and space is devoted to raids on NDTV founder’s residence than on dousing flames fanned by hate speeches delivered by members of what is euphemistically called the lunatic fringe.
Meanwhile, Darjeeling has exploded in the face of Mamata Didi. She smells a conspiracy and has alleged that the Gorkha agitators, at least a faction, have links with extremists in the Northeast. The BJP at the moment may rejoice at her discomfort, but it would be wise for it not to jump into the fray and exacerbate the crisis. It has supported the demand for Gorkhaland, but before all else peace must be restored.
One gets the feeling that the Presidential election—that some consider a foregone conclusion—too, is interfering with the governance. By the time the new resident occupies Rashtrapati Bhavan, warming up and countdown for the next set of state polls and run up to 2019 will begin.
Pushpesh Pant
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpeshpant@gmail.com